Key Takeaways

  • This is a guest post by my friend Jodi Ettenberg. Like me, she loves food. Her blog, Legal Nomads originally focused on telling stories through food.
  • The beauty of traveling the world is that you can home in on the things you are most curious about or the themes that bring you joy. For many people,
  • For me, it means eating my way around the world and learning about food.

This is a guest post by my friend Jodi Ettenberg. Like many passionate travelers, she loves food. Her blog, Legal Nomads, originally centered on storytelling through cuisine. However, after a botched spinal tap in 2017 left her with chronic pain and disability, her writing evolved to include reflections on grief, curiosity, resilience, and the enduring power of food as connection. She remains one of our favorite voices in travel storytelling — and in this guest post for Route for Less, she shares practical, heartfelt advice for anyone eager to explore the world through taste.

The beauty of traveling the world lies in your ability to focus on what truly moves you — whether that’s adventure, service, or scaling peaks.

For Jodi, it’s eating her way around the globe — and learning what food reveals about people, history, and place.

She didn’t begin with that intention. Her original plan was a one-year journey, ending with a return to her legal career in New York in 2009.

After saving diligently, she launched Legal Nomads to document the experiences unfolding along the way.

It was somewhere between Mongolia and China that food became central — not just as sustenance, but as a lens for understanding culture.

She never imagined she’d still be writing years later — yet here she is, sharing insights refined across continents and countless meals.

Growing up, food wasn’t a defining part of her life. But as travel deepened, so did her awareness: destination choices, daily rhythms, even language study — all began revolving around flavor, ingredients, and tradition. She wasn’t just chasing great meals; she sought to understand why people eat what they do — and how those habits reflect centuries of migration, trade, faith, and survival.

How do culinary traditions intertwine with national identity? What stories hide behind a bowl of soup or a fermented condiment? For Jodi, food became an endless source of wonder — and nourishment.

Yet for those inspired to follow a similar path, real questions arise:

How do you eat safely abroad without getting sick?

What should you pack specifically for food-centered travel?

And how do you design an itinerary where food isn’t just a side note — but the narrative thread?

Jodi addressed these and more in her book, The Food Traveler’s Handbook, and now shares distilled wisdom for readers of Route for Less.

So, with that in mind, here are her five time-tested strategies for uncovering the deeper layers of food while traveling:

1. Start with the basics

One of Jodi’s favorite starting points is Wikipedia — especially its pages on national dishes. From there, she follows links to ingredient origins, historical footnotes, or regional variations. This pre-trip research builds a rich anthropological foundation before you even board the plane.

For instance, few travelers know ketchup traces back not to America, but to fermented fish sauce in Fujian, China — a fact that transforms how you experience both Chinese street food and global condiment culture.

Learning that history before visiting China offers a richer, more layered travel experience — one seasoned with context as much as flavor.

2. Learn about the etiquette and social norms

Part of food-centered travel is honoring local customs — and using them as bridges to conversation. Asking locals about dining traditions or table manners often sparks warm, revealing exchanges.

In much of Asia, for example, sticking chopsticks upright in rice is considered deeply inappropriate — it mirrors incense offerings at funerals. Mentioning this observation during a Bangkok dinner led Jodi into a lively, hours-long dialogue about food symbolism across cultures.

Before departure, a helpful resource is Etiquette Scholar’s international dining etiquette section — organized by region for easy reference.

3. Packing tips

Most travelers pack essentials like a first-aid kit, headlamp, reusable water bottle, and locker padlock — but food travelers need extras too. Key additions include:

  • Travel Chopsticks: Ideal when street food is fresh but utensils may be unclean. Alternatively, carry biodegradable baby wipes to sanitize shared tools.
  • Google Translate (offline mode): Download local language packs ahead of time. Being able to ask “Does this contain nuts?” or “Is this dish traditionally served with meat?” makes a critical difference — especially for dietary restrictions or allergies.
  • Hand Sanitizer (