Rookie Travel Tips
With Shannon
No one submitted any tips last week, so no winner.
How do I find good food on the road?
I love food. it has become a passion of mine. I like thinking about preparing it, planning what I want to try to make, and actually putting dishes together and serving them to friends and family. I also love watching food being prepared, learning about the ingredients and culinary customs behind dishes. and being able to share a meal with locals anywhere I go. If you haven't had a chance to watch the Travel Channel's show "Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations," I highly recommend it. That show has given me such a desire to stay raw and local in my travels, to avoid tourist traps, and to hunt down the best grub around. He has my dream job. Anthony, if you're reading, I envy you!
Internet
I have searched the Internet for ways to find great restaurants while abroad and I have come up with a pretty nice way to decide where to eat while on the road. One of the new and interesting websites I use is www.chowhound.com, it is a website full of food news, media, videos, recipes, hot topics and to my aid discussion boards. The whole site is interesting but when searching for information about a locale I am visiting I go to the discussion boards and search by location then scroll through the discussion boards for tips on dining. As far as St.John goes I found a great discussion about dining on the Island. I looked through the restaurants and took the most commonly recommended places with local fare and saved them into my phone so when we get there we can check them out. When I save the name of the restaurant I also may included little details such as what people really liked there, tips on finding the place or the dress code.
After I compile my list I also spend a bit of time on www.tripadvisor.com searching the local scene for anything I may have missed, reviews of the places I have chosen and additional places to add and any other bits of information I see helpful.
My St. John List:
The Lime Inn- lobster or whole fish
Shipwreck- for lunch, conch fritters
Caneels- Monday night seafood Buffet, need reservations
Zozo's- nice, reservation
La Tapa **** definitely try
La Panche de Mer ****definitely try
Sogos- Local joint across from Lime Inn-Roti dish is they have it
Mrs.Fretty- local place on the corner by a bus stop coral bay, pink building , no sign weird hours.
Very Casual places: Skinny legs,Lucy's, Banana deck, Spyglass(tacos).
Magazines
Another strategy I use is when in a local book store or library I look at the magazines for local editions or food features on places I am going. A great magazine for this information is Southern Living, I have a list of places close to me in Charleston SC, and Atlanta GA to try. As I continue collecting ideas they really add up, and by the next time I visit one of these places I have a whole list of coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants to try. I found a feature on dining in a magazine on Texas and saved a bunch of the Dallas restaurants for my April trip. I also save the website or phone number so I can check out the menu or call as needed.
My Dallas List
Breakfast- Company Cafe, White Rock Local Market, La Duni, All Good Cafe and Crossroads Diner.
One Art****- need reservations definitely go
Private Social
Velvet Taco
Nana****- reservations definitely go
Nonna
Maple and Motor
Bolsa
Bakers Ribs
Stephan Pyles
Then when you arrive pick up a copy of the local "free" paper which usually features a ton of food options. Search for local food trucks, street vendors and back door joints and ask as many locals as you can where to eat. Don't be scared to try new things they may amaze you and when you find something great tell people about it.
My number one food rule on the road: No Chain Restaurants! Support local business.
Food Tours
Next on my agenda is a food tour in hopes of experiencing some real local fare. Check these sites out if you are interested in a food tour on your next vacation.
Foodie Tours- Offers a world wide search feature by location.
L.A.
www.sixtaste.com-
NYC
www.sidewalksofny.com - offers a food truck and cart walking tours!
www.foodtoursofny.com
Houston
Houston Culinary Tours
San Fransisco
Local Taste of the City Tours
Okay, yes I am a little obsessed, but food is one thing that gets me excited about travel. Please share your tips and tricks as well as any amazing places you've found or experiences you've had while on the road.
Eat Well, Live Well!
-- Shannon, The Rookie
Limited Time Offer! First Year Fee Waived: 50,000 Points Transferable to Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Continental and British Airways
With Shannon
No one submitted any tips last week, so no winner.
How do I find good food on the road?
I love food. it has become a passion of mine. I like thinking about preparing it, planning what I want to try to make, and actually putting dishes together and serving them to friends and family. I also love watching food being prepared, learning about the ingredients and culinary customs behind dishes. and being able to share a meal with locals anywhere I go. If you haven't had a chance to watch the Travel Channel's show "Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations," I highly recommend it. That show has given me such a desire to stay raw and local in my travels, to avoid tourist traps, and to hunt down the best grub around. He has my dream job. Anthony, if you're reading, I envy you!
Internet
I have searched the Internet for ways to find great restaurants while abroad and I have come up with a pretty nice way to decide where to eat while on the road. One of the new and interesting websites I use is www.chowhound.com, it is a website full of food news, media, videos, recipes, hot topics and to my aid discussion boards. The whole site is interesting but when searching for information about a locale I am visiting I go to the discussion boards and search by location then scroll through the discussion boards for tips on dining. As far as St.John goes I found a great discussion about dining on the Island. I looked through the restaurants and took the most commonly recommended places with local fare and saved them into my phone so when we get there we can check them out. When I save the name of the restaurant I also may included little details such as what people really liked there, tips on finding the place or the dress code.
After I compile my list I also spend a bit of time on www.tripadvisor.com searching the local scene for anything I may have missed, reviews of the places I have chosen and additional places to add and any other bits of information I see helpful.
My St. John List:
The Lime Inn- lobster or whole fish
Shipwreck- for lunch, conch fritters
Caneels- Monday night seafood Buffet, need reservations
Zozo's- nice, reservation
La Tapa **** definitely try
La Panche de Mer ****definitely try
Sogos- Local joint across from Lime Inn-Roti dish is they have it
Mrs.Fretty- local place on the corner by a bus stop coral bay, pink building , no sign weird hours.
Very Casual places: Skinny legs,Lucy's, Banana deck, Spyglass(tacos).
Magazines
Another strategy I use is when in a local book store or library I look at the magazines for local editions or food features on places I am going. A great magazine for this information is Southern Living, I have a list of places close to me in Charleston SC, and Atlanta GA to try. As I continue collecting ideas they really add up, and by the next time I visit one of these places I have a whole list of coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants to try. I found a feature on dining in a magazine on Texas and saved a bunch of the Dallas restaurants for my April trip. I also save the website or phone number so I can check out the menu or call as needed.
My Dallas List
Breakfast- Company Cafe, White Rock Local Market, La Duni, All Good Cafe and Crossroads Diner.
One Art****- need reservations definitely go
Private Social
Velvet Taco
Nana****- reservations definitely go
Nonna
Maple and Motor
Bolsa
Bakers Ribs
Stephan Pyles
Then when you arrive pick up a copy of the local "free" paper which usually features a ton of food options. Search for local food trucks, street vendors and back door joints and ask as many locals as you can where to eat. Don't be scared to try new things they may amaze you and when you find something great tell people about it.
My number one food rule on the road: No Chain Restaurants! Support local business.
Food Tours
Next on my agenda is a food tour in hopes of experiencing some real local fare. Check these sites out if you are interested in a food tour on your next vacation.
Foodie Tours- Offers a world wide search feature by location.
L.A.
www.sixtaste.com-
NYC
www.sidewalksofny.com - offers a food truck and cart walking tours!
www.foodtoursofny.com
Houston
Houston Culinary Tours
San Fransisco
Local Taste of the City Tours
Okay, yes I am a little obsessed, but food is one thing that gets me excited about travel. Please share your tips and tricks as well as any amazing places you've found or experiences you've had while on the road.
Eat Well, Live Well!
-- Shannon, The Rookie
Limited Time Offer! First Year Fee Waived: 50,000 Points Transferable to Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Continental and British Airways
23 comments:
Hi Shannon,
Loved your subject today and your list looks great. I too, love finding local places and avoid chains like the plague. One suggestion to help with the frugal part, for travel in US, I search restaurant.com and snag lunch or dinner certs. Once you see the list of restaurants avail on the site, use your other resources to research them (tripadvisor, zagat, urbanspoon etc) I've found some great places this way.
If you forgot to research before flight just use an app when in your destination city- Aroundme, yelp, poynt, urbanspoon are the ones I use the most and the app store is endless so I know there are others.
Happy travels and bon appetite!
Karyn
Why does your banner not include United?
"Limited Time Offer! First Year Fee Waived: 50,000 Points Transferable to Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Continental and British Airways"
I found great ideas and reviews for local restaurants on Flyertalk which were awesome.
SOCAL, Yelp is huge. I've never seen such avid reviewers.
For folks visiting Chicago I highly recommend the food walking tours from chicagofoodplanet.com. Very nice food, architecture, and cultural tour wrapped into one. We enjoyed it even in the rain.
Also, there is a "u" missing from Anthony Bourdain's name. Minor typo correction, in case Anthony is reading ;-)
Chowhound is really an excellent resource. I've used it for years and have found some amazing places to eat.
On St John- Zozo's is probably the best on the island. Also try Rhumb Lines.
Yelp, Foodspotting, Untapped. Lots of recommendations via social media apps on the iPhone and Android devices. I find them to be more up to date than print material
ieatishootipost.sg for Singapore. We're going in two weeks, and planning to walk around the city in order to recover our appetite between bites.
I agree that Chowhound is an excellent source of information. The boards on Kuala Lumpur (esp. Kampung Baru or mall food courts) have been very helpful in planning an eating adventure.
Calling Chowhound (founded 1997) "new and interesting" is like calling Google "new and interesting".
For those visiting Chicago, check out LTHForum.com - tons of local reviews from foodies and great food photos to whet your appetite!
A great foodie resource for a great foodie town!
I tend you just look for local food blogs to see if there are recommendations there. Also local magazine websites (such as Washingtonian for the DC area or NY Magazine for NY), or the local newspaper website tend to offer restaurant reviews.
I would disagree very strongly with regard to restaurant.com. While you certainly can save lots of money by getting certificates from the site, I find that the vast majority of restaurants on that site are inferior.
Great post. I do many of the same things looking for great restaurants and fun things to do in the various cities I travel.
In terms of keeping track of all this data...I highly recommend the smart phone application - TripDoc (http://tripdoc.com/). I have it for my iPhone and love it! It allows me to group recommendations by city, make notes, and utilizes the map feature so I can see what is nearby.
Happy travels!
Shannon, you know your food! I live in Dallas and there's not a single restaurant on your list that I wouldn't recommend. The All Good Cafe is Texas food at its best. I'd also recommend Monica's (just down the street from the All Good) and Celebration.
For me, the best part of travel planning is finding great places to eat. I rely on Chowhound too. Another site to check is www.roadfood.com if you're looking for off the beaten path or local institutions.
For your Dallas list, I'd say Bakers Rib is decent, but for real Texas BBQ, I'd urge you to visit Lockhart Smokehouse instead. It's getting a lot of buzz from the local BBQ bloggers, and in my opinion, I'd say it's well-deserved.
I like looking at Groupon-type deals for an area I know I'm going to be traveling to. You can score 50% off and find a treasure.
I have found that "Opentable" is one of the best sources for information on restaurants which includes a reservation system and a rewards program. Just check it out at www.opentable.com.
My wife and I collected over $250 in points which allowed us to have two wonderful meals in the Napa Valley California Area over Christmas. The best deals are restaurants that offer 1000 Pts ($10) to promote reservations especially for days and times that are usually slow. The site gives you an overview of the resuarants, links to their websites for information and menus, and many reviews from Opentable members. This is a great resource. Hope you find this tip helpful.
yeah my 2cents is Yelp..i use it..everywhere I go..some place more "active" then others..but still i use.
I love SixTaste -- have enjoyed every tour (and I've even gone in my hometown LA). The food truck/cart tour in NYC sounds adventurous ... but my daughter got food poisioning from a hot dog cart on 5th avenue last week. Ruined the 2nd half of our extended weekend vacation.
Hmmm... I think you're on to something here. Food day blog?
hi Shannon-- I don't think we had a chance to meet at the Chicago seminars but I met Rick and he mentioned y'all where coming to St John, where I live part time :-) Here are some quick thoughts on your restaurant list... you may want to try Asolare, it has probably the best view on the island and is usually as good as Zozo's. La Tapa is also very good (though definitely sit inside near the bar, not right on the street; street is too busy with overflow from Woody's and all the taxis going by). Waterfront Bistro (in Wharfside, right by the ferry dock) is delicious... finally, Sam and Jack's is a new-ish deli in the Marketplace (3rd floor-- above Starfish)... it's owned by the same folks as Zozo's and they have FANTASTIC sandwiches, homemade ice cream, cold cuts, etc. La Plancha Del Mar is fun and they always seem to be having a good time; if they are doing "movie night" when you're there, it's great so I'd inquire about that.
Finally, if there's anything I can help with for your trip or you have any questions about the island, don't hesitate to drop me a line (eric@ericmueller.org) -- this blog and Rick have taught me a lot; it's the least I can do to give back! :-) best E
Yelp which is a free Iphone Android app is invaluable in getting real reviews from real people on trestaurants anywhere around then world...
Whenever looking for food in any new city we always check out Yelp!
Hi Shannon - Nice post. When are you coming to St. John? I bartend at The Lime Inn and it would be great to meet! By the way, you are right...can't go wrong with the Lobster or Whole Snapper.
Shoot me an email at mike.messeroff@gmail.com
-Mike
I think you should put more Tex Mex on your Dallas list.
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