Travel destinations for food lovers
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
How can food shape your holiday plans and travel priorities?
If food is the highlight of your holiday, then we have got you covered here. Nicola Brady, travel writer, is with me to go through the best destinations for food lovers. You're very welcome to the programme, Nicola. Now, I am one of those people who... Sees accommodation on Instagram, saves it and then can plan a holiday based on that one accommodation that I've seen. And the other thing I love doing is finding a restaurant, a food truck, a coffee shop, a sandwich bar, you name it on holidays. I will spend hours researching that sort of stuff.
Yeah, it's all I think about day to day anyway. But when I go to work, no. And I'm like, I will start looking at menus for cities I'm not going to just so I can think about food when I'm going to sleep.
And it doesn't have to be fine dining. We're not talking about the very best, most expensive food offerings in a city or in a town or village.
No, absolutely not. I still think about a sandwich that I got in Florence, oh my God, 20 years ago. Like genuinely, it pops into my mind about once a month. I relate. Hard relate, as they say.
So what for you makes a destination a must visit for foodies?
So I think there are two really important things and they're like complete opposites of one another. So I think one really strong element would be a place that's got a great variety. So somewhere like London, where you've got loads of different food sort of cultures and types, you can get sort of almost anything you want. I think that's incredible for people who love food. But also, now this is what I veer strongly towards, I think is somewhere that has a really strong niche. So somewhere like Korea or Peru, somewhere where you're like, oh, that cuisine is going to be incredible and it's all you're going to eat for the whole time. That's, I think, what I favor the most.
So for you, right, somebody who has worked in this area and travelled a lot, what is your ultimate destination as a foodie?
100% it's Japan. That's on my bucket list. It was incredible. And when you talk about the variety of food, like you can get the onigiri sort of triangular rice rolls, you know, in the 7-Eleven. They're just around like a spa would be here. And it is incredible and about a euro. So you just grab one of those. And it's that all the way up to a sort of three Michelin starred restaurant. And I had those experiences and everything in between. But just everywhere you go, the kind of izakaya bars where you can sit. And sometimes they specialize in something like I went to a great one where you'd get like the sashimi is being sliced in front of you. I sat at the bar with a beer and sort of really crispy fried chicken.
All of the sushi and the guy next to me was eating French fries with chopsticks, which I really enjoyed. That was my first night there. But just such variety. And while you can focus on the sushi, and I had obviously incredible sushi while I was there, all the ramen I loved. especially when I was in sort of little mountain towns or Osaka did it really well. And again, each one has a kind of specialty. There are sort of the cloudy miso style broths, ones with yuzu and a citrusy flavor, and then a lot of soy based ones. But you sit there and it's about $2.50 for a bowl of ramen. Like I think people have a perception of Japan being a really expensive place to go to and it's expensive to get there, obviously.
But food is exceptional and just such great value.
What about Europe? Because we have quite distinctive food scenes, I think. If you're going to France or Spain or Greece or Italy, what would you choose?
I love Italy and I love the region of Emilia-Romagna in particular. So Bologna would be the main hub and it's kind of in that small enough region you have all of the elements of Italian food that we love so much. So Bologna is like a strong pasta and ragoutown, incredible bread actually when I was there. And then you've got Parma nearby for the ham and the parmesan that's all made there. You can go and tour the factories.
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