You've just booked your flight to that bucket-list destination. After the initial high wears off, you slam your laptop shut, and it hits you: How on earth will you find authentic eats in an unfamiliar place? How can you enjoy spontaneous, satisfying meals instead of overpriced tourist trap fare — especially when you don't speak the language?
To solve this frustrating conundrum, we called up travel expert Samantha Brown. She's the host of PBS's Places to Love, and in the show's most recent season, she even spends one episode eating her way around the world: Brown zips between North Carolina, Costa Rica, and Australia, among other destinations.
So we had to ask for her best tips for finding foodie-approved picks off the beaten path, no matter where you are in the world. Plus, if you're still deciding where to plan your next vacation, she's got intel on up-and-coming and underrated food destinations here in the U.S., which proves that you don't need a passport to have the best meal of your life. And if you're pinching pennies, we've got you: Brown offers relatable advice for traveling on a budget.
What's an underrated food destination that deserves far more attention?
Tampa, Florida. It's a big city, so people know about it, but I still think it's so underrated for food. It has Caribbean, Latin American, and Southern influences and also one of the oldest Thai food markets in the United States — it's been going on for 30 years, every Sunday, at the local temple. Volunteers set up an entire market just like what you'd see in Thailand, with all your favorite dishes: noodle dishes, soups, and mango sticky rice. Plus, it's beautiful — it's right along the water with plenty of picnic tables.
There's a new restaurant in Tampa called Ulele. It's from the same family that owns Columbia restaurant, the first famous restaurant in the city, which opened in 1905. Ulele pays homage to the indigenous population, and it serves alligator and oysters. They really try to present Florida's true culinary beginnings.
Tampa also has the super famous Bern's Steakhouse, which has been open since the 1920s. People fly their private jets around the world to have a steak there. Tampa also has Ybor City, which is its first immigrant neighborhood, and that has a lot of fun restaurants. I love the diversity of Tampa and its food scene.
Which other U.S. food destinations do you think are on the rise?
One that's near and dear to me is Kittery, Maine, a tiny little port town right on the ocean that's famous for the Portsmouth Naval Yard, which was founded in 1800. It's this tiny but massive food destination full of well-known, chef-driven restaurants.
I grew up in that area, and my first job was waiting tables at the local seafood restaurants in Maine. They usually served lobster, a baked potato, and rice pilaf — and that was pretty much it. This little corner of the state has really disrupted what we expect from seafood in Maine. There's also a well-known bakery, Lil's Cafe, that makes famous French crullers, which are unbelievable.
What's the best dish you tried during the past season of your show?
It was in El Reno, Oklahoma, at a place called Sid's Diner — it's their onion burger. Oklahoma is known for smashed onion burgers, which were originally a way to stretch the meat by packing the onion into it. Oh my gosh, I still have dreams about that burger — it was the best one I've ever had.
In Places to Love, you visit major tourist destinations, but you also try tomato pie in Morehead City, North Carolina. What's your best advice for finding unique places to eat off the beaten path, no matter where you are?
Something we always do is — and I do it as a tourist and also as a producer of a travel show — go to the major street or the main square, and then explore the parallel streets and side streets. We keep going further out from the center until we find something that's a lot more local than what you find on those main thoroughfares.
Most locals don't eat in the most famous restaurants anyway: They're too busy, too expensive, and often overpriced because they're touristy. But if you go to the periphery of a downtown, that's when you'll start to find more places where the locals go. Honestly, good food doesn't need to be completely off the beaten path — it can be just a little off of it.
You recently tried currywurst, which is a popular, historically significant German street food. Do you have advice on how to try street food safely and confidently in an unfamiliar city?
Look for the lines: I hate waiting in lines, but when it comes to street food, you really want to find places that have them. I've lived in New York City for 35 years, and I used to live right near Midtown, which was food-cart city, thanks to all the business workers around. There were food carts with lines around the corner, and those were the ones you should wait for.
I always say that, as a woman, I don't like secluded beaches. I always think, What's wrong? Why is there no one here? It's the same thing when you see an empty food cart, especially during a busy time of day.
You also visited Sibaeli Chocolate in Costa Rica. Do you have advice for travelers on finding small-scale food spots instead of tourist traps?
Logistics-wise, as the producer of a travel show, that's what makes us different: we never rely on what we see on a website or on social media. So, three weeks before we're there to shoot, my husband or my director goes and scouts everything. We meet people face-to-face, but that's not always an easy thing for an average traveller to do, and we recognize that.
You can start with your own due diligence. If you look at a business's website, the "About" page gives you an idea of its history. I always look for the words "family-owned" and see how long it's been family-owned. Then I look for ways that the business is going against the grain. Like the Sibaeli chocolates in Costa Rica were totally organic, meaning that they go the distance of creating an exceptional product. Doing a little bit of research ahead of time helps a lot.
When you want to understand a culture quickly, what kind of food experience do you seek out? Street food, home cooking, markets, or fine dining?
I like a restaurant that feels like a diner, for lack of a better word — a homegrown restaurant that everyone goes to. I don't always need to have a meal that's going to change my life. I want to go where the locals go.
Another thing I love to do is go to a supermarket, since they show a lot about the different foods in destinations around the world. For example, in Greece, Hellman's makes mustard, which we don't get in the United States. In France, you can find mustard that comes in a little stemmed glass, like a wine glass. So when you're done with the mustard, you can reuse the glass. In any country, I love to just walk the grocery-store aisles. It also helps in terms of getting used to the language — if I see canned peas at a store in France, I'll notice that they're labelled les pois. Then I'm better set up for when I sit down at a restaurant and see pois on a menu.
Are there red flags you look for when you're choosing restaurants, especially in a tourist-heavy area?
I've never really liked it when a waiter or a host is outside the restaurant asking you to come inside. Usually, if a restaurant's successful, they're too busy to have that person.
Do you have any tips for food-centric travel on a budget?
I'm basically on a budget everywhere I go. I think making lunch your biggest meal of the day is smart, especially in Europe and internationally, where lunch menus offer a more affordable price, often for the same items that they serve at dinner. I always eat a big breakfast, too. So my first two meals are bigger, and I typically eat out. Then for dinner, I usually have what I grabbed at the supermarket, and eat that in my room. I had this funny video that went viral where I showed how to prepare my favorite hotel-room salad. I love to have a salad at the end of the day — it not only keeps me healthy, but it's also definitely budget-friendly.
What's a dish you'd fly across the world for?
Seafood pasta in Patmos. It's this tiny island in Greece, with this beautiful little harbor. I went to a restaurant there called Faliraki Ouzeri, where the chairs and tables are right on the beach, so you have this phenomenal view. And they serve an incredibly rich spaghetti with seafood, including fresh shrimp right from the ocean, and a creamy kind-of roux sauce. It was phenomenal.
Is there somewhere in the world you've been itching to experience through food?
I would love to experience Morocco. And I would love to go back to Turkey — I was only there for two days, but I want to really explore that country and its cuisine, because it felt exceptional. And Ethiopia — I love Ethiopian food, and I love the whole hospitality behind it, where you feed each other as a sign of respect and love. I'd love to experience that firsthand.
