Food Touring: a How to

Michelle B.
Nov 9, 2018
3 min read

Updated: Oct 17, 2019

I have finally made it back to the States after a nearly 3 week tour in SE Asia. While I recuperate, gather my photos, and eventually stop salivating over the meals abroad, I thought I would put together a guide in how to properly food tour. So, shall we?

Welcome to this edition of Food Tours for Dummies. In this lesson you’ll learn how to properly food tour and answer all your burning questions, like:

How do you choose the right places for your tour? Will your pants explode mid-tour and do you continue? My friend is a picky eater, can we still take them on the food tour? (The answer to that one is no. Ditch 'em. They’re not worth it. Okay, okay. Ignore me. Just keep reading).

And many more. There are a few guidelines/rules to a successful food tour. Follow these tips ensure you get the most out of your food tour.

First rule of food tours, always talk about food tours It’s inevitable. It will be so painfully good, you’ll be talking about it for days, dream about it, and wake up dehydrated from it. You’ll relive those meals over and over again.
Don’t overeat This is one of the most important rules. Don’t overeat at the first location. Don’t overeat at the second location. You’ll likely have 4+ locations on the list and you’ll ruin it for yourself and others if you overeat too early. Share dishes, order a few for the whole group, and don’t order individually. You shouldn’t have to loosen your pants until the third or fourth location. Better yet, wear stretch pants!
Plan your locations in advance You’ll want to choose anywhere from 3–5 locations. This helps guide you in how much you should eat and how much you should order. However, there are times where a food tour may evolve into something unexpected. One weekend, my dad, brother, his girlfriend, and my cousin visited me in Chicago. We wanted to take my dad around to some cool areas/restaurants in Chicago he hadn’t experienced before. We started at H Mart, stopped into Mariano’s to pick up a few things, and gradually it turned into a market food tour where all of our locations were grocery stores.

Marianos - Market Food Tour — Can you see the joy in our faces over the $1 oyster deal we discovered??

Go in a group Now this is starting to sound like a guide in personal safety... You never know when you’ll need that support to take one last bite. Groups are a must for food tours. If you only go with one or two people, it can be difficult to order multiple items from the menu and try a variety of things.
Pull your weight Listen. This is a team sport, okay? This directly ties into the “don’t overeat” rule. If you overeat, you knock yourself out early and you let your team down. We don’t have subs in this game and your team is counting on you. Coach calls out motion for those final points, you’re not gonna just tap out and say “nah, I’m spent.” You push yourself and you devour that last bite like it’s the game winning shot from half court.
Take a nap Who doesn’t love a good nap? Food comas are a real epidemic and I wish the workplace would respect that by allowing mid-day naps.
Variety to please the masses There is always a picky eater who only eats this or that. Adding variety of cuisines will make sure there’s something for everyone—even the people who still eat like they're 8 year olds.
Make the food tour your own I lied. There are no rules to food tours. It’s all in what you make it and how you want to experience it. If you’re with good people and are having a great time together, then that’s all there is to it. Go with the flow. Lean wit it, rock wit it my friends.