Food shopping a path to new places

Food crosses cultural lines: We all have to eat.

Here’s why shopping for food should always be part of your travel plans.

■ You get an understanding of the food.

Walking the aisles of a market connects you to the food of your destination. You can see what is fresh and what might not be. Low prices and abundant quantities reflect goods that are produced locally. High prices and small quantities likely suggest imports.

■ It connects you to people.

Markets let you rub shoulders with locals. Think of yourself back Food markets fill the bill perfectly with aromas of food both raw and cooked, colors of produce and sounds of people chatting or haggling over prices. home at a store, kids in tow, filling your basket before you dash home to prepare dinner.

Look around: It’s the same everywhere you travel.

■ It elevates the senses.

To fully experience a place, all your senses need to be engaged. Food markets fill the bill perfectly with aromas of food both raw and cooked, colors of produce and sounds of people chatting or haggling over prices.

■ It’s a fun way to learn bits of a new language.

What the heck are frozen aardappels? The picture on the package shows you; or, you can ask a clerk or buy it to find out. Regardless, you will have learned the Dutch word for “potatoes.”

■ It’s fun to compare distant markets with those at home.

This can be especially fun when traveling in the United States. Did you know, for example, that the Walmart in Honolulu shares a three-story building with Sam’s Club? Its water-sports section is larger than many sporting-goods stores elsewhere.

■ It saves you money.

From a practical standpoint, the fewer times you eat in restaurants, the more money you’ll save.

Even when your accommodations don’t allow for cooking, picking up basics such as bread, fruit and cheese can help contain the costs of a trip.

■ It often gets you off the tourist track.

Leaving the tourist areas behind in favor of the kind of neighborhood where you can find groceries is exhilarating, no matter what city you’re visiting.

Destinations tend to come to life after you get a few blocks from tourist hot spots.