Elena Vasquez 
I have planned entire vacations around a single meal. I have rerouted road trips for a cheese counter. I once missed a train because I was deep in conversation with a salumiere about the proper fat-to-lean ratio in culatello. So when I tell you that October in Italy is the most delicious month on the … Read more
I have a confession: I have never once booked a flight for the weather. I have, however, booked flights for a bowl of hand-shaved white truffles, a chocolate sculpture the size of a small car, and street food so good it made me genuinely emotional on a sidewalk in Southeast Asia. If you plan your … Read more
I plan my entire travel calendar around food. Not landmarks, not museums, not even beaches — food. If a destination has a legendary dish I haven’t eaten yet, I’m booking flights. Which is exactly why September is my favorite month of the year: it’s when Munich transforms into the greatest open-air food festival on the … Read more
I plan vacations around meals. Not around museums, not around beaches, not around “must-see landmarks” — around food. Specifically, around the kind of food that only exists in one place, at one time of year, made by people who have been perfecting it for generations. And if you share this affliction (it’s not a disorder, … Read more
Let me tell you something about the way I plan vacations: I don’t start with flights or hotels. I start with food. Specifically, I open a browser tab, type “where can I eat something that will rearrange my entire sense of reality,” and work backward from there. If you’re the same kind of person — … Read more
Let me be honest with you: I have absolutely planned international flights around a food event. Not a Michelin-starred restaurant, not a cooking class — a festival where strangers hand you things on sticks and the wine costs four euros. August in Europe is when this kind of glorious chaos peaks, and if you haven’t … Read more
Let me tell you something about myself: I have booked flights to cities I’d never heard of based entirely on a single dish someone described to me at a dinner party. I have rearranged entire itineraries, missed museums, and cheerfully skipped UNESCO sites because a market vendor waved me over with a spoon. Food is, … Read more
Let me tell you something about myself: I have absolutely rerouted a flight layover to eat one specific dish in one specific city. I have also — and I’m not proud of this — built a three-week itinerary entirely around the question “what food festival is happening where, and when?” July is the month where … Read more
Let me be honest with you: I have absolutely planned an entire international itinerary around a bowl of chowder. Not slightly adjusted — fully, unapologetically planned. If you’re the kind of traveler who opens Google Maps and immediately searches for the nearest harbor restaurant before even checking into your hotel, you are my people. And … Read more
Let me tell you something about myself that will surprise exactly no one who knows me: I have booked flights around restaurant reservations, planned road trips based on regional cheese availability, and once spent four days in a country primarily because I heard their street food scene was otherworldly. So when June rolls around and … Read more
