Culinary Tourism

Introduction

Introduction Lucy M. Long One of my favorite activities when I travel is eating. I am not alone. The tourism industry thrives on providing food experiences-of new and exotic foods, of foods authentic to a particular culture, of foods familiar and safe to a traveler. Food is central to traveling, and it is a vivid entryway into another culture, but we do not have to literallyleave home to "travel." Movies, books, postcards, memories all take us, emotionally if not physically , to other places. Food as well can carry us into other realms of experience , allowing us to be tourists while staying at home. Restaurants, cookbooks, televised cooking shows, food magazines, and the recipe sections of local and national newspapers enable us to experience vicariously the cuisines and foodways of others. Culinary tourism is more than trying new and exotic foods. The basis of tourism is a perception of otherness, of something being different from the usual. Such perception can differ from individual to individual and from culture to culture, and it can include other times, belief systems, lifestyles, and ways of being, not only other places. Furthermore, food itself can be a destination for tourism, not only a vehicle. We can enjoy trying new foods simply for the experience of those foods, not for where the foods might lead us. Much of my thinking on culinary tourism and on foodways in general comes from my own background. Because my father worked with the U.S. State Department, Igrew up in Asian countries (Korea, Taiwan, Thailand , Vietnam) and the Southeastern United States (North Carolina moun- 2 I Introduction tains and Piedmont region). My childhoodwas filled with contrastingfood experiences: Asian versus American foods, Korean versus Japanese, mountains versus flatland, wealthy versus poverty level, urban versus rural, "hillbilly" versus mainstream, Northern versus Southern. Food experiences that were commonplace to me often seemed novel, even strange, to my peers in other cultural settings. Grits or hominy for breakfast was normal in the South; rice and seaweed were normal in Korea; grilled octopus was normal in Thailand. While for me these were familiar, even nostalgic foods, individuals outside of those cultures found them to be exotic, a touristic entry into another culture. At the same time, standard American foods-steak and baked potatoes, fast-food hamburgers-were an exotic treat for me, offering me an experience ofwhat was to most Americans the culinary mainstream. These early experiences made me very aware of the dynamic and fluid quality of tourism, of how the familiar canbe exotic, and the exotic familiar. This sense of wonder at the potentially multiple and emotionally powerful meanings of food was carried into my work on culinary tourism. It also made me aware that the motivations for eating particular foods are complex and varied. The political intertwines with the personal, the individual with the communal, and the aesthetic with the functional. Critiques of cultural behaviors must allow for that complexity. This volume explores food as both a destination and a vehicle for tourism . Consuming, or at least tasting, exotic foods can be the goal of a touristic experience, but food can also be a means by which a tourist experiences another culture, an entree, so to speak, into an unfamiliarway of life. These essays address different aspects of the intersection of food and tourism, ultimately adding to our understanding of both realms of phenomena. The Literature Scholarship relevant to culinary tourism comes primarily from three fields: anthropology of tourism, folklore, and food studies. The literature in these fields often overlaps, and their interdisciplinarity, particularly of the latter two fields, tends to not only cross the boundaries between the humanities, arts, and social sciences, but also bridges the academic andpublic or applied domains. Theories are put into action and translated into festival presentations , public displays, nutritional guidelines, and restaurant development as well as marketing and education. This makes a survey of the literature quite unwieldy, but it also highlights the potential role of food in exploring issues of authenticity and the cultural politics of representation. Surprisingly, none of these fields have focused on food specifically as Lucy M. Long I 3 a subject and medium of tourism. Food is included with other aspects of culture on display for tourists. Eating, particularly at festivals and restaurants , is mentioned along with other tourist activities; however, no study has been published that looks at how food and the activities surrounding it might shape...