It should come as no surprise that a big part of traveling for me, is the food. I think there’s no better way to experience a new culture than to dive into it’s local cuisine. The unfortunate prevalence of western fast food was hard for me when I visited Lima, which has such a rich, deeply rooted food culture reflective of it’s history. Every dish there had a story, and I learned so much about the history of the country simply by culinary exploration. The diluted, flavorless western food is such a waste and I certainly hope it never causes a loss of such fantastic culinary history.

Now, I couldn’t be more excited for Ghana, which supposedly has fantastic food (and spicy!)-even Anthony Bourdain made a visit (check it out here). Or check out the full episode on Netflix. I normally am not a fan of his show, but in this case I was (for obvious reasons) very interested-and it’s only increased my excitement. I’ve read street food in Ghana is absolutely fantastic, and street foods are my absolute favorite. One of my most memorable food excursions was sitting curb side late night, in 85 degree weather in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico eating tacos (el pastor-with pineapple of course!). Or venturing to a dusty run down building in the winding streets of Alexandria, Egypt in search of infamous falafel, being as hoped, the only westerner (or woman) in sight. Waiting for one of the best sea-food dinners I ever had because the fish just got back to shore in Zanzibar, Tanzania. My list of food memories both domestically and abroad could easily fill a book- I can’t wait to see what I’ll find in Ghana!