I am a wanderer.  I love to travel to a place I’ve never been, I love to explore and get lost and find my way again.  The only thing I enjoy more than travel is food, and when those are combined, I am a happy girl.  I hope that I never lose this lust for travel (and food!); there are so many places I have yet to see.  In order of desire, here are my top unexplored lands:

• Egypt – I have wanted to go for as long as I can remember.  I will probably be slightly disappointed, when I finally get there, to not be in ancient Egypt, but it’s a chance I’m quite willing to take.  I’m not so sure how I’m going to do with the food here, but it will be awesome finding out (and I’ll probably pack peanut butter…shut up)
• Morocco – To misquote Jane Austen, I believe that the air will be full of spices and the food will be amazing
• Argentina – god knows why, it just beckons me
• Montreal – how have I never been here?  No idea
• Spain – I am currently planning a trip to Madrid and Barcelona, so in 7 short months Spain will fall off the list, I am so excited.  Spanish food is one of my favorite kinds and really, do we have to go into the allure here?  Rioja!

Here are some of the places I have already explored internationally, in no particular order:

• Italy – easily my favorite country in the world, with Rome being my favorite city.  Italy is amazing, magical, modern and ancient in the same space, I have been here a handful of times and always feel instantly at home and adventurous and have had some of the best meals of my life.
• The Grenadines – what?  You’ve never heard of them?  I hadn’t either until I actually bought the plane ticket, but this is an actual country – I went there this year with some great friends and it was amazing, easily the most relaxing place I’ve ever been, a huge plus that my phone didn’t work, but there was wireless in the bar so that I could keep current on my Words with Friends (because, you know, priorities)
• England – I love England.  It feels almost like cheating to go basically to Europe but you still understand everything they are saying (almost).  The cuisine in England isn’t my favorite, but also isn’t as bad as it used to be, but as a city of immigrants, I find London to be a great place to try amazing authentic ethnic foods like Indian and Thai
• Costa Rica – The food here is very simple and fresh, but the true draw was the ocean and the rainforest, and this was a memorable trip

My love of food and travel is certainly not confined to international travel.  One of the best parts of my last relationship was that we both shared these passions, and in our two years together we took several trips, to New York, Napa, Arizona, Washington DC and others and ate at some of the best places we could find.  My favorites here:

• New York – obviously one of the best food cities in the world, we especially loved Colicchio & Sons and Bar Americain, but even the sleepy little rooftop bar at the Library Hotel that we found at eleven o’clock at night when we arrived was memorable and great.
• Napa – it’s pretty hard to find a restaurant that isn’t wonderful in Napa, but the standouts for us were Bottega and Bouchon.
• I had probably the best steak of my life in at Bourbon Steak in Scottsdale and a wonderful eclectic meal at Jaleo in Washington DC

There are also some wonderful places here in LA that are fun to explore, including Jar, Craft, and Red O.  But lest you think I’m a food snob, my actual favorite places lately are Umami Burger and Portillo’s, and if you want the whole truth (and no one is proud of themselves here), I eat at Rubio’s at least twice every week.

I’m not sure how, but this post about travel has really just turned into a food post, but I’m hungry and I can’t help it, sorry.