Amidst a loosely planned itinerary whenever I embark on a travel journey, between getting lost in city streets, wandering through local museums, and taking in iconic sites, I nearly always make time for three things: a grocery store, a haircut, and a McDonalds. You may chuckle at this list, but to me they are by far some of the most interesting portals into daily life of locals wherever you may find yourself.
Grocery Stores
Eating food is essential to being human. So why not stop in a place where folks acquire their food? This of course isn’t limited to big-chain supermarkets but also include open-air and wet markets. In open-air and wet markets, you’ll find seasonal produce and foodstuffs you may not be able to recognize. Not even to mention the critters up for sale or the smells that you may waft as you walk through. Though you may feel aversion to walking into a supermarket chain that you recognize from your home country, sometimes those same chains abroad will stock interesting items and contain entire aisles that may appear as tiny sections in your local shop. For example, a Tesco in Thailand has a row specifically for items that you would use in or bring to a temple. This includes incense, candles, gold paper to decorate buddha statues, among various things. Instead of a deli where you can find cold meat cuts and macaroni salad, you’ll find barrels of fish paste and fresh-made curry paste. A Lulumarket in India has barrels of spice powders and an entire aisle of various spices, which makes the McCormick spice section at a Ralphs or a Safeway look like a poor excuse in comparison. All in all, grocery stores can be just as interesting as a historic site, if not more. It’s also quite poetic when you also consider that regardless of where you may be on the planet, all humans need sustenance, and an open-air, wet market, or supermarket is exactly where you need to go to do such a thing.
Spice/pickle shelf at a lulumarket in india
Haircut
(If you have a specific style or are sensitive to how your hair looks, you might want to skip this option). Witnessing hairstyles and fashion while abroad is always a festival for any curious mind. How do people maintain their image and/or style themselves? They must at some point cut their hair. So let’s go experience it. As a queer woman with short hair I have the added luxury of being comfortable going to a barber shop, where you can find some of the most basic and cheap haircuts of all. Getting a haircut while abroad or not being able to really speak the local language can be a precarious decision and isn’t always great. Once while living in Beijing I popped into a hutong barbershop and asked for a simple buzzcut on the sides and to trim the top of my hair, and I ended up looking like a K-pop star with a perm. While not necessarily a bad image in and of itself, it didn’t fit my aesthetic at all. It probably didn’t help that towards the end of this cut a crowd of perhaps 30 people were gathered outside and staring at the foreigner in a local spot. Either way, a bad haircut is always a risk I’m willing to take for the experience itself and a potentially good story afterwards.
Before haircut
after haircut: fort kochi, india
Before haircut
After haircut: Hong Kong (I should note that the lady cutting my hair did not look away from her soap operas practically the whole time i was in the chair)
McDonalds
The more you travel and get to know places around the world you’ll soon realize that everything is just a case of “same same but different.” McDonalds is no exception. While staples like the Big Mac, Chicken Nuggets, and the desert pies might be present on the menu, so will another slew of options that you’ll never be able to find anywhere else. For example, in India almost all of the burgers are made from chicken, as eating beef is generally seen as taboo to the Hindu majority. You’ll also find an entirely vegetarian menu, which will feature the McAloo Tikki (featuring a potato and pea patty) and a Spicy Paneer wrap. In Japan, you’ll find the Shaka Shaka chicken, which is essentially a fried chicken patty that you get in a paper bag with some salt (cheese salt and red pepper are also options) and you shake up to season it. In Thailand, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich will blow your head off with its heat. You can also find a Nam Tok burger with a beef patty seasoned with a sour and spicy nam tok-style sauce. In the Philippines, you’ll find McSpagetti, and of course in France you’ll find the iconic Royale with Cheese. While I don’t necessarily love McDonalds as a corporation and what they have done to propagate industrial-level food production and consumption, I have to admit every now and then it just hits the spot. Especially when it’s something unique off another country’s local menu.
McDonalds in India
So there you have it. My three “musts” while traveling. A short, simple, and albeit quirky list, but overall a direct portal into some aspects of life abroad that you’d never get to see if you simply stick to your tourist sites. What are your “musts”?
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