We discovered quite early in our travels that one of the best ways to truly experience a destination is to eat where local people eat. This is especially true in more developed holiday locations where the local populace have a reasonable amount of disposable income. On top of this, one of the best and easiest ways to eat like a local is to eat in a food court. For the point of this article a food court is a location with shared seating and a number of permanent food service venues (not popup food markets which is something quite different). These locations can be as simple as a food court in a mall or shopping centre, or bespoke dining destinations such as the Timeout food courts model.
The advantages of these venues are numerous, the fixed nature of them means that they will have to undergo food safety inspections, guaranteeing a certain level of hygiene and providence which cannot always be obtained from street food, no matter how awesome that can be. They also allow you to mix and match your food, so if you want to get drinks from one place, a main from another and dessert from yet another place, it isn’t a problem.
Furthermore you will normally save a lot of money when compared to a full service restaurant, since you are not paying for waiters to serve your food or for large markups on drinks. Also, food courts are a great place to people watch, since you are likely to see all different types of people from all walks of life. Finally, when you are looking for some comfort food, or have been predominantly eating a specific type of cuisine for an extended time, food courts are a great place to search out familiarity when it is called for.
Some of our favourite food court experiences have included Maxwell Road Hawker Centre in Singapore, The Timeout market in Lisbon, Pier 21 Food Court in Bangkok and Kuranda Village Centre in North East Australia.
When choosing what to have in a food court, there are a few things that I would recommend.
- Always look for food courts without international brands. This is likely to help you discover something specific to either the location you are visiting, or the heritage of the people running the stall.
- Aim for busier food courts with many different groups since this is likely to indicate the popularity of the stalls within.
- Try lots of different things, especially if you visit more than once. Repeating something you have enjoyed can be tempting but limits your ability to find something new.
- Try local fast food. As much as all fast food can look the same, the taste can vary wildly. I would highly recommend trying local fast food since it helps you figure out just how different the tastes in a location are compared to your own.
- Figure out what local people eat. It helps to do some research before visiting a food court to find out if there are any must try dishes. Once you get there you should hopefully be able to distinguish the locals from the visitors and figure out which stalls are frequented more by locals.
- Do a walk around before ordering. Some food courts are quite large or very complicated so it can be good to figure out what your options are before committing to somewhere. This can ensure you don’t end up with eater’s remorse.
Food courts are one of my personal obsessions, and I am certain that I will continue to seek them out whenever I travel to allow my family and I to have truly excellent food at less than premium prices.
