How to eat in America — away from the tourist traps

SOUTHERN food is big right now — but there are a lot of gimmicky spots in the US wasting tourists’ time and money. Here’s how not to make that mistake.

IF YOU’RE a fan of food, you might consider these guys to have the best jobs going.

Contiki’s operations team is the lucky bunch that gets dispatched into cities and regions in the name of research, with a mission to find the best and most authentic experiences to add to the youth travel company’s ever-evolving itineraries.

And for the team working more specifically with Contiki’s recently launched Munch foodie tours, that means eating absolutely everywhere in town to suss out the best spots to take travellers — as well as the places to avoid.

Contiki tours have a new-found focus on food after feedback from its 18-to-35-year-old clients revealed authentic food experiences was a bigger priority than the wild parties the company was traditionally known for.

It’s since launched Munch tours in the Mediterranean, Mexico and more recently in the southern states of America, where the local cuisine — from the barbecues of the Texas through to the po’ boys of Louisiana — has become hugely on-trend, Contiki Australia’s managing director Katrina Barry said.

Contiki has researched all the places to eat across the Southern United States and weeded out the great locations from the tourist traps. Picture: The Travel Corporation

“Southern food is obviously having a real moment and one of the things Contiki does really well is research,” she told news.com.au.

“We spent a lot of time and money really understanding what 18-to-35-year-olds want, and among millennials culinary delights are more important than sightseeing.

“The people with the very coolest job in the business is our operations team. We pull all that research together and send our staff out and they’ll talk to the locals, they’ll go to every restaurant in, say, Memphis, and they’ll figure out what’s a tourist trap, what’s authentic, and what has great live music.”

Travellers also learn about the history and cultural significance of food, such as the famous po’ boy sandwich. Picture: iStock

Ms Barry recently hopped along on Contiki’s 12-day Munch tour through southern USA, which mimics the company’s popular Boot Scoot N Blues tour — only with more focus on food.

The tour starts in Dallas, Texas, and moves on to Austin and San Antonio, across to Louisiana, up through Mississippi and into Tennessee, across to Houston, over to Louisiana, down through Georgia and across to its final stop in Orlando, Florida.

“I put on quite a few kilos,” Ms Barry joked.

“One night we had a big Texas barbecue and ended up at the largest honky tonk in Texas. We did a food truck tour through Austin, which is this super cool, eclectic, alternative kind of city. We did a cooking masterclass in New Orleans and whipped up some gumbo, some jambalaya and po’ boys [baguettes filled with meat, such as crayfish and shrimp].

None of Contiki’s competitors take travellers to the eclectic cities of Nashville and Austin (pictured), Ms Barry says. Picture: iStock

“Our trip manager on the tour is a Texan and the wonderful thing is that he explains history of where the foods come from.

“He explained that po’ boy comes from ‘poor boy’, and back when they were forming the South and building plantations people would see the poor boys, the po’ boys.

“Food is such an amazing way to explore a country or region’s history and culture and our trip managers know all this.”

As people who have visited the United States know, things can tend to be a little gimmicky — especially when it comes to places to eat.

New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street is a known tourist trap. Picture: iStock

Whether it’s a bar in LA, a New York deli or the honky tonks of Texas, there’s often a huge difference between the places tourists flock and the better ones favoured by much wiser locals.

It’s especially the case in New Orleans, where travellers often fall prey to the over-hyped tourist trap of Bourbon Street.

Ms Barry said there were two good rules of thumb when seeking out authentic places to eat — aim for two streets off the main drag, and keep an eye out for where the locals were queuing.

“In New Orleans, for example, everyone goes to Bourbon Street and we take the tour group there for one night but frankly it’s not that interesting. It’s a bit wild and gross,” she said.

“We take people to Preservation Hall, which is this tiny little jazz club you’d never notice walking past it, unless you knew to look for it.

Preservation Hall in New Orleans is one of Contiki's best discoveries in the Southern United States. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

“It’s a small room with just 40 people and this amazing experience where these [musicians] really know their jazz.

“We also went to a place in Texas, this huge outdoor area that was like a Latino plaza, which was extraordinary and had all these amazing Tex-Mex restaurants.

“I would have just walked past it myself, but there were actually huge queues of locals for this one family’s restaurant. And it was quite out of town, we probably would never have gone there if we didn’t have our Contiki coach.”