Jennifer Hope Choi plans every trip the same way: open a Google doc, start with food, and build outward from there. As a former Bon Appétit editor, 13-year restaurant industry veteran, and author of a travel memoir, she has strong opinions about Michelin guides (skip ‘em), low-rated restaurants (sometimes worth it), and why you should always follow your optician's food recs.

She also edited Afar’s debut Travel to Eat series, which includes three stories: Jeju black pork and a life-changing soup, Sherpa cuisine in the Rockies, and why Portland, Maine, might be America’s best bakery town.

Meet today's guest

Jennifer Hope Choi is a senior editor at Afar and the architect of its Travel to Eat series. A former Bon Appétit editor and 13-year restaurant industry veteran, she is also an award-winning writer and author of the travel memoir the Wanderer’s Curse. Her work spans food and culture, and the messy, joyful overlap between the two.

In this episode

How Jen’s latchkey childhood, early Food Network shows, and her Korean grandmother’s pancakes shaped a lifelong obsession with eating
Why the Google doc comes first: Jen’s method for building food-forward itineraries from Reddit threads, local papers, and stranger recommendations
The case against Michelin stars, lines around the block, and treating a trip like a personality — and what to do instead
Inside the three stories of Afar’s Travel to Eat series: a transcendent bowl of Jeju black pork soup, Sherpa cuisine taking root in the Colorado Rockies, and the baking scene quietly transforming Portland, Maine
Jen’s #1 travel food tip: ask the shop clerk, not the algorithm

Links & resources

Read the Travel to eat series: ⁠America's best bakery town⁠, a life-changing pork soup, and the rise of Sherpa cuisine in the Colorado Rockies

Read Jen's memoir, The Wanderer’s Curse
Follow Jen on Instagram
Read MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating, Jen’s favorite food book

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:30 Growing Up Food-Obsessed

00:06:30 How to Eat Your Way Through a City

00:11:30 Lists, Stars, and Letting Go

00:21:30 The Travel to Eat Series

00:30:00 Tips for Eating Well on the Road

Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, ⁠Behind the Mic⁠, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Travel Tales⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠View From Afar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel.

Unpacked by Afar is part of ⁠Airwave Media⁠'s podcast network. Please contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast.

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Forget the Algorithm. Here's How to Actually Eat Well When You Travel.