Hannah Strange, Florida Down Under  marketing intern, encourages students to eat local foods in Australia and Fiji:

With Valentine’s Day last week, it seems everyone is still talking about a certain special thing – chocolate! Of course what kind of chocolate you’re thinking about really depends on where you are from.

I’m English, so for me you can’t beat a bit of good old Dairy Milk , but if you were from Australia you may well be thinking about the local delicacy of Tim Tams ! Just last week I found this DELECTABLE recipe for a Tim Tam cake; just don’t make too many before spring break! Click here  for the recipe.

Between finding this recipe and a recent visit at UF  from Eleanor  in which we talked about ALL of the foods we miss from our home countries, I realized that a huge part of traveling is experiencing the food culture in that country. We often associate a given country with a specific food item. For instance you think of Italy – no carb left behind. France? Cheese and wine. Kung Pao chicken – clearly China.

I know when we were in Fiji , we all loved the vast amounts of curry (only sometimes wondering when we were ever going to eat anything else), but in Australia  it was definitely a game to see who had the best face when they first tasted Vegemite . I am a huge Marmite  fan, so I found this particularly amusing.

What I mean to say is that if you don’t try Tim Tams, Vegemite and sea salt and lime chips in Australia and kava and curry in Fiji, then you are missing out on a huge part of the culture of those countries. I’m not saying you have to try eating mealie worms (though by all means give it a shot, I did) but maybe steer clear of McDonald’s ? You have it at home, it’s basically the same thing and it is a lot better for the economy if you eat local. So give regional foods a try!