In New Zealand I was one of those half-marathon-running, kickboxing, kale-smoothie-drinking paleo yoga types. Right up until my back operation when I had to hang up the gloves in exchange for gym shoes and a swiss ball. Ever since (and not helped by age) I have had to change my relationship with food in order to stay healthy.
It didn’t take much travel to realise that many countries did not know what quinoa was or how to activate almonds. It does not help either that the price of a glass of decent red is about a quarter of the price back home.
I toyed with re-training as a chef or a sommelier. Maybe I still will. In the meantime I have settled for food and wine appreciation and talking about it. I also discovered about 57% of my travel photos were of food dishes from different countries. Rather than bore people more interested in the travel experiences than the food experiences, I have separated them out.