Eating your way around the world

SAVOURING LOCAL food is an easy and enjoyable way to discover a new culture while travelling.
Ingredients unique to a region, cooking techniques and the way people eat - all these are a window into the cultural soul of a destination.
This is heightened during a food festival, when a town, or even the whole country, celebrates a beloved ingredient or dish and there is no better way to know a place than when you can revel with the locals and feast on their favourite food.
Here’s a look at our favourites.

Participants of the World Oyster Opening Championship at the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival. 

GALWAY INTERNATIONAL OYSTER AND SEAFOOD FESTIVAL, IRELAND
The Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival, which had about three dozen guests when it launched in 1954, is now one of the biggest events on Ireland's social calendar, attracting more than 20,000 visitors every year.
Visitors travel from all over the country to join the seafood trail, with visits to the best restaurants and pubs throughout the city. They join oyster-cooking workshops, listen to talks about fisheries and frolic at a masquerade ball. For children, there is a carnival with face painting, games and circus acts.
Of course, the oyster is the hero of the day. The World Oyster Opening Championship, where participants try to shuck the most oysters in the shortest time, is a highlight, as is the chance to indulge in plate after plate of fresh Atlantic oysters, washed down with Guinness.
When: September 22 to 24
Info: GalwayOysterFestival.com

Huhu grubs – the fingersized larvae of the huhu beetle – are said to taste like peanut butter. 

HOKITIKA WILDFOODS FESTIVAL, NEW ZEALAND
When people in Hokitika could not get enough of her gorse-flower wine and rose-petal brew, Claire Bryant, a local, decided to start the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival, a celebration of flavours from New Zealand's wild west coast, in 1990.
Located in South Island, Hokitika was once an important river port and the centre of a 19th-century gold rush. Today, the town is home to fewer than 3,000 people and its wild-foods festival is its main attraction, along with eco-tourism.
The festival attracts more than 6,000 people every year. There are carnival games and rides, live music, costume competitions, concerts and, of course, the roughly 50 stalls selling food.
Picky eaters will enjoy the festival’s more traditional fare, such as marinated tuna, smoked salmon, game meats and a Maori hangi (pit barbecue).
Huhu grubs, the finger-sized larvae of the huhu beetle, which is the largest endemic beetle found in New Zealand, are a festival favourite and are said to taste like peanut butter.
Crocodile bites, fish eyes, pork-blood casserole, grasshoppers, kidney kebabs, snails, roasted duck heads, mountain oysters (sheep testicles) and cow udders also make an appearance and new wild foods are introduced every year.
When: March 10 next year
Info: www.WildGoods.co.nz

White truffles can sell for tens of thousands of euros apiece at the International Alba White Truffle Fair. 

INTERNATIONAL ALBA WHITE TRUFFLE FAIR, ITALY
They may look like lumpy, dirty potatoes, but the scent of fresh truffles can elevate any dish.
And every year, the world’s top chefs and food buyers flock to Alba, a city in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, to buy the world's best truffles at the International Alba White Truffle Fair.
Unlike black truffles, no cultivation technique has been developed for the white variety, which is rarer and grows only in the wild.
One must forage in the woods, where they grow symbiotically with oak, hazel, poplar and beech trees.
Though white truffles can also be found in certain parts of France, Croatia and Slovenia, they grow particularly well in the countryside around the Piedmontese cities of Alba and Asti, where truffle hunters dig for them from late September to December every year.
When: October 7 to November 26
Info: www.FieraDelTartufo.org

Visitors to the Tokyo Ramen Show can try different types of noodles prepared by 36 ramen shops from all over Japan. 

TOKYO RAMEN SHOW, JAPAN
The dreams of noodle lovers come true at the Tokyo Ramen Show, an 11-day annual event gathering the best ramen-makers from all over Japan in Komazawa Olympic Park.
Visitors can sample different types of ramen, from classic varieties to regional specialities and flavour combinations created especially for the show by 36 ramen shops across the country.
Eighteen ramen shops will set up stalls during the first half of the show from October 26 to 31 and will be replaced by another 18 ramen shops from November 1 to 5.
Admission is free.
Each bowl of ramen costs 850 yen (Bt255), using a pre-purchased ticket. Additional ramen toppings are paid for in cash.
When: October 26 to November 5
Info: www.RamenShow.com

Barbecue sauce for sale at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City, Missouri. 

AMERICAN ROYAL WORLD SERIES OF BARBECUE, USA
Barbecue is serious business in the US, where people will travel and queue for hours to sink their teeth into their favourite brisket, pulled pork and ribs.
Every region has its preferred cuts of meat and barbecue style, from grilled to wood-smoked, dry-rubbed to slathered in sauce.
You can find them all at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City, Missouri.
The World Series of Barbecue, which takes place over the Labour Day weekend on the Kansas Speedway racetrack, is the largest barbecue competition in the world. The US Labour Day is on the first Monday of September.
The family-friendly festival has live music, carnival rides and a car show, while dozens of stalls sell delicious, authentic Kansas City barbecue. For children, there is the Cowtown Family Fun Fest, with face painting, mechanical bull rides, pony rides and tractor races.
When: August 31 to September 3
Info: www.AmericanRoyal.com/bbq

Visitors to the Herring Festival can not only eat herring, smoked (above) or prepared in another way, they can also learn how to fillet the fish and take cooking classes. 

HERRING FESTIVAL, DENMARK
In the Hvide Sande fishing village on Denmark's western coast, where undulating white sand dunes meet the North Sea, anglers have for centuries made a living off the salmon, monkfish and schools of herring that thrive there.
Whether simply smoked, fried or cured – or served on brown bread or in a curry sauce with potatoes – herring forms a cornerstone of Danish cuisine.
Every spring, when the herring swim into locks at Hvide Sande on their way to spawn in the nearby Ringkobing Fjord, the town becomes an angler's paradise when virtually every line lands a fish.
To celebrate, the village holds Sildefestival, a herring festival attracting hundreds of anglers from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, who come to hook, cook and eat as much herring as they can over the last weekend in April. 
The festival, which started in 1995, includes live music, boat tours and fishing competitions for all ages. There are master classes on how to fillet and butterfly your fish and herring cooking classes.
When: April 27 to 29 next year
Info: Sondervig.dk/en/eventcalender/herring-festival/