Travel Writer Clichés: 5 – Where locals eat

3 Comments on Travel Writer Clichés: 5 – Where locals eat

1. Mike Gerrard says:

   July 10, 2009 at 08:28

   Aaarrggghh! This is one of my own pet hates. Every time I see the phrase I want to scream what you just said – locals eat at MacDonald’s, the locals aren’t necessarily gourmets who love fine food. You may as well say ‘this is where the locals shop’ about every shop in a city, or ‘this is where the locals catch a bus’. It’s lazy writing, means nothing, tries to show the writer is an insider in the place but all it shows is that the writer doesn’t even think about the words they are using.
2. DonaldS says:

   July 10, 2009 at 11:18

   I’m not sure this really qualifies as a “cliche”, though. It’s either true or it isn’t. Most often, it’s stated as true when it isn’t. However, I would argue that when it comes to eating (different to, say, shopping) a place where locals eat is *generally*, if not always, better than a place where they don’t. I wouldn’t eat bang on Leicester Square; however, I know a great Kashmiri take-away in Dalston Market, which very few tourists will ever visit.

   And I’m not sure the McDonalds thing applies in some of the cities I know well, like Florence. Of course, lots of (esp. young, school-age) locals eat there, but the queues out the door appear to me to sport mostly foreign voices.
3. David says:

   July 11, 2009 at 13:04

   @Mike – I love it when the phrase is used about desperately poor countries, where the locals clearly eat at home because they can’t really afford to go to restaurants.

   @DonaldS – You make fair points as well. My bugbear is largely about writers who use the phrase lazily.