This week on Five Rules for the Good Life, I sit down with San Diego chef Tara Monsod to talk about one of our shared favorite topics: how to travel the world with food as the focus. Fresh off a trip to Japan and the Philippines, Tara shares her Five Rules for How to Travel & Eat Like a Chef on Vacation, covering everything from researching spots that locals love, to trusting a side-street ramen line, to balancing Michelin meals with late-night street carts. Whether you’re a chef planning your first real vacation or someone just trying to make their next trip tastier, this chat is a good guide for how to turn every bite into a deeper connection with the place you’re in.

Food is always the anchor for how I travel. It’s not just where I eat, it’s how I learn about the people, the rhythm of the city, the culture. I love the chase: the deep dives into local blogs, DM threads with chefs and friends, the obsessive spreadsheet with an itinerary built around breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. When you take the time to really dig in, you’re rewarded with more than just good meals. You get stories, context, and flavors that stick with you long after the trip ends.

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Transcription

Hello and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, I sit down with one of my favorite people in the culinary scene, Tara Monsod, who’s the executive chef at Animae and Le Coq, both in San Diego. She recently returned from her adventures in the Philippines and Japan, and she shares her five rules for how to travel and eat like a chef on vacation. She talks about the importance of doing one’s research, how to strike up a conversation with someone who works at a restaurant that you love, and how keeping your eyes open while walking the streets of a new city might just land you the best meal on your trip. It is a great guide for anybody who wants to make food the focal point of their next adventure in the world. So let’s get into the rules.

Tara, so great to see you again. Always a pleasure to sit down and chat. How’s everything been? Everything is great. Sandy was perfect weather right now. Yeah, everything’s good. Just busy in the labs. Just finished one with Cato not that long ago. Yes. Yes, it was honestly a great day. What I like about your approach to living is that you work really hard and then you also travel. And when you travel, food is the main driver of how you approach your adventures. Why does a city’s culinary landscape dictate your decisions?

Who doesn’t travel for food? I mean, I don’t know, but sure. Yes, there are people out there. I’m just kidding. It’s just a good reflection of the people in the city. If there’s a lot of diversity in food and a lot of options for food, it’s the best way to experience the culture. Other people who may be transplant in those cultures. So when you go to other cities, it’s nice to just engulf yourself in all of those flavors as a chef and just kind of see what people are doing in the culinary world.

You recently got back from the Philippines and Japan, which are two of the biggest culinary worlds out there. What were some of the highlights? How did you even begin to get into what you wanted to do and where you wanted to eat in the city? Oh, my gosh. I mean, it’s really overwhelming when you’re going into a city, especially so compact like Manila and Japan. One of the first things I really do is see what people are talking about. Michelin guides are a good way to start what local bloggers are saying and then kind of go through a black hole of seeing where people are eating and what people are talking about and what’s exciting.

In Japan, the standards of what is good. Imagine the best restaurants, some of the best Japanese restaurants here. And then that is the starting level of every other Japanese restaurant in Japan. I was geeking out, man. There’s food everywhere. And not only that, it’s just executed the best way they can with a lot of respect. People are generally sitting and enjoying their meal. And it’s just such a great experience. It could be it’s from a 7-Eleven or a bento box place in the subway to a Michelin dinner or a sushi omakase. No matter what I had, it was delicious. Maybe I’m like a little... high off of just being in Japan, but I generally enjoyed just the attention to detail. For me as a chef, it’s just so appreciated.

I remember the first time I went to Tokyo, it was with my wife for a honeymoon and I got so overwhelmed with just how many options there were. My buddy who spent a long time there said, you have to treat it like you’re going back just so you can enjoy where you eat and where you go. How do you not get overwhelmed, especially when you’re mixing personal eating, but also professional research?

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed because you only have so much room in your stomach. You just have to know that whatever meal you’re going to pick, it’s going to be good. And it’s worth it. Sometimes when I think I have it figured out of where I’m going to eat, I’ll pass by a place, see a long line. And I’ll be like, what is it? There’s a bunch of locals standing in line. I’m going to stand in line. Whatever it is, please give it to me. Two ramen meals, actually, I had were the best ramen that I had in the city. That rule always works for me.

A lot of people can follow someone like you on Instagram and think that, oh, well, you’re a chef. There’s just an automatic list that gets handed to you when you go to a new country. I know from experience, it’s a lot of work, which is why I’m so excited that you’re here today to share your five rules for how to travel and eat like a chef on vacation. And your first rule is all about research. Yes. What’s your rule number one?

Look at what the locals are saying, whether it’s local papers, local magazines, credible foodie. You can kind of filter out some people who do it for the aesthetics and some people do it for the food. If you’re somebody who dines out a lot like I do, you can tell from pictures and their lists, whether it relates to you as what you’re looking for is dining. The power of social media is great. You can literally go through different lists and then go through a black hole that’ll link you from one place to the other. If somebody is eating somewhere and is public and you see their trend of where they eat, then you can go through their list and it’s from people who actually ate there. Then you can actually see what they ordered, maybe have an idea of which direction that you want to go, whether it’s all hype or whether it’s really legit food.

I was just having that conversation the other day trying to explain to people the difference between food influencers and people who I trust who have good taste in food. What you find those people, that’s who you follow and that’s who you get your recommendations from. Right. But sometimes it’s just about literally being on the street and seeing where the locals are hanging out, which ties directly into your rule number two. If you see a room full of locals in there and not a bunch of transplants or tourists, that means it’s a great place. Yes. That means if the locals are eating, it’s usually a good sign that that place is pretty legitimate.

For me, in multiple cities like Mexico City, Philippines, Manila, a lot of those places ended up giving me some of the best meals I’ve had. We had a long day. We went to Tokyo Disney because I wanted to experience Disney again for the first time. Of course. Wow. Yeah. Sure enough, duck ramen, solid freaking bowl, man. What they do is it was a ramen that’s only made from duck, green onions, and water. They simmer it for hours. I kid you not, one of the cleanest bowls of ramen I’ve ever had. Two pieces of duck, really solid noodles, clear broth. And then they had extra duck on the side. It was just very, very satisfying. That and a beer. I’m chilling.

Sometimes those side streets offer the most surprising meal. What I’ve also found in my travels is that while the big cities are great and those always have well-researched lists and you can always get recommendations there, traveling to the outskirts can get you some of the best food on the road, which aligns with your rule number three. Well, number three is exploring smaller neighborhoods off the beaten path. A lot of people might stick to the major cities or where the tourists at, which is fine. There’s some things that are popular as they should be because they’re awesome. But the locals, usually they aren’t in the middle of the city. Maybe they might be outside of the city. It’s like New York to Brooklyn. Every city has that. Tokyo is great and concentrated, but there’s a lot of great things in Osaka. There’s a lot of great things in Kyoto. Same thing with Manila. Manila is so concentrated that it’s hard to get anywhere. But when you start to go on the outskirts of the Philippines where it’s a little more rural, a little more quiet, you experience the city and the food in a different way.

Once you get a chance to experience good food in a city, you start to trust the people who are eating there and the people who work there. Your rule number four encourages people looking for their next good meal to do this. If you’re at a restaurant that you’re really excited about and you’re just sitting there at the end of meals and you’re like, wow, that was a solid meal. I start to talk to staff. Yeah. I talk to servers, the chef. I love sitting at a counter bar, just chopping it up with the people who are cooking in front of me and be like, where do you eat? Where do you go after work? Where’s the industry spot? Where do you go have a beer? What’s a good deal? Especially when it comes to late night, they are really great at giving you great recommendations because I can tell you that I’m definitely one of those people will ask me. I’m like yeah i got a list for you you’re like tell me what you’re looking for boom boom boom and sure enough if you’re guests in the city and you have five spots that somebody’s gone through because they live here but for you you can handle all five in one vacation.

People could be intimidated to talk to waiters or servers or chefs or busboys or hosts but when someone sees that you’ve made the effort to eat in their restaurant and enjoy the meal they’re very willing to give you tips about where they love to eat. We’re in the business of hospitality and it’s our job to talk about food. If anything, we might think that we don’t want to bore you with our list. If you express some interest and you’re generally asking where the industry people go, we think that either you love food or you’re in the industry. It’s a good signal to be like, yeah, what do you want to know? I got you. Just don’t be afraid to ask. What’s the worst thing? They say a couple of things, but it’s better than zero than what you had before.

Absolutely. That openness to trust people and to do the research, to dig into the lists, should paint a broad spectrum of what the city has to offer. And your fifth and final rule talks about how someone who’s trying to enjoy the city and understand it from a culinary point of view should be open to doing this. Highs and lows. Experience a Michelin dinner if you really enjoy fine dining. I suggest getting at least one of those in and then go to a local food cart that is doing the best of one thing and they’ve been doing it forever and just getting a bite of that.

Sometimes I’ll go to places where I’ll get an appetizer and then I’ll go to have a second dinner and get three things there. And then have a third dinner or a late night thing and get a snack on the street. Sometimes it’s fun not to commit to a whole restaurant. Yes. Now that is very extreme chef behavior. It’s crazy, yes. That’s at the top of the mountain.

I tell my cooks all the time, it doesn’t have to cost a lot to have a great meal. It does not. Get a $2 taco on the corner or go to a fine dining experience like I did in Mexico City. I ate at Quintanil for lunch, had a three-hour experience. And by six o’clock, I was at Maizajo getting a taco. Yes. It’s extreme, but if you’re a person that loves traveling for food, I don’t think it’s a bad itinerary at all.

Okay. No, and I’ve been to a handful of tasting menus where I needed a hot dog or a taco on the street immediately because I was still hungry when I walked out. It’s not as rare as one would think.

Tara, thank you so much for sharing your five rules for how to eat and travel like a chef on a vacation. If people want to follow along with your adventures or come check out the restaurants, where can they go?

You can visit anime on Instagram and locoque on Instagram. My username is haramonsad on Instagram as well. Come check us out. Come to San Diego. One’s in La Jolla. One’s in downtown. And I’d love to see you. And maybe I could be that person for you to talk about San Diego food. I’m sure you have the best stops. I will absolutely pick you up on that. Congrats on everything. And I hope to share a fine dining meal and a street food bite with you very soon. Looking forward to it.

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