Sharing meals is something people have enjoyed for generations. Neighbors, colleagues, and classmates are just some examples of groups that gather around freshly prepared food to enjoy it together. However, now the meal-sharing concept has gone to a new level and it’s impacting the way local people and visitors alike get together over good food and enjoy unique bonding experiences.
A Way to Help Travelers Eat Healthily
When people are away from home, they often feel excited about trying the local cuisine. However, doing so can often be overwhelming and costly, especially if they don’t have an easy-going resident willing to offer suggestions about dishes to try.
Fortunately, meal-sharing apps fill the gap between visitors and locals by connecting them for the purpose of enjoying food together. Feastly and EatWith are two such apps, and they allow people the privilege of eating home-cooked meals with host families, either alone, or with other travelers.
It’s easy to see why these unconventional dining options help people eat well when they’re in foreign places. There’s often a lot of trial and error that occurs if people try the local cuisine without help. Some of them may feel so burdened by the task that they ultimately get meals from the nearest fast food chain, especially if things are even more challenging because the menu’s in a different language.
Meal Sharing Apps Make It Easy to Eat Well
There are many cases where people would love to dine with locals when they’re traveling, but feel the logistics involved in doing so are too tricky. Perhaps that was the case in the past, but the apps like those mentioned above have become so popular, they remove all the guesswork and doubt. If interested, all you have to do is choose the kind of cuisine you want, then get ready to enjoy a delicious meal.
Enjoy a Memorable Experience
Although specifics vary depending on the type of meal experience you choose, the dining generally occurs in the home of the person who cooked your food. You might enjoy great views, lively conversations, or even company from your host’s pet while devouring the meal. All these characteristics combine to result in an experience that you almost certainly wouldn’t get elsewhere, even by choosing the most exclusive restaurant in the city.
Sharing Meals for Worthy Causes
There’s also another reason people eat meals in communal settings, and that’s to support good causes. You can find charity dinners in almost every major city throughout the United States. If you’re someone who has a generous heart by nature and are a self-confessed foodie, these events are a great way to combine two of your most cherished characteristics.
Besides allowing you to enjoy delicious meals that are cooked for a good cause, they also make it easy to support causes that have personal significance. For example, maybe your mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last year and you want to go to a charity dinner where the proceeds support ongoing research for that disease.
These dinners also tend to provide excellent networking opportunities. You’ll usually get the chance to meet like-minded people and possibly make connections that benefit you for the rest of your life.
Personally Contributing to the Meal Sharing Trend
Although charity dinners are certainly not a new type of event, the type of meal sharing discussed earlier is representative of a fresh way for people to dig into carefully prepared meals. If you’d like to participate by making meals to share with individuals who may become some of your closest friends, it’s a good idea to create a menu that includes some of your tried-and-true favorites, plus items you’ve begun cooking more recently.
If you need inspiration for some new things to cook, look no further than the HamptonCreek Facebook page. Browse through the tasty, easy-to-make recipes and feel ready to invite your next guests’ to dinner.
Although people have enjoyed meals together throughout the ages, we’ve just looked in detail at some of the ways people can feast on food to treat themselves to wholly new experiences while they travel (or even just get better acquainted with local things to eat in their towns), or dine well for charitable causes. Consider doing one or both of these things to delight your taste buds.