Traveling Food Dude Adam Vosding talks snacking, traveling adventures

FoodSided had the chance to chat with the Traveling Food Dude about his adventures across the country, seeing new places and munching delicious food.

Adam Vosding, better known as the Traveling Food Dude, is a blogger and a huge sports fan, particularly of Florida Gators football, Tampa Bay Rays baseball and Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, who travels around the nation seeing as many games as he can with his dog, a Labrador mix named Holland.

Along the way, he’s been sure to sample interesting items from a variety of places, everywhere from barbecue at an Arrowhead Stadium tailgate to local seafood in the southern Florida area.

Growing up in Ontario, Canada before moving to Florida when he was 12, he’s worked in a variety of roles within the food industry, including working for two decades for the Publix grocery store chain, which led to an interest in traveling internationally, even visiting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

We had a chance to chat with him earlier this week to hear about the latest adventures.

FoodSided: How did you get the idea to start adventuring around the country (and the world) and documenting your travels?

Traveling Food Dude: A friend of mine posted on Facebook about asking for a “guinea pig” to help give her feedback on a course she was going to create on how to start a blog. I saw the post and it caught my interest and after a few lunches and coffees with her, my eyes had opened to the world of blogging and learning that you could possibly turn it into a career so I was hooked and with the support of my family I made the decision to spend some time giving it a shot.

It has now been over a year and a half since I took a break from the corporate world and I have loved all the traveling and hope I can keep it going! I’m in the infancy of launching my website and YouTube channel and will be creating a YouTube series of all my travels over the past 18 months (and maybe even some past travels) to showcase my journey.

Have you always been an adventurous eater, or is that something that came gradually? 

I was a very picky eater as a child. It wasn’t until college when I became more adventurous and on my first big trip overseas to Singapore and Malaysia I really started to realize that food was a great way to experience a new place. Not only just overseas, but within our own country as well. There is so much diversity in the cuisine around the USA. It’s fun to learn about the food from different regions and share my discoveries with my followers. I have found festivals and farmer’s markets are a great way to learn about local food.

What’s the strangest food you’ve come across on your travels so far? 

I’ve seen a lot of strange things, especially in Asia. The two craziest things I have tried (and won’t try again) have been chicken intestines and Rocky Mountain oysters. I don’t get a big rush trying crazy things like that, but sometimes it’s hard for me to say no to something when it’s offered to me. Sometimes you just have to be polite and go with the flow I guess!