Some of the best memories I have from college happened in restaurants. I’ve always loved food and going out to eat, but I’ve never put any attention to everything that comes around being seated for a few hours with anyone else. I was born in Guadalajara, but moved to Colima (two hours southwest of Guadalajara) and lived with my mom there for more than 10 years. When I turned 18 I moved back to Guadalajara to study Journalism and Communication, I knew some people but my father always introduced me to new fellas every time we went out to have lunch.
My father and I went to eat out at least three times a week for about two years, sometimes with his colleagues, other times for business meetings or just the two of us talking about life, football and what I wanted to do in the future. I guess I’m writing this post in that “future”.
I always said yes to my dad’s invitations because I liked having a good meal for free, then it started to change, I started taking advantage of my situation. I happened to pay attention to everything that was happening around us, music, service, decoration and how food can settle job deals, dates, making new friends of maybe meeting a new partner. I started taking pictures of my plates and reviewing the restaurants in a blog I made, it didn’t become viral but my friends surely noticed. Flash forward four years and anytime they’re on a date, want to go with their parents or just grab a beer with their peers they ask me to recommend a new place to them.
Google Maps helped me in this process. In the blink of an eye, I’ve been to dozens of restaurants and I kind of forgot some of them, so I created a map with categories to share with my friends whenever they felt to explore something new. I had hundreds of pictures stuck in my phone, one day I started to upload them to Maps and to my surprise they had hundreds of thousands of views, I got hooked and tried to take better snaps and edit the photos so anyone in the world could see them.
When I travel, the food part of it is one of the most important factors in the country or city I choose to visit. I remember one time during the European Championship in 2016 I was in Rome with two friends watching a game between Portugal and Croatia, next to us was a family that was also speaking in Spanish, a few minutes later we joined our tables and started chatting about football, life in our countries and much more. They were from Panama. One day I met a Colombian general and his family while having dinner in Brussels, everything happened in a restaurant.
I have had many awesome experiences that couldn’t have happened if I just settled for the joint next to the hostel, the reviews, photos and locals’ points of view helped me. There was a time where I wanted to try the best gyros in Budapest and I strolled through the city in the early morning with some locals, I had to share it to the world, would be much harder without Maps.
In my home town of Guadalajara, I crave going to new places and share them with my friends. Eating is a physiological activity, but enjoying and sharing the experience is a social and empowering venture. Some of the best days of my life started or ended having an epic meal with people I love. Food is powerful, it’s a door to another culture and a link between soon to be friends.
