Food is an essential part of how I experience a place.  I want to taste everything.  I'm a terrible kitchen snoop, the first thing I do in someone else's house (honestly I don't even notice i'm doing it, it's embarrassing) is throw open all their cabinets and inspect what they have.  I think it is such fascinating way to see how food habits are different from place to place, family to family, and culture to culture.  There is nothing I love more than learning a recipe from someone and learning its story while they cook.