We’re all a little too preoccupied with the quest for the best — the best cheesesteak, the best taco, the best new restaurant. Chef David Chang’s solution: “Throw away your phone. I mean, really what’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen? You’re gonna go hungry? No, you’re gonna eat something.” It won’t always be delicious, he says, but you’ll learn something if you “trust your own gut, literally.” “Eating the best of the best of the best may not actually make the best experience,” says Chang, who founded his Momofuku empire in 2004 with a noodle bar in New York’s East Village and now has restaurants in Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas. In a world where “best of” lists drive clicks and sell publications, the natural urge to follow the arbiters of taste — plenty of whom “don’t know anything,” he says — is getting in the way of discovery. And Chang is guilty of it himself. Less following and more exploring is what his new show “The Detour with David Chang” is all about. The CNN Original Series, which premieres Sunday, takes viewers along with Chang on six U.S. road trips with stops in cities including Las Vegas, Nashville and Pittsburgh. He’s joined on the road by a variety of guests who all have the power to blow up the plan. And along the way, Chang visits some places where he’s spent plenty of time, like Vegas, home to Momofuku and Bāng Bar in the Cosmopolitan, but still makes unexpected discoveries. “It was a good reminder that I don’t know anything,” Chang said of the Vegas trip, where he and Oscar-winning filmmaker Cord Jefferson sampled Hawaiian, Ethiopian and Filipino flavors way beyond The Strip. And it’s a reminder that applies more broadly to a culture that’s suffering from information overload. “It’s OK if we don’t know. We just need to be more honest about saying we don’t know something” — instead of assuming that we know a culture or place, says Chang, who’s also an author. CNN Travel spoke with Chang about the biggest mistakes travelers make when it comes to food and the lessons he’s learned from his own adventures. Preparation requires calibration We all tend to be either under- or over-prepared, Chang says. Being over-prepared can mean looking at too many lists and posts and giving what other people say too much weight. “Just question the source,” Chang urges. “And not to say that it’s wrong, but why would you assume that the likes and dislikes of an individual are going to match what you like? And the problem is, because we’re not questioning that, everyone’s liking the same thing.” Watch out for plans “where everything is written in stone.” Chang and the show’s producers wound up taking a sharp turn off their itinerary in South Florida where they had hotels and logistics mapped out in advance because Chang’s companion, comedian Eric André, had other ideas. “Eric André was like, ‘What do you mean we’re not going to Miami? We’re going to Miami’ … That was a surprise, for sure. Like we had no plan, at all, to be in that city. And it was a lot of fun. I’m glad that we did,” he said. But prep has its place. “Thinking that everything’s going to come your way,” he says, without making any plans, doesn’t usually work out especially well either. Consensus is overrated Chang likes to argue — with friends, over food. And he’s a fan of niche experiences. “I look at restaurants more as like community or cultural banks, right? And there’s a little bit for everybody, but when a restaurant has to be everything to everyone, that’s not necessarily going to work. Works for some, right? “But it’s nice to have restaurants that are sort of like a niche film or a niche album,” he says. And there’s more to it than food. “It’s about time and place,” Chang says. “What are you in the mood for? How far are you away from this? … When we make this, sort of this monolithic thing of like, ‘It has to be these five places and everything else is not that,’” it’s limiting. Ask yourself: “‘What is good to you?’ Screw everything else.” Chang admits to becoming “calcified” in what he likes, particularly when it comes to music. But listening more closely has helped. “That sense of discovery again in music is something that I find to be sort of crucial for me to be happy — to be inquisitive, to be curious. And I think food can be the same way,” he said. Gas stations can tell you a lot To that end, open your mind to gas station dining. “My good friend Little Meg in Japan, she says the best way to judge a food culture is not by the best restaurants, but it’s by the places that are not quote unquote, ‘the best,’ convenience stores, cheap eats, etc. And that’s what I like.” So go forth and sample. “What better way to know than to get what looks like a dodgy sandwich, but maybe it’s not, you know?” says Chang. In places like Japan and Italy, gas station food is “tremendous,” he says, and he expects other places will follow. “For someone that’s not overly optimistic on a lot of things, I’m optimistic that food will be delicious in places you least expect it, because it has to.” Being in the moment goes a long way Chang has had the luxury of eating in the world’s greatest restaurants. “I’ve probably eaten better than most kings and queens in the history of the world. And I don’t think that’s something that should ever happen, right? And when I travel, I wanna remind myself … just be grateful that you’re there, to be present.” Not every experience has to be superlative. Take Chang’s trip to France with his wife last year. “We went out to eat. I didn’t force myself to have the greatest baguette or ‘I have to go here’ … I think we had more food at museum cafes than not. It was fine. You know, fine is completely overlooked,” he said with a laugh. “You know, having ‘fine’ is pretty remarkable in and of itself.” Marnie Hunter, CNN
