FOOD SHERPAS guide the culinary curious!

You know it’s there. You’ve seen it on TV. You’ve devoured a few blog posts about it.

Maybe it’s that spot in Rome where clandestine tables are set up in an alley and a neighborhood feast comes together beneath the honeyed glow of street lamps. Maybe it’s that tiny shop in a parking lot in Penang that sells the sublime coconut tarts, or the unglamorous strip mall in Los Angeles where Anthony Bourdain once sweated over a bowl of spicy Thai boat noodles.

If there’s one thing you’ve learned from watching all those shows with Mr. Bourdain, the voracious world traveler, it’s that these out-of-the-way treasures do exist. You, too, can eat there.

The only catch? You may need a little help.

It’s that line of thinking that explains the rise, over the last few years, of a new kind of travel specialist — so new, in fact, that they haven’t coined a name for the job. For now, let’s call them the food sherpas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/dining/food-sherpas-guide-you-to-a-citys-culinary-secrets.html?hp