It's a surprising—and delectable—way to ingratiate yourself in any place's culture.

I didn't intend to consume so many potato chips when I went to France earlier this summer.

Before the trip, I pictured the jambon-beurre sandwiches, choux à la crème, croissants, and other foods I had never heard of or had never had. And boy, did I appreciate every last one of those treats. However, a bag of Lay's Poulet Rôti grabbed my eye in a Relay! convenience store as I was waiting to board a flight back to the United States, and I couldn't help but wonder, why not? What's another bag worth? I eagerly paid for the roast chicken-flavored chips after that and began munching on them as I waited to catch my aircraft back to New York.

Why do I keep coming back to this particular snack food in France (made by an American company, no less)? I pondered that while in line for the register, and I still do. I believe it's a mix of fantasy and nostalgia. When I buy at a French supermarket, I act as though my visit isn't transient, even if only for the few seconds that pass between looking through the aisles and leaving through the automatic doors. And for that reason, whenever I travel, I always stop by a few local chain stores and a few supermarkets.

Not to worry. When I travel, I still go to the hip restaurants that my friends, social media, and, of course, magazines tell me I must try, but my heart belongs to the supermarkets and neighborhood chains.

On a family vacation to Philadelphia in high school, it all started. I persuaded my folks to make a pit stop at a Wawa convenience shop since I'd heard good things about the brand from a Tumblr blogger and wanted to taste the coffee. I had romanticized the concept of such a vast menu (coffee, hot hoagies, milkshakes!) from a location where you could also pump your gas because I am from southern California. At the time, I never even considered the possibility that the fast food restaurant from my hometown, In-N-Out Burger, might attract tourists.

The list continues: On a trip to Montreal, Tim Horton's was a must, and Dutch Bros was a required rest stop on an Oregon road trip a few years ago. The experience of getting my morning coffee or grabbing snacks from a restaurant where thousands of locals do so every day is what finally makes me feel engaged in a region. It almost doesn't matter if the cuisine is delicious, although it surely helps. Why should you make the effort to stop by a local business when you're traveling? Let me list them all.

You'll come across delectable meals that could end up being your favorite souvenirs.

During the aforementioned France trip, my partner and I were looking for a few snacks when we went into a supermarket in Paris one late afternoon. We knew it wouldn't be time for dinner until at least 9 p.m.

I saw the Poulet Rôti chips right away. On a previous vacation, my brother and I had bought them almost as a joke, but we later realized they were really good. They don't taste like chicken; rather, they have a flavorful blend of herbs and a lot of salt.

This time, anytime we passed a Carrefour or Monoprix, we would quickly pull over to buy some chips because they were frequently a much-needed snack in between meals, sightseeing, and antique shopping. They became such a standard that on our final evening in Paris, we grabbed a bottle of wine and the Poulet Rôti taste once again and sat along the Canal Saint-Martin, enjoying the unabashedly French snack as much as our canal vista.

You'll gain a true understanding of the native culture of a place.

I grabbed the chips without thinking as we strolled the market aisles on our first day in Paris. In contrast, I observed other customers (probably Parisians) buy boxes of biscuits, glass bottles of juice, chunks of cheese, and fresh produce while daydreaming about the meals they would prepare when they got back to their stylish Parisian flats. They are frequently seen returning to stylish Parisian apartments in this supermarket daydream.

Like I do at home, they were gathering ingredients to make dinner, feed their children, or bake a dessert to present to a party. However, being able to see, touch, and smell their regional ingredients gives you a window into local life that you can't get from merely wandering the streets or going to museums.

When I asked a few friends if they had a similar obsession with going to grocery stores while traveling, I was surprised to find that many did. One acquaintance talked about how she grew to love Jaffa Cakes and Hob Nobs while living in London, and how these treats were so closely associated with her memories of that city. One even went so far as to claim that her mother took her to neighborhood food stores "basically everywhere we traveled" when she was a child.

You'll have the motivation to go back (and a mission when you get home).
 

Naturally, I quickly checked to see if I could purchase Lay's Poulet Rôti chips in New York. I initially had no success. I came across Reddit posts, Tweets, and more internet discussion than you'd think a basic potato chip could generate. And while it is feasible to order them online from a third-party seller, doing so would probably put your sanity (as well as the safety of the food) at risk.

To counter this, some companies, like SnackCrate, offer international snack subscription boxes, facilitating access to exotic foods for both visitors seeking to relive their favorite vacations and people seeking a flavor of a home if they've relocated far away. These travel-discovered foods' elusiveness may add to their charm; you must savor them now in the hopes that you'll eventually return and indulge in their salty, slightly chicken-like goodness once more.

I would advise fitting a supermarket or convenience store in between those tourist excursions, museums, and Michelin-starred restaurants even if it might not be your next trip's first stop. You'll develop an appreciation for foods and ingredients that you wouldn't be able to find at home, as well as a window into living in another location, whether it's abroad or just across the county. You might even discover your new favorite potato chip flavor.