Research on expatriate consumer behavior suggests that expatriates can be attracted to host country gastronomy, but sometimes they also suppress themselves from engaging with it. To shed light on these inconsistencies, this study draws on cross-cultural adjustment literature and social identity theory to explore under what circumstances expatriates increase their tendency to visit restaurants offering host country cuisine. To test the proposed model, a survey was conducted among 289 expatriates living in the six countries of the Greater Middle East. The data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression. The findings show that general adjustment is a positive predictor of more frequent visits to local restaurants. However, the findings also indicate that this relationship is conditioned by an expatriate’s identity projects which are associated with cultural integration, cosmopolitanism, and international experience. Overall, novel extensions to the literature that investigates an expatriate’s engagement with a host country’s food and gastronomy is provided.
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