Many of the posters on this board are in technology or a field that if you take any significant time away it can be very difficult to return to the same field. Since you are in food service, my thoughts are this would not be the case with you.
You are 32 years old and from what I can tell, with no obligations (wife, kids, etc).
You have some significant resources that, while unlikely enough for a permanent retirement, can fund a carefully planned adventure for a number of years.
Possible negative: if where you are currently employed offers substantial upward mobility in the (near) future including wage increases, you may be sacrificing some serious income. Only you know the answer to this.
Another possible negative: If you are able to carefully swing this for an extended period of time, your social security later in life will be seriously compromised, and it is possible you will need to live your elder years on an Austerity budget, and/or work until you drop. My 32 year old self had a significantly different image of my 65 year old self than my 45 year old self does currently (hope that made sense). That being said, if at 45 you start to worry about these kinds of things, there is still time to return stateside and work for 20 or so years to build up the nest egg and social security for a more secure traditional retirement.
In your position, with your apparent desires, I would probably sell all of my stateside posessions and hop a plane. I really don't see much of a downside here, as long as all my points above are accurate. Don't leave anything here to add to expenses, no storage lockers or anything.
Just be prepared to come back stateside if things don't work out. If you are willing to live like the locals in low cost areas, and you can find some work, who knows how long you could swing this. Be careful about finding work though, make sure you know, understand, and follow the local laws.
Let us know if you go for it, and please stay in touch on the board if you do. I, and likely others, would like to learn from your adventures.
Also, There are others that have done what you want to do. The first ones that come to mind are who I consider some of the pioneers of early retirement, Paul and Vicki Terhorst. They wrote a book, "Cashing in on the American Dream" somewhere in the 80s. Also, Bill and Akaisha Kaderli. Both of these couples make some money off of writing articles and blogs, but you might check them out, as they've both been doing the expat thing for a long time.
Good luck!
-Pan
