I’d like to give some background to the opening photo collage of my
first post. It collates some, but not all, of my food photos from meals
past. From Mexico, to Japan, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Hanoi,
Beijing, Paris, New York and Wellington, New Zealand - this celebrates a
handful of sites where I have enjoyed both great and not-so-great food.
While I hope that I will encounter nothing but the best, I have on
occasion found myself making bad food decisions after following dated
advice or wisdom from those who don’t share the same cravings as myself.
One such regretful breakfast was at Mama’s SF in, you guessed
it, San Francisco. A spot renowned for its breakfasts, I had seen this name pop up in many San Francisco guides so
thought it was a must-do. After waiting in line for over an hour,
during which I remembered I wasn’t big on ‘traditional’ breakfasts, I
hoped to find something tantalisingly savoury on the menu. For whatever reason, I chose the blueberry pancakes. Bad decision. Long story short: Lively
vibe, okay pancakes, standoffish service and a
feeling that they want you eaten and out asap. After all, there are 50
people waiting outside. I wouldn’t recommend it. But I’m learning.
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| Mama's SF blueberry pancakes, San Francisco |
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| Pho Bo, Hanoi, Vietnam |
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| Green tea soba noodles and tempura vegetables, Shizuoka, Japan |
Epicurious tourists live by the common adage that you don’t know a place
until you eat with the locals and on every trip I learn again and again
that it’s certainly true. The character of the food often parallel’s
aspects of a region’s culture and this is what I find so enthralling
about travelling by eating. For example, I found that Mexico is a place
of flavours over texture whilst Japan is pure and fresh or an
adaptation of foreign cuisine. Hanoi has bite, kick and lively hits
while Paris is a stronghold of tradition and best enjoyed with another
(there are too many petite bites that one could possibly consume on your
own).
Observations easily equatable to an understanding of place, I
feel.
Perhaps less exciting than the there-and-then, the unarguable experience
of authentic flavours means it’s easier to attempt their recreation at
home. Of course, Google and region-specific cookbooks help jog the
memory or unlock key combinations as well, and this is something that I
love. The ability to allude to those memories of travels past by eating
and tasting the same flavours as you did when… sitting low to the
ground on a plastic chair, under a makeshift blue tarpaulin roof
opposite locals as you slurped up a pho bo (Vietnamese beef
noodle soup) made zingy by a squeeze of lime, and spicy with a big
spoonful of chilli sauce swirled into the rich clear broth; or, sitting
outside the Musee d’Orsay amongst hungry pigeons and chatty teenagers,
while loading a baguette tradicional with terrine de canard
(duck) and a local Camembert cheese the guy at the deli recommended,
and chomping into it as bread crumbs dropped inevitably to the ground.
I'm constantly awaiting the next opportunity to either recreate the
memories or create new ones to be remembered in future meals. Hopefully
I won’t have long to wait. In fact, tonight I will be visiting a local
Japanese restaurant where I’ll hope to be brought back by the chimes of
“irrashaimase” (“welcome, please come in”) by the restaurant staff to all of my experiences of dining in Japan.
