Food and Travel

On a press trip last year to Egypt , travel agents and journalists were shown the country’s historical monuments at breakneck speed. Sphinx at 10am, run through Alexandria ’s Library at 3pm for thirty minutes. What was lunch? Gas station stop for Pringles and Coffee. Dinner? Food sitting on chaffing dishes for two hours while our local bus driver was lost in the desert where land mines used to be—scary, I might mention. At a final press meeting, I expressed the concern that the truck stop restaurants that were offering for lunches for the clients were not really Egyptian food, just mass quantity produced lunches with no quality. I was told bluntly by the director of the tour company, “It’s not about the food”. But you know what? Travel IS about the food. That is the best way to learn about a country and its culture is by tasting it. Sampling it, learning its spices and flavors through out history.

Why pick up a travel book, when you can get a cookbook that is also an adventure through a country, a cook and travel book. If the Food Network and the Travel Channel fell madly in love and made a diverse ethnic supermodel cookbook travel book it would resemble these two newest books on the market: “The Ethnic Paris Cookbook” and “The New Arabian Cuisine.”

“The Ethic Paris Cookbook” which we have mentioned previously on Bonjour Paris (because it is THAT good) guides you through the different quartiers of Paris where immigrants have landed and made their homes. Each one arriving with a bag full of tastes and treasures from their distant land. Flipping through the pages you meet people from Cameroon , Morocco and Japan all with in a few minutes and you are able to eavesdrop on their amazing tales of travel and talents of cookery. Then the best restaurants in Paris to taste these travels are listed and recipes are provided so that the reader can bring the exotic land to their own kitchen table.

“New Arabian Cuisine” takes you the souks and lets you bargain with sellers while learning about Arabic spices, countries such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon while providing you with easy to prepare recipes to bring that essence to your life, enriching the reader with travel adventures to the deserts of Arabia, bustle of Cairo, wine regions of Lebanon while in a comfortable arm chair delving into recipes and tales from the Orient. A behind the scenes with a fabulous chef in Dubai (who also worked for a Michelin Two star restaurant in France ) creating his own type of fusion cuisines. He and his three master chefs (and good friends its seems) share with you a recognizable European fare with an Arabic flare! Sushi with babajounoush, Peking Duck— Dubai style, Lamb roast in Arabic coffee crust.

The trend is Cookery books that are also travel books, I know this too well as I plow through arduously writing my own half French life/ half cookbook with a dash of spicy personal history with France and lots of travel tales in-between. At a writers block on Chapter Eight, I made a pit stop and picked up other cookery books that are also travel books. Very good ones for inspiration by world class chefs in different parts of the world that have made their mark, that create cuisines not just cook it. Chefs like Ingo Maass and Olivia Kiang-Snaije. People with a passion for cooking and for travel. Where it  IS about the food.  I had the pleasure to read, no--devour “The Ethnic Paris Cookbook” and last week while visiting Paris , test out some of the recommended restaurants. Sometimes eating two lunches a day just by my greed to sample these fabulous ethnic restaurants. Now, I am lusting over the spices of the exotic “New Arabian Cuisine” whilst I travel in my minds eye to the Arabic markets for fresh cardamom.

I wish that my hosts in Egypt last year would have understood the importance to recognize culture through cuisine and present it to our faction-- let alone their thousands of clients while giving tours the rest of the year. Many tour companies are catching on and are now offering cookery classes in their tour packages in exotic cities like Bangkok and Istanbul . Of course, there are wonderful cooking classes in Paris !

What is the old saying? “That the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” Well, it holds true for tourists and travelers the world over, the way to our hearts is through our stomachs; Teach us to fish and we will never go hungry. Teach us your cuisine and we will understand you better, we will hold you dear to our hearts, and perhaps then there will be understanding between cultures and a side of whirled peas.  

“The Ethnic Paris Cookbook” is available on Amazon.com

“New Arabian Cuisine” is available on Amazon.co.uk and  Kitchen Arts & Letters in NYC, the county’s largest purveyor of books on Food and Wine (212) 876-5550