Travel Turtle

I have been making new international recipes as part of the self-imposed projects associated with my new blog. It’s a lot of fun. So far, I’ve tried Hungarian Goulash, Chicken Paprika, Butter Cookies, Feijoada, and two types of Meat Pies. Quite a feat considering it’s only January 23.

I love trying new recipes, especially international recipes. I was thinking about food and travel (if you knew how often I thought about food and travel you’d wonder how I ever get anything done… the secret? I don’t get anything done!) Then I started thinking about the flavors of a place.

Each place has a distinct flavor. There are cooking methods used in one part of the world, that don’t exist in other parts of the world. There are herbs and spices that are always part of the local chefs repertoire that they can’t imagine making a dish without it, and other parts of the world that have never even heard of those flavors.

This all fascinates me. I’m a culture-geek in that I love to see how language grew and moved through the world. I love to see how flavors and dishes define a place, and how these flavors are now fused together. The internet can only give you so much information about a place. You can read and look at pictures all day long (believe me, I do this), but nothing gives you that sensation of “wow… this is different” like food does. The taste, the smell… the internet can’t give you that. Even dining at a local ethnic restaurant can’t do that for you. Getting down and dirty, finding the ingredients and putting time into creating a dish, it’s about as close to magic as I can imagine. It connects you through time and space the way no book will ever be able to.

So, I’m collecting recipes. If you have any, let me know!