Travel to Eat

Some people live to eat, others eat to live. I fall into the first category. I'm not ashamed of that, though it has led me to fight the Battle of the Bulge forever. It has also led me on numerous adventures and modified my sensibilities as to what, exactly, constitutes food around the world. Traveling and eating are two activities I dearly love. If I could figure out a way, I would eat to travel!!

As a kid, there was a long list of foods I hated and hated to smell cooking. Liver was #1 and still is. I don't ever eat it and can't even be in a house where it's cooking. The odor is worse than cigar smoke.

In Turkey people have gardens on their roofs,
in courtyards.....wherever the sun shines.  

Other items on the hate list included raw onions, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, tongue, and lamb. As taste buds mature, certain foods still taste the same but for some strange reason are no longer repulsive. A gourmand friend caramelized a variety of cruciferous vegetables together with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, some nuts and onions. I was blown away; Brussels sprouts came down off the hate list. Slow exposure to lamb in Indian and middle eastern cooking has brought lamb off the list, but it's still gross if it's gamy. Tongue is palatable, but it and liver both have a wet-powder texture I've never gotten used to. And recently, while visiting Aylin's family in Akyurt, her mother made an eggplant dish that was so good I thought I might faint. In fact, it's called Imam Bayildy which means "the priest fainted". One legend is that it was so delicious he just keeled over. But the opposite legend is that when his wife served it, he asked how much (expensive) olive oil she used. When she told him.....he fainted!

The Turks claim to have a hundred ways to cook eggplant and judging from the myriad dishes I ate in Turkey, I agree. It's probably safe to say it's their national vegetable. It's served hot, cold, mixed with other vegetables, pureed, chopped, sauteed, deep fried, breaded and fried, baked, broiled, and stuffed.

It wouldn't be proper to travel half way round the world to eat something easily prepared at home, and then never bother to cook it.  So although this is not a cooking blog, if you want to try to make fabulous eggplant, here's a good recipe from the cookbook Arabesque by Claudia Roden.


Eggplants stuffed with onions and tomatoes: Imam Bayildy

1 1/2 large onions, sliced thinly
2-3 T extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 T flat leaf parsley, chopped
salt to taste

6 small eggplants (about 4 to 4 1/2 ounces each, 5 1/2 inches long)
1 cup good quality tomato juice
1 t. sugar
salt
juice of one lemon
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Make the filling first. Soften the sliced onions gently in the oil but do not let them color. Add the chopped garlic and stir for a moment or two until the aroma rises. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the tomatoes and the chopped parsley. Season to taste with salt and mix well.

Trim the caps from the ends of the eggplants. Peel off 1/3 inch wide strips of skin lengthwise, leaving alternate strips of peel and bare flesh. Make a deep cut on one side of each eggplant lengthwise, from one end to the other but not right through, in order to make a pocket.

Stuff the pocket of each eggplant with the filing and place them tightly side by side, with the opening face up, in a wide shallow pan. Mix the tomato juice with the sugar, salt, and the lemon juice. Pour this and the oil over the eggplants. Cover the pan and simmer gently for about 45 minutes or until the eggplants are soft and the liquid much reduced.

Alternatively you can cook the stuffed eggplants in the oven. Arrange them, cut side up in a baking dish, with the rest of the ingredients poured over, cover with foil and cook in the oven preheated to 400 degrees F for one hour or until soft. Allow to cool before arranging on a serving dish.

(If you like this, consider buying Claudia Roden's cookbook, it's loaded with great recipes from Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon, all wonderful!)

Tocino del Cielo, Sky Bacon

Beautiful translucent Bacon from Heaven.

More foodie fun in Spain: Sky Bacon.  That's what the translator calls it, but it translates literally as Bacon from Heaven. After all, it was invented by a group of nuns in the Jerez region of Spain, when they needed to use up the tremendous amount of egg yolks left over when the whites were used for clarifying wine. The brownish color comes from caramelized sugar. This dessert was invented in the mid 1300's and may have been the forerunner of the famous Spanish dessert flan. Little dishes of Tocino del Cielo are found all over in practically every bakery, alongside beautifully decorated cookies, cakes and other pastries. Surprisingly, very few Spaniards are overweight. I'm not sure how they manage to have so many bakeries (obviously a good business to own) and still be svelte.

Onions and Garlic, Cooking on the Road

When I started traveling in earnest, I wanted to cook on the road to save money, and eat the way I should eat, without any grains. Now few people in the world can imagine a food-life without grains, I'm no exception. It's doubly hard on the road as nearly every bite of street food has either corn or wheat in some form of bread making it easier to eat. Tacos, hotdogs, cuernitas (pastry horns with pudding), cookies, snacks of every kind.....are all off the list.

So out of necessity I've discovered a few things about long term travel and cooking.

1. Tools: There are no good knives on the road. Doesn't matter if you stay in a hostel, with friends, or rent a vacation home, the knifes suck. I can't believe the number of people who think a steak knife is fine for cutting. One wrong move and a serrated knife, slipping off a carrot, will cut your fingertip off. The solution? Bring a sharp paring knife by a good manufacturer like Henkle, and a small hand held knife sharpener. A simple cover made out of cereal box cardboard and tape will suffice to keep the knife safe.

2. Preparation: Most cutting boards in the real world are wooden, chopped up, and probably crawling with the worst kinds of rotting meat germs. I carry a small plastic one that's thick enough not to slide around, and a thin super absorbent towel that dries quickly and is perfect for all kinds of cleanup. Small bottles of biodegradable camp soap and disinfectant for produce are good to have on hand.

3. Spices are abundant in every country, but it's tough to buy 1/4 ounce unless you can find a spice shop. Most come in largish packets and by the time you've accumulated nine or ten spices, you're out of space to carry it all. REI and other outdoor stores sell a backpacking kitchen, with salt and pepper shakers, and tiny containers for spices that zip up nicely in a little bag. Load up before you leave home with your favorites. Mine are cumin, garlic powder, basil, oregano, cardamom, cinnamon, and hing (an Indian spice made from the sap of a tree, super powerful and excellent with eggs and potatoes). I also carry cubes of different boullions. Knorr makes chipotle, herb, vegetarian, and tomato in addition to the standard beef and chicken.

4. Meals: Lots of people like to eat breakfast out. In some countries like Mexico, breakfast is eaten around 10:00 which is too late for me. Plus in many cultures breakfast is mainly breads and pastries.  When I set up a kitchen in a new place I buy garlic, onions, potatoes, cheese, and whatever other vegetables and fruits look good in the market. Almost everywhere you can buy a roasted chicken. So I usually get one of those, and a couple cans of garbanzo beans or refried beans. Then I'm set for a few days. I save the skin and bones from the chicken to boil with carrots, onions and potatoes for soup, which is also quite good for a quick breakfast.

5. Other stuff: It seems like most places I've stayed have plastic zip lock bags and maybe plastic wrap. I usually purchase a few storage containers for leftovers, as I almost always travel by myself. I also don't mind purchasing a spatula, slotted spoon, tongs, and other utensils if I'm going to be staying in a place for a month or more. For a six month stay in Mexico, I even bought a blender.  I've left some fairly well stocked kitchens in my wake.

6. The fun stuff: Cooking school!! In places famous for their cuisines, like Oaxaca, Mexico, there are cooking schools, culinary shops, and even people serving incredible street food who are happy to talk to you about their creations. In San Cristobal, I became friends with a woman who owned a small restaurant. She showed me how to make Mole Verde. I can make it at home some day, after I find the seeds and grow the secret ingredient, an herb called Epazote.

Long term, and round the world travel means keeping possessions at a minimum. Many people like to try every restaurant, but after a while, a nice home cooked meal is more satisfying. For fans of weird flavors of ice cream, like me, eating at home means saving calories so there's room for the cool stuff.

Peppers in the market.....
these turned out exceptionally
HOT!