How To Enjoy Local Flavours Without Stress Whilst Travelling
ok maybe a little anxiety, but that was more about language than food.
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On with the show…
The biggest fear I have is what I am actually going to eat when I am travelling.
Is fear the right word? Yes, but now it’s annoyance fear.
It’s just another added thing I have to consider when doing almost anything, so is the hidden challenge of food in my daily life.
Added to this, my personal dislike for processed food and not an overly fond penchant for cakes, biscuits or sweet things and that continues to create even bigger barriers if I am not very selective and careful about planning out my diet.
Except for Lotus Biscoff - they are their own food group and should be consumed with gay abandon at every given opportunity. I can’t recall, it may have been Emirates who put me on to those dastardly biscuits.
They are now purchased as regularly as eggs and milk.
But I refuse to make the layered Biscoff cheesecake complete with Biscoff Spread and fresh cream.
So far…
I have always eaten as close to the original food as I can. ie lamb chop with simple tomato and onion salad.
As I write I can see my father (who was a teacher and educator) picking tomatoes from the back yard and slicing them warm from the sun, sprinkled with the tiniest amount of brown sugar. That sugar magically turned a bland soggy brown bread sandwich into a meal to be savoured slowly, even if the crusts were left behind.
I went through the stage of only if it is a 17 step process (mis en place nightmare) can it be classified gourmet and delicious.
That simply is not true. Galicia reminded me of many things, simplicity is often best, alongside being fiercely loyal never goes out of style and dressing the part is always worth it.
I am blaming the eighties for my culinary snobbishness, that and my training as a chef (& winemaker) in French culinary cooking, it was technical but those basics mean you can whip up just about anything, and I do.
Now I know that one simple herb you have picked out of your garden elevates the darkest of food moods.
It elevates the flavour layer and mouth feel of anything.
For dinner tonight I am having the afore mentioned tomato salad with the last of the fresh basil (I pulled out all the tomato plants and old seeded herbs today - ready to plant winter crop) and I lightly panfried paper thin veal schnitzel, and small boiled potato with loads of butter and salt. I need the fats, the butter / olive oil and likely lemon juice with mayonnaise to get most of that down. (after note: I managed the salad, the “schnitzel” was like eating shoe leather so that unfortunately went in the bin).
Food waste is, if not carefully planned, very high in my kitchen for one person.
What to do when travelling.
I have spent a lot of time in Asia and only in the past few years, Europe.
I hike everywhere ( it’s a deeper experience to see everything at eye height) and that means you are very close to the food source.
Wandering through a local village at breakfast or lunch time, you hear the chickens, see the pigs, & avoid the hissing geese.
The beauty of this type of travel is that it reminds me of the simple philosophy to eating.
Even though I was away from my own kitchen, I applied the food thinking on foot.
Thankfully I discovered that Spain / Portugal and France are simple food eaters too, they spoke to my Australian backyard heart. Right down to the washing hanging on the line (Hills Hoist), gardens crammed full of spring onions, capsicum, peppers, herbs, pumpkins, silverbeet so I knew that somewhere there was going to be food I could actually consume.
Simple fare, it is close to the source.
I was delighted to discover baskets of boiled eggs on counter tops for pilgrims (the chickens are out the back) sold with tiny sachets of salt.
Eaten straight away or stowed for a mountain view snack with cafe con leche in a day or so’s time.
No packaging required.
I consume quite a bit of cream when I am home, pure cream in coffee (meal replacement often) cream on cake, pudding, stewed fruit - all food I never use to eat but now for reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems to comfort me.
This ‘dairy’ is not readily available in Europe, a lot more yoghurt tubs & solid milk replacements so learning the art of pivot is essential.
One trip I also took a powdered “creamer” with me which turned some of the not so great coffee into something I could manage to swallow palatability wise.
I had not realised just how good and advanced the coffee is here in Australia, it was unwise of me to think it was to be same in some parts of Europe.
I always scour food markets as I wander through villages, looking for whole food I might manage, they form part of a bed picnic if things get desperate. Which is why I also always travel with a Spork. I have the Asian equivalent too - a set with chop sticks, you’d be surprised how often and what you can use a single chop stick for!
I often found myself cross legged on my bed with a tin of sardines, an avocado, tiny tins of pulled tomato (tomato pulp in a tin effectively - they do so many of these in Spain - they are the bomb!) aforementioned boiled egg, supermarket mayonnaise - often carried over many many kilometres in my pack neatly tucked into a second pair of hiking boots to avoid accidental inner pack mishaps (My Dr Bronner liquid soap taught me that).
Learning key phrases in whatever language I require to explain what’s happened to me helps and has helped enormously. I go into detail so there is no misunderstanding although I think I have freaked people out - when I see eyes widen and then nine times out of ten, I get a response like “oh my Uncle has that problem too” - we land.
Being inventive and being willing to adapt to the situation you find yourself I have found is the easier and easiest way to navigate a long and short term trip overseas.
Seriously, you are not going to starve.
I missed meals some days because everything was shut, or I could not get served, or I was not catered for or - there can be many reasons.
But for the most part - I can afford to miss a calorie or two, it makes that beautifully crafted slice of lasagne you found in a remote village that much tastier.
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Eat Well.