The Traveler's Lunchbox

Balkan Beauty

2008-05-02T22:03:49Z

Oh, you guys are good. I figured a few of you might get it, but so many? Well, I hope there was at least a little head-scratching required. Greece was certainly a good guess, but according to Wikipedia only shares land borders with four countries, not five. Also, I sneakily added that last clue about never having eaten the country's cuisine before, which you'd know isn't the case for Greece if you'd read this story I posted last September about our brush with death in the Samaria Gorge on Crete. ;)

Back Soon...

2008-04-15T18:36:36Z

Zen and the Art of Mandarin Jam

2008-04-10T13:28:13Z

I always assumed the first signs of age I would show would be physical: a laugh line here, a spot of gray there, perhaps some slight confusion between the letters 'F' and 'P' on the eye chart at the doctor's office. Never in a million years would I have believed you if you told me my lust for adventure - my insatiable need for 'new' - would be the first thing to go, and never in a trillion gazillion years would I have even listened to the end of your sentence if you'd dropped the word 'food' in there too. But the signs are becoming hard to ignore. Just yesterday, for example, I realized that I've eaten the same thing for lunch every day for the past twenty-three - count 'em, twenty-three - days. Not more or less the same thing, exactly the same thing: the same ham and cheddar on the same toasted pita with the same tomato chutney, avocado and mayo. And you know what's worse? I'm not even tired of it yet. Oh dear, just admitting that makes me blush.

Buckwheat Takes the Cake

2008-03-28T16:50:12Z

I can't believe how delinquent I've been. Yes, yes, I know I've never been the most, ahem, prolific of posters but I've certainly never done this to you before. You see, as of today, this recipe has been sitting on my computer - tried, tweaked and photographed - for nearly six weeks. Six weeks and I'm only posting it now, can you believe it? Under normal circumstances I might take that as a sign that maybe the recipe isn't that good after all and I've just been looking for excuses not to publish it, but I can assure you that's definitely not the case here. In fact, I made it again last night just to confirm. Or at least that's how I justified making it for a fourth time, but really, I would have taken any excuse I could find.

5 Things to Love about Calabria

2008-03-09T12:45:26Z

My article deadline is looming, but I wanted to share a few impressions of Calabria while they're still fresh. I don't normally have the opportunity to take photos on these assignments, but for the first time I wasn't traveling with a photographer and so didn't feel completely ridiculous whipping out my own camera! A few words about the place: Calabria, in case you don't know, is the region at the 'toe' of the Italian boot and was historically one of the poorest regions of Italy. Today it's most famous for two things - one, for being the ancestral home of millions of immigrants abroad, particularly in North America, and two, for the 'Ndrangeta, one of the richest and most ruthless mafias in the world. If you ask me, though, what it should rather be famous for is being a friendly, beautiful, fascinating and extremely delicious land - and one I would not hesitate to return to in a heartbeat.

In no particular order, here are five of the things I loved most.

The Little Black Dress of Dinner

2008-02-22T16:19:22Z

Anyone who purports to know even a little about fashion knows that the one indispensable item in any woman's wardrobe is the little black dress. It's elegant, it's sophisticated, it's perfect for any occasion, and most importantly, you don't have to think about it; you just throw it on and you're dressed for anything, regardless of which way the fickle winds of fashion happen to be blowing the rest of your attire.

As Long as There's Chocolate...

2008-02-14T14:27:48Z

Goodness me, what is this? A Valentine's Day post?? Chez moi???

I know you were probably in too much of a chocolate-induced coma to notice, but both last year and the year before I did something pretty sneaky: I put a post up the day after Valentine's and acted as if the holiday had never even happened. I certainly didn't assault you with ideas for luscious last-minute Valentine's Day desserts and I definitely didn't put up photos in shades of pink and red so that even if I changed my mind at the last minute and tried to ignore the whole thing everybody would see right through it and know the truth. So why start now?

Tigres to the Rescue

2008-02-07T14:33:30Z

In all honesty, I never expected to be bringing you this recipe. Well, certainly not now at any rate, when six weeks into your New Year's resolutions (and mine - don't remind me!) the last thing you need is a recipe instructing you to dust off the deep-fryer and plunge something béchamel-filled and crumb-coated inside.

Broccoli, Redeemed

2008-01-23T12:04:10Z

In the perfect universe that runs parallel to our own, I am an equal-opportunity eater. I enjoy lentils just as much as chocolate cake, will happily consume everything from chitterlings to gastropods with relish, and welcome any form of vegetable matter on my plate with the kind of joy usually reserved for finding forgotten banknotes in my pocket. And of course, the last thing I would ever do is risk losing my card-carrying status among the gastronomically-enlightened by not liking something.

Chorizo-Chestnut Soup, No D-Word in Sight

2008-01-15T18:12:35Z

Oof, it's been a while, hasn't it? I mean, the new year has been around long enough by now that I don't even catch myself scrawling a 7 where there should be an 8. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have left you with a tale of food poisoning before going AWOL, but worry not, the two have nothing to do with each other. What I should have done was hang a 'closed for maintenance' sign up here for the first couple weeks of January - not site maintenance, mind you, but self maintenance. Yes, it's true: as much as I loathe the whole if-it's-January-it-must-be-time-to-suffer bandwagon, it seems I never can resist buying a ticket and hopping on. I mean, every yin has its yang, right? And to counter our holiday yin, whose highlights this year included meter-long bratwursts, zwiebelkuchen, glühwein, raclette, fondue, daily breakfasts of croissants piled high with every kind of meat, cheese and jam under the sun, mid-afternoon trysts with coffee and cake, and near-nightly 'snacks' of Turkish lahmacun and döner kebabs in the early hours after yet another alcohol-fueled reunion with long-lost friends, there now exists a drastic need for some yang. I haven't even mustered the courage to step on the scale yet, though in light of the howls of despair that emanated from the bathroom when Manuel did, I think that's probably for the best.

What They Don't Teach in Foodwriting 101 (and Finally, a Fruitcake to Love)

2007-12-20T22:54:33Z

(There's only one day left of our Menu for Hope drive and still hundreds of prizes with very few bids. Come on, let's break $60,000 this year! Click here to see the complete prize list and here to go directly to the donation page. And if you're still on the fence about what to bid on, might I suggest these fabulous Moro cookbooks? :) It sounds like a dream job, doesn't it? Jetting off to exotic places, being plied with endless food and drink on someone else's dime, being able to say to yourself you know, I really shouldn't have that third helping of _____ (insert name of some fat- or sugar-laden local specialty), but what the heck, it's my job! Sure you have to put some words down on paper about the whole thing when it's over, but that's a small price to pay for a job that never actually feels like work while you're doing it, right?

Pure Dessert: Q&A with Alice Medrich

2007-12-13T14:30:44Z

She's known in many circles as the "First Lady of Chocolate", and if you have even a passing interest in the stuff you probably know the name well. Alice Medrich is, of course, the founder of the legendary Berkeley, California patisserie Cocolat (which I've previously written about here), and the best-selling author of cookbooks such as Cocolat, Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Desserts, and Bittersweet. It's her most recent release, however, that seems to be taking the world by storm. Pure Dessert, published last September by Artisan, is Medrich's first book not centered on the theme of chocolate, and it features none of the dramatic, complex creations that made her famous. Instead, it's about dessert in its most basic, fundamental form, and specifically, how we can use ingredients like different flours, sugars, dairy products and aromatics to create things that are as elegant as they are simple. I was so intrigued by the concept - and in love with the results - that I asked Alice if she would mind chatting a bit about the book and how her approach to dessert has changed over the years. Happily, she agreed.

Menu for Hope IV

2007-12-10T10:37:53Z

Yes, the rumors are true - here in food blog-land it's time once again for the annual Menu For Hope! For those of you who have recently joined us, the Menu for Hope is an annual event founded and organized by Pim and collectively run by food bloggers around the globe in order to raise money for those desperately in need. Last year was an incredible success, with over $60,000 raised for the UN's World Food Program, an organization dedicated to providing emergency food aid and carrying out rehabilitation and development programs for populations around the world. This year we are funding the WFP again, but they have allowed us to earmark our funds for a specific program, a school-lunch program in the kingdom of Lesotho, South Africa.

The Great (Parsi) Escape

2007-11-30T16:18:26Z

Knock, knock. Oh hello, I was just dropping by to see if you're hungry. Has your stomach finally recovered from the masses of turkey and stuffing, the one can too many of wiggly cranberry sauce and that bottomless bowl of mashed potatoes? Have the blisters on your feet started to subside after forty-eight consecutive hours of standing on them in an attempt to once again out-do last year's feast? Good, I'm glad to hear it, because I'd like you come on a trip with me.

Trifling with Thanksgiving

2007-11-18T16:34:49Z

I'll be honest - November is not my favorite month. That may not come as much of a surprise to you, but perhaps the reason will: it's not because of the painfully short days or the bone-chilling temperatures, or even the pre-Christmas what-on-earth-am-I-going-to- give-people-this-year agony. It's because of Thanksgiving, pure and simple, and the sad realization that once again, I am not taking part.