The Allium genus includes some of my favorite purveyors of flavor, including garlic, shallots, leeks, scallions, and onions. It is hard to imagine cooking without these fragrant, vibrant plants. And in fact, no one has ever really had to, because wild members of the allium genus grow worldwide. That’s why, even though onions as we [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Geography’
September 5, 2009
Going to Goa
Before I mention what happened after I landed in Goa, it seems appropriate to mention our internal flights in India. The country’s Jet Airways is now one of my favorite airlines. They have spotlessly clean jets, offer lots of leg room, have a great on-time record, offer superb Indian food, and they feed you even [...]
August 21, 2009
On to Karnataka
We landed in Bangalore, where we were met by our next guide, Sudhakar. Bangalore, with 6 million people, is India’s “Silicon Valley.” Impressive buildings lined broad streets of the bustling city. But crowded, modern Bangalore was not our destination. Karnataka was once known as the State of Mysore, and it was into the Mysore district, [...]
July 9, 2009
Kerala—the Spice State
rom Chennai in Tamil Nadu we flew to Cochin in Kerala. It is said of Kerala that there are more coconuts here than there are stars in the sky. However, despite all the coconuts, it is not the thing for which this state is famed. Kerala is India’s “Spice State.” It is from here that [...]
July 2, 2009
Indian Odyssey – Tamil Nadu
A few years ago, I had the great pleasure of traveling through southern India with four other members of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Our itinerary had been arranged by Culinary Historians president, Dr. Bruce Kraig, who had just finished filming a TV special on the foodways of southern India. This had the tremendous advantage [...]
May 27, 2009
Ecuador
When people say, “Oh, you must come and visit us,” I always warn them, “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.” Because I am likelier than most people to show up. So when friends took a one-year sabbatical to study language in Quito, Ecuador, I warned, but they insisted that they really wanted me [...]
April 17, 2009
Iceland
When I visited Iceland in mid-February, it was actually a little warmer than Chicago. Iceland’s winters average around 28–34 degrees, with the country’s proximity to the Arctic Circle offset by the warmth of the Gulf Stream. Iceland’s wild wind adds a challenge of its own, but it does keep things moving, so the weather can [...]
March 26, 2009
The Original Potato
“What’s in a name?” Well, sometimes a good bit of confusion—take yams and sweet potatoes, for example. If you’re in the United States and you’re calling something a yam, odds are you’re talking about a sweet potato, in which case, you’re wrong. Sweet potatoes are members of the morning glory family. Yams, on the other [...]
January 30, 2009
Dining in Mongolia
Eating in Mongolia is pretty straightforward. As our guide stated on a number of occasions, the Mongolian diet is “meat. We eat meat.” It was certainly something he consumed with relish. But in all fairness, while this isn’t far from the truth, it is a slight oversimplification.
Salads have become fairly common because of long Russian [...]
January 20, 2009
O, Mongolia!
When I was young, the name “Outer Mongolia” was often invoked to express the idea of the farthest reaches of the earth. This made the idea of visiting Mongolia seem both impossible and desirable. Fortunately, today, since the fall of Communism, Mongolia is not impossible to visit. But it’s still not easy.
Actually, it’s not [...]
