Every bite is an adventure.

Every bite is an adventure. 

A twist of cracked pepper opens an aromatic world of botanical and political histories. Sampling a recipe from somewhere you’ve dreamed of going can give you the sense of traveling there. And with a historical recipe, you can come close to really traveling through time.

Reading about the travels of Marco Polo, medieval Berber scholar Ibn Battuta, or the contemporary bold adventurous gourmand @anthonybourdain can either satisfy or amplify the itch for adventure. Usually it’s the latter, for me.

I photographed this book, which evidently belonged to one “Lou Frank”) in the library of Icelandic Culinary Historian @nannavalgerdur. Nanna shared tales that still linger in my memory today, and this cover evoked the bold journeymanship of my own Icelandic adventure. I’m truly grateful to be a culinary scholar and woman in 2018.

Another book by the same author, Charles H. Baker Jr., was called “The Gentleman’s Companion: Around the World with Jigger, Beaker, and Flask”. He spent much of his life traveling and chronicling food and drink for @esquire @townandcountrymag and more. His drinking companions included Faulkner and Hemingway. I’ll do another post on Baker’s fascinating legacy, also.