"A LA CARTE" A serialized weekly Travel & Culinary Experience. Preface & Introduction

TALES OF FOOD & DRINK DIGESTED FROM 55 YEARS

OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

by David Russell

My travels for Business or on vacation with my wife, were always rich with surprising experiences. To share them, look for the A La Carte weekly country chapter. In total, we’ll taste 42, each with its own tales of Food & Beverages, Places & People. Know that wherever we are, there’ll always be a setting at the table just for you.

P R E F A C E

Thinking back at the chuckles and gasps my telling the story of being served a tureen of turtle soup with the turtle still in its shell began the idea for this blog site.

As did a look back at the stack of diaries sitting next to picture -story travel albums gathering dust on shelves in my home office. Albums that had been completed over months of effort, stealing hours from more pressing demands, like reestablishing family routines during “daddy’s home or “they’re home”, “what did you bring us?” memories. There were so many of those during my (business) or our (my wife and my) 55 years of international business and vacation travels.

The one constant in the diaries and picture & story albums is the memories of foreign Foods & Drink the many intriguing, often funny, more often amazing stories leading to those Food and Drink moments. Like that turtle in the soup served us during a Li River Cruise in China.

From my earliest travel days, I’ve had a love with slow walking markets wherever we were, seeing foods similar to ours, yet others, alien. Even completely unknown. Often I’ve been amazed by what passes for edibles in those markets. Wandering thru you see locals preparing food specialties, many so dissimilar from how those same dishes are prepared for us tourists. Also, the many exceptional dishes we never see at our hotels or restaurants. Wafting a market’s soul, it’s wondrous aromas while sampling a bit of this and a bit of that, is a great way to “taste” a country, we may never see on our tourist travels.

Which I always try to circumvent but always with a sense of combined interest and caution, born in the l940’s with a childhood reading of “An American Doctor’s Odyssey”. Written by Dr. Victor Heiser, who was doing research on lesser known Pacific Islands. The good Doctor wrote of traditions not only observed but personally shared whenever he needed to win tribal cooperation. Especially in the eating of strange, outlandish “delicacies”. I remember particularly, his first reaching into a bucket, pulling out something alive and squirmy, popping it into his mouth and chewing with the pretense of great relish. Yet, by the end of his travels, Dr. Heiser had downed so many “delicacies” that crawled, flew or galloped; he had it down to a science. Some he even enjoyed.

That thought reminds me of the old joke describing what the Chinese eat. “If it flies and it’s not an airplane, you eat it. If it’s in the sea and it’s not a submarine, you eat it. If it’s on land and it’s not a tank, you eat it”. Which only hints of foods you might be offered when you travel in Asia. We lived and enjoyed most of ours, often to our delight.

For example, in Thailand, my recollection goes to exotic yet delicious dishes, with aromatic sweet and sour sauces, strange tasting spices plus the creative use of Coconut Meat and Oil, all of which we had the pleasure of sampling in a spectacular feast prepared by students of a Chiang Mai University Culinary class. Of particular interest to them was for us to learn ways to cut or peel a Tomato to add interest and, to them, taste.

However, not once do I recall being invited to feast on the delicacy, Monkey Brain Soup, spooned from the original container.  Though I can recall one night in Tokyo when three associates and I, having worked late, stopped at one of the few restaurants still open, a Shinjuki Sushi bar with a single chef behind the counter. Because we were the only occupants, we tried speaking a limited Japanese, drawing great laughts from the chef who couldn’t have been more helpful or generous with his servings. Our fare resembled what you might expect from any U. S. Sushi restaurant: Yellowtail, Eel, Mackerel, Fish Roe, Crab, Shrimp, Scallop, Octopus and Clams – with Sushi rolls to match, all of which we managed very well, thanks to large bottles of Chilled Kirin Beer. Not the brew we get here in the states limited by law to about a 3.5 alcohol content. Like many foreign beers Japanese Beer can reach two to three times our alcohol limits, in some cases up to 9 percent, equivalent to a glass of Sauterne; a little goes a long, long way. So, obviously as we feasted, we felt no pain.

Near the end of our dinner, two Japanese businessmen entered, exchanging jubilant hand shakes with the chef while taking seats at the bar. Caps popped off large bottles of beer, followed quickly by glug-glug. Immediately the chef netted a black and brown spotted 8 or 9 inch, three inch thick Fish from his fresh water tank (I thought a Pike or Trout), which he plopped right on the counter in front of them, still wiggling its head and tail, bouncing about in attempts to escape. It was so rapid I almost missed it, but from a quick slit with what must have been from a sword sharp knife, the chef split the skin open and in rapid fashion, chop sticks flying from fish to mouth, the men dove right in, devouring the still alive fish with appreciative sighs and guttural grunts of pure pleasure. Talk about liking your fish fresh.

Our team tried to act cool as if this was an everyday event. But, I remember paying the tab and getting out of there quickly, while they and the chef discussing an 8 tentacled, 12 inch octopus. In 55 years of travel and eating, I can’t remember ever reaching that level of sophistication. However, I did begin to look through all my trip journals, with what you might describe as a Hungry Eye.

In random order, working through the lot of them, I have culled them into this volume what I hope Meal by Meal, Country by Country, will interest you week by week. Here’s an invite to dig in, it’s all A La Carte..

Starting September 1 – Read Chapter # 1 – France. There’s a seat at the table waiting just for you. ® & © - David Russell, May 2008.