Food - Just Like Travel

Whenever I can’t find the time, or the opportunity, to travel I take comfort in food, which can transport us to other places just as well. One of my best memories from being in other places is from having all that wonderful food. Food is such a basic necessity that sometimes we tend to overlook it, settling on the first fast food joint that we find. Not that they’re all bad, we had fun savoring all the dips at an El Pollo Loco in L.A.

Remember “laswa”? It always reminds me of Negros and home. Green Indian mangoes take me back to trips to Lian, Batangas and the eat-all-you-can Indian mangoes near the beach. After snorkeling, it’s the desert after all that grilled fish. Or how about those seaweeds that sort of look like little beads, which are a good reminder for Cagayan de Oro. Sometimes, something very simple can also take you home. For me, that would be grilled cheese sandwiches made on the stove. It’s a bit of a weird method, but it works for me.

Sometimes, food also takes you international. Take grilled chicken, which reminds me of nights grilling fresh chicken breasts and beef steaks in my hotel room a couple of years ago (crazy I know, but we figured out a way to manage the smoke detector!). I associate Mexican food not only to Mexico but to Los Angeles as well – tacos and nachos at Tito’s Tacos near Sepulveda Boulevard, etc. etc. Burritos transport me to Baja Fresh in Nashville, TN with the cool lunch crowd that always fills up the place. Some of the best steaks I’ve had were from team dinners in the American South, so when having steak (or even just a bit of beef that kind of tastes like such) I always think of Birmingham, Alabama and the Capitol Grill in Atlanta. Churros and the matching chocolate can take you to Spain. Mozart chocolates and “kanabanosi” (those European beef jerky sticks) takes me to Austria. Or chicken adobo, which reminds me of Atlanta and the endless experiments I made trying to make adobo in my little kitchen there, or at least something that resembles adobo.

This is making me hungry again so I need to think of something else now. Well, we will always find something to enjoy about food, and besides the delectable tastes, we will always find a place to associate it with. Bon appétit!