The Making of a Foodie - The Travel Influence

From the early years of learning to make scrambled eggs, to the later years of watching Julia Child reruns on TV. Where did it all go from there?

As I grew to be a teenager and had less time on my hands, my interest in cooking continued to grow but at a lesser pace than in the early years, and also than in years to come. One area that really did grow during this time was my interest in food generally and opportunities to experience new food and cuisine through restaurants. And oh, did I love, and still do love a good restaurant.

Indiana in the late 70’s may not have been a mecca of fine cuisine but I still had plenty of opportunities to explore. This came about mostly through trips to Chicago or other places and many of those were with my Mom’s friend Annette. Annette had a knack for not only great cooking herself but also seemed to know where all the best places were with really great restaurants nearby. It was only much later that I came to realize that many of those trips were probably planned around the food rather than the destination at hand. She exposed us to a lot of different delights such as real southern fried chicken, pierogi, the best of the Friday night fish frys, pecan pie, soulf food, a myriad of beautiful and unique Christmas cookies, and the best Chinese food to be had in Chinatown. It was during this time that I began to realize just how vast the restaurant world was and I was only scratching the surface. I also came to see that my desire to experience the world could only somewhat be had through a restaurant meal.

So, I knew then that there would have to be more. Some of that more, for a teenager growing up in Indiana, was the firmly held belief that I would someday leave the small town I grew up in and live in Chicago. Another aspect of that belief had to do with finding the means to travel.

As I made my way through high school and college, it was always with the notion that I would be going on to this life in the big city and hopefully to opportunities to visit many other places. I did manage to get to Chicago, landing a job in an advertising agency shortly after graduation. I also began to travel. Some of my favorite food recollections have to do with experiencing a meal in a place far from home. These were not all exotic locales, particularly fancy, or even foreign, but they spoke to me. Some of my most delightful travel and food memories are:

La Mere Poulard, Mont St. Michel, France
Eating at Charlie Trotters restaurant kitchen table, Chicago
Frontera Grill, Chicago
Everest Room, Chicago
The Lobster Hut in Cozumel
Peter Luger’s steakhouse in Brooklyn, NY
Indian Restaurants in London on every occasion I’ve visited
Chinatown in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco
Harbor Village, San Francisco
Le Restaurant, Paris
Le Bistrot, Venice
The little bar/café in Milano
The Vault in Westbourne, Bournemouth, England
Traditional Hawaiian menu at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel menu
Chilaquiles in Mexico City
Morton Bay Bugs in Cairns, Australia
Pumpkin soup, Melbourne Australia
Pierogi and mushroom barley soup at Sophie’s Busy Bee in Chicago,
Marrow bones at the Fort near Denver
Seafood Newburg at some restaurant near Tralee, Ireland

What is it about a place and a meal that speaks to you? Why is it that some really resonate with you for years and possibly forever and others fade away?