Real Travel Adventures of Deb and Debb - Part 5: Travel Memories of Debb🐝🐝
Blog post cover image: On the Nile River, near Luxor. Photo: DA Donnelly, 2023
We all take photographs of picturesque spots or unique animals when we travel, but if we take away those photos and think about those places, what comes to mind?
Is it the crisp smell of the ocean (or the unsightly plastic littering the beaches), the fresh air and blue skies (or the acrid smog and the menacing traffic), is it the people we met and their interactions with us?
For me it is all of those things…but the strongest association with places is often the food!
I can remember the smell and taste of the wonderful food and beverages I had for most places. That isn’t to say the people haven’t had a profound impact on me, they have, but somehow the taste of those wonderfully exotic dishes has been imprinted on me. Some of the best follow:
Tahiti – E’ia Ota (lime marinated raw fish)
Toulon, France – warm goat cheese salad
Cairo – koshari (the ultimate comfort food)
Luxor – mahshi (stuffed cabbage rolls) and watermelon 🍉and pomegranates
Tallinn, Estonia – big bowls of borscht and excessive amounts of Russian ‘champagne’
Ithaca, Greece – grilled fresh sardines (these are in no way remotely similar to canned sardines)
Volos, Greece – tsipouro and olives (and lively conversation with the restaurant patrons)
Istanbul, Turkey – baklava (in all its wonderful, sticky varieties - there were many different stalls outside the spice market)
Syria – apricot jam (the memory of which brings tears to my eyes)
Tokyo, Japan – matcha tea, sake and tobiko 🍣
Mali – roast goat, and the most flavourful peanuts I’ve ever had 🐐
British Columbia – smoked salmon, crab and moose
Nova Scotia – lobster boils on the beach
Crete – figs and grapes and mizithra 🧀to die for, amazing olive oil, and endless cups of iced coffee!
Puerto Rico – frosty piña coladas and coconut ice cream 🌴🥥
Ireland – boxty (savoury potato pancakes)
Naples, Italy - cappuccinos and grilled octopus
Sicily – Sicilian pizza and heavenly red wine 🍷
Mexico – vanilla, the smoothest green tequila, and pozole
Stockholm, Sweden - cardamom cookies
Portugal - I somehow only remember the most exquisite ruby red port! 🥴
Other places drum up other memories. The Yukon has the bluest skies I’ve ever seen (and delicious elk sausages), and the smell of roses(1) in Bulgaria was absolutely intoxicating, along with the satisfying taste of the gyuvech (stew baked in a clay pot).
Note to self – take more pictures of the food!
I can’t wait to build (delicious) memories in Thailand and Vietnam!
Share with us some of your most memorable travel experiences in the comments below!
1) Rosa damascena is grown in the Rose Valley of Bulgaria, which produces the most rose oil in the world for perfumeries.
