Thoughts on Eating the World

Welcome to Eat the World.

Welcome to Eat the World.

After two years working for David Tanis at LULU in Los Angeles and summers assembling salads at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, I set out to eat my way around the world.

While traveling, my little black Moleskine overflowed as I tried to capture everything I saw and ate across Europe and East Asia: the crunch of wild caper vines and nepitella underfoot in Sicily; the perfume of roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes wafting through Barcelona in autumn; the smoky streets of Istanbul lined with toothless kebab and plov merchants. I wrote about the delicious gejang, spicy marinated crab, and yukhoe, raw beef and pear I enjoyed in Busan– and the subsequent food poisoning.

When my notebook ran out of space, I turned to a Google Doc, furiously recording not just what I ate, but what made a meal complete. The charred edges of a pork bun, the shape of a tea glass, and the people gathered around the table. The dusty caramel sweetness of the dates they eat on the Greek island of Lesvos. The silvery rustling of Tuscan olive trees and their neon-yellow fresh oil, like highlighter ink, burning the back of my throat.

From my new friends, I was treated to unbelievable generosity–glasses of ouzo, sake, soju and grappa poured past their brims, my pockets stuffed with dates by Iranian hippies in Istanbul. I also started thinking about food as a currency of identity: at once universal (we all eat, don’t we?) and deeply essentialist (well, yes, but Japanese people eat this way because they are Japanese).

Here, I’ll share what I learned on my travels, what I’m reading about food, reflect on my studies of performance and food history at UCLA, and seasonal cooking ideas.

Expect new travel recommendations as I slowly make my way around the globe, musings about restaurant life, and longer stories. Everything’s free for now– biweekly updates to come.

Thank you for being here.

With love,

Sarah