Traveling The World During the Coronavirus Pandemic
In the past 7 days I’ve been to France, Italy, Brazil and Scotland. That list doesn’t include the stops I’ve made in California, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Before you write me nasty comments, please note I haven’t left my town. In fact, I’ve hardly left my home.
I know there are options when traveling when you can’t leave home and I’ve found the best for me.
I’ve tried the virtual tours but they are missing one very, very important element.
Food and Drink.
France
My travels started in France. I’ve wanted to make a ratatouille since the movie of the same name came out. Doing a quick search, that was 2007. So, it’s about time I got going on it.
I found a recipe that claims to be from Julia Childs, good enough for me. Being a vegetable casserole, the preparation and cooking was much more involved than I thought it would be. I must admit, it was my first time peeling tomato skins.
Overall I thought the dish came out well. It’s hard to go wrong with eggplant, zucchini, pepper, onion, and tomato. My favorite bite was the tomato sauce on zucchini.
My family thought it was alright. They could have used more seasoning. In fact, the bbq sauce made an appearance at the dinner table. I’m used to it though, so I wasn’t too offended.
Italy
This was one of my favorite dishes and my family’s as well. I grilled brick chicken. Besides being my favorite meal at Mimi’s Cafe I had no idea of the origins. It turns out the cooking method is most often associated with Tuscany and Florence.
It was fun wrapping bricks in foil and placing them on top of the chicken. I was able to achieve great grill marks and the skin was to die for.
The recipe called for 10 minutes a side on the grill, I ended up upping that to 15 and the chicken was perfect.
Brazil
A recipe on Pinterest popped up for a Brazilian marinade on steak. The flavor was very good.
It was simple: salt (I used garlic salt), pepper, olive oil, lemon and lime juice, cumin and dried oregano. I put the meat and the other ingredients in a bag and let it marinate for an hour.
The flavor was great, the only problem was the chef (me) overcooked the meat, not terribly, but it affected my tour of Brazil.
Scotland
The last stop on my world tour was lunch from Scotland. I whipped up mince and tatties. The name doesn’t sound overly appealing and pictures don’t help. But the flavor, I’m here for.
Easy to prepare, since it was just me, I mashed two potatoes. The mince, I browned ground beef and onions. Then, I added in almond flour and poured a cup of beef broth on top. All of that was allowed to simmer for 15 minutes.
Between the beef and beef broth the mince had a wonderful, deep beef flavor and it was excellent poured over the mashed potatoes.
For me, even though I’d never had it, mince and tatties tasted like comfort food. Not fancy, just good eating.
The other stops I mentioned have been drinks. I’ll let you guess what they were, or maybe I’ll write another travel story. Either way, I miss seeing the world. Being able to try some different food has helped me through this difficult time.
I know there are a lot bigger issues going on right now. If you are reading this, I hope you and your family are healthy and well. If you can, I’d love to hear a recipe I should try.
