Food has always been an important element in my family.
Growing up with a former home economics teacher mother with a penchant for global cuisine, most of our meals were home cooked and internationally inspired.
There was no such thing as a kid’s menu in our house, chicken fingers and French fries was not considered a meal, and my brother and I were never allowed to turn up our noses at anything we considered strange grown-up food. My mother’s rule of the kitchen has always been try everything at least once.
There was also no such thing as box mixes, everything was made from scratch, and if we wanted dessert, we had to make it ourselves.
I guess you could say we were bred to be foodies with a persistent hunger for the unique and bizarre. My many years in the restaurant business have also served to fuel this passion.
My boyfriend, on the other hand, well that’s a different story. Considered more of a meat-and-potatoes kind of a guy, his favorite foods include Bagel Bites and Extra Value Meals. Until he met me that is.
While making his New Year's resolutions for 2009, Adam decided to be more adventurous with his eating habits. For the sake of broadening his horizons, he vowed to try the cuisine of a different country each month for the whole year.
As is the case with most resolutions, however, momentum quickly fizzled out.
For 2010 I decided to take his resolution a step further and travel around the world in 80 dishes, without ever leaving the country that is. Whether at a restaurant, with a recipe or in the home of a native, each week we will get another stamp in our culinary passport until we have sampled the flavors of 80 different countries.
Follow our weekly adventures “around the world” and feed your own global foodie. We look forward to your comments, restaurant suggestions and family recipes.
Consider this your Passport to Dine. Bon appetite, mangia, enjoy.
