Gettin’ Carried Away

I know the title of this post might seem kind of contradictory. Why the heck would you want to be thinking about home when you’re traveling? Honestly, I’m not looking for the comforts of home when I’m on a trip (unless it really sucks). Things just happen, and I’m reminded of home.

Take the first time I tried sushi, for example. I went out to dinner with some coworkers, and some of us were kind of apprehensive about eating raw fish, seaweed and wasabi. We ordered a bunch of different “rolls,” and I sampled a few of them. I thought most of the sushi tasted kind of bland, and I was too scared to try the spicy wasabi, so I was glad I had ordered pot stickers as my standby. Now fast forward to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After eating traditional Mexican cuisine all day… for four days… I needed something to cleanse my palate. And when I ventured into a Japanese restaurant, I knew right away that I wouldn’t be devouring any of the sushi that my travel mates had ordered.

In this same restaurant, we were seated hibachi-style, which means that we plopped down at tables surrounding a chef and his gas-heated hotplate. As soon as I saw the seating arrangement, I was reminded of a friend’s birthday dinner at a Japanese steakhouse near my home in Chicago suburbia. And boy was that a tasty dinner! Before anyone handed me a menu, I knew right away that I wanted teppen-yaki with chicken and steak. And before the chef even started cooking my meal, my mouth watered as I thought about diving into a plate of juicy meats, hearty veggies and fluffy fried rice.

A friend recently told me that she ate at McDonald’s every day that she was in a foreign city, because she wasn’t familiar with the area. This is something I do not advise people to do if they really need a bit of home when they are abroad. Instead, how about purusing the sandiwch menu at a small cafe in Paris, buying fresh fruit at an outdoor market in Barcelona or ordering spaghetti (like momma made) practically anywhere in Rome? Forget McDonald’s, Subway and Pizza Hut!

Whether you’re unknowingly reminded of home or you’re in desparate need of some comfort food, you will find something significant without going commercial.