Culinary Travels

There’s no table of contents. The book starts with a brief introductory prologue. Each chapter deals with a specific country/region and begins with a little introduction. The chapters are: Germany, Austria, & Switzerland (11 recipes, including 2 deserts and a drink); Italy (14); England & Ireland (9); France (12); Belgium (9); Spain (10); and Poland (12).

The chapters vary in number of recipes as well as their variety. The book as a whole includes quite a few seafood recipes, a few meat recipes, a decent number of vegetarian recipes, and deserts from each region. It includes well known regional specialties (Belgian waffles, pierogi, French onion soup) as well as less familiar options. There’s also a good mix of simple recipes to more complex fare.

Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph, mostly of the finished dish though a few have photos at a later stage in the cooking process.

I made two recipes, tortilla Española (sweet potato omlet) and surówka z marchewki z jabłkiem (carrot salad with apples). The instructions were easy to follow and both tasted very good (I did half yellow and half sweet potatoes for the tortilla).

The chapter introductions often mention the importance of slowing down in life and travel to experience the moment and really savour your food. Always a useful reminder.

It’s a nice cookbook with a good variety of recipes from around Europe.