I recently read the book, “A Fork in the Road” by James Oseland. Essentially this book is a collection of stories from various authors, foodists, and chefs that discuss their memorable experiences with food. 

I began thinking more about my memorable experiences with food and even though I do have some from my younger years and even in Ecuador where my husband’s family lives, I will share a more recent experience with food. In high school my friend’s father told me I needed to go visit the countries around the Mediterranean to chill out (I am a very hyper, always have to be busy type of person) and enjoy the culture. Well, I have not made it to any of these countries, but recently my husband and I visited India. Now I know many of you are thinking, “Um India is not noted for their relaxed environment”, but it is here where I had a memorable food experience. My kids, husband, and I ventured to Udaipur, which is mid-country. This city is known to be a romantic city, which was perfect to celebrate our 11 year wedding anniversary with our children (I know, not THAT romantic). In any case, the hotel we stayed at had a really nice little restaurant in which we could sit outside for meals and snacks. Now, if any of you are familiar with India you know it is hot. However, the hotel was situated so that no matter where you sat outside you were in the shade. Plus eating breakfast at 7:30 in the morning, you had a nice small breeze that was nearly non-existent 2 hours later.

Each day at 7:30am we, as a family, would walk down to breakfast and sit at this nice sturdy table with the iron black chairs and watch the 2 turtles walk over to us as they were expecting food from their visitors. My husband and I would order the American breakfast – 2 eggs cooked to our style (I normally chose the poached), corn flakes, hot milk, hot coffee, freshly squeezed mango juice, and a banana. We would share our breakfast with the kids and the turtles and enjoy the moment. I loved this time of the day, not because of the food, certainly it was good, but because we would sit and enjoy the warm morning while peacefully chatting about our adventures from the day before and what we will go see in the upcoming day. 

I am by no means a food connoisseur, so I cannot detect each spice or herb used to make a food, but I do know the meals shared with our family are so precious. I hope our children remember this time, but I know for a fact they will create their own food memory. I do wish it is because the food is good, but beyond that who they shared that food with and what they did during that time.

May you all remember your food moment… 

Oseland, J. Ed (2013). A Fork in the Road. Lonely Planet