Doesn’t this Lockdown seems like an eternity – even the most resilient of us are really struggling to keep our spirits up and remain positive and optimistic for the sake of those around us.
Like many of you, I SOOO miss travelling….
I have had to content myself with skimming through photos and little videos on my iPhone, reliving and experiencing heady trips down memory lane.
I miss so many things - the blast of heavy spicy air that greets me as I disembark after a long haul flight to India. Walking out of the airport a riot of colour everywhere, the crazy traffic, honking of horns and the frenzy of cars, tuk tuks, rickshaws, bikes, scooters and cows ambling nonchalantly through the mix .
I miss my trips to London, and silly little things like sitting in the Quiet Zone in the Paddington Express on my way into the city, drawing up my list of restaurants, cafés, Farmers Markets, theatre and exhibitions that I’m hoping to squash into two or three days.
I‘m LONGING to sit sipping a glass of wine at a café table on a sidewalk in Paris, Rome or Barcelona watching the glamorous world go by. I’m aching, to wander around Union Square Farmers Market in Manhattan and feeling the irresistible buzz of New York under my feet. Or once again experience the craziness of Djemaa el-Fna in Marrakesh after sunset.
Most of all, I MISS THE FOOD…
New flavours, new ingredients, the flutter of excitement generated by a new discovery, the comforting feeling of revisiting old haunts…
And how I MISS STREET FOOD!
Hainanese chicken and rice or a steaming bowl of Laksa from a hawker stand in Singapore. A fatty pork stew from an open air eatery in Myanmar, a glass of frothy turmeric latte, a flaky samosa or pakora from my favourite ‘hole in the wall’ in Maheswar….A handmade, masa harina quesadilla from an indigenous Mayan woman in an exquisitely embroidered blouse on a street stall in the zocala (zocala really stands for central square) in Oaxaca.
I can but dream, travel is still out for virtually all of us at present, and there is no end in sight. There is a relentless sameness to most of our days. So many, are either Zoomed out working from home, out of work altogether or demented by home schooling.
Some of us are crazy busy, others are creeping up and down the walls from boredom – not much in the way of a happy medium.
So difficult to make an effort to keep motivated, to resist the lure of the sofa but we CAN’T have that…
I found a clump of snowdrops and crocuses under the mulberry tree in the garden, and then joy of joys a few spindly stalks of rhubarb to cheer me up. Apart from getting super excited, my personal solution is to ‘travel’ in my own kitchen. I’ve been doing just that through favourite recipes from my reconnaissance trips around the world. It prompts me to forget the misery and give thanks for how fortunate I’ve been to have had the opportunity to travel as much as I did.
Keep safe and well and meanwhile Happy Cooking!
