This is a Lonely Planet book, so it’s all about food and travel. There are a wide variety of writers: chefs, food critics, and regular people. And there are a wide variety of stories, usually about a particularly memorable meal while traveling, but that could range from a simple meal shared with a family in a Himalayan hut after a hiker was trapped by a snowstorm, to a food critic managing to get a reservation at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, not long before that restaurant closed for good.
I think my favorite story was “Peanut Butter Summer”. It’s a story of the author’s first trip to Europe, with her first love, where she discovered that people can have very different ways of looking at life. What she encapsulated was how I see travel – going with the flow and hoping you’ll serendipitously find new and exciting things. And I even say that as someone that has to plan the ever loving bejesus out of a trip before I go. But, I happened to realize, due to a separate conversation I was having, while in CA, while reading this book, that I do this planning as grounding. I do still hope to find those little surprises that make travel special – I just try to put myself in the best possible position to catch them.