Panino Ena: In Search of Lost Sandwiches I was sitting in the once-red train of the Slovenian Railways heading north from Ljubljana to Jesenice, under a harsh-blue sky and snow-capped mountains, repeating a journey I used to make nearly weekly when I was a student at the University of Ljubljana. The train was the same […]
I have listened to a fair number of migrants in Korea (or, as they like to call themselves, expats) express their bread angst. Their bread pain. “It’s all too sweet!” “Too soft!” “Too strange!” “Too hard!” “Too many flavors!” Europe developed as a wheat and rye-based agrarian society, which made bread the staple food there. […]
Alcohol is an integral part of Slovenian culture. Boys become men by drinking. Hosts welcome visitors to their homes with a schnapps. At celebrations, people become dancers and revelers after two beers. At university, exams passed and exams failed are celebrated with a bottle of wine. All three great European drinks are part of Slovenian […]
“Where are your scissors?” “In the stationery drawer, why?” “I need to cut the meat.” “Huh?!?” In creative and design and lateral thinking workshops one of the oldest tricks in the book is the brick. Master comes into room. Master places brick on table. Bits of fired clay crumble onto table. That will leave ochre […]
“Write more about weird food,” they said. They being friends of mine, curious about a far off land they may well never visit. I filed the idea away and went about my day. Days passed. With YL we completed some Exciting Bureaucratic ManeouversTM, bought a comfortable office chair, visited the street of second hand books, […]
Early in our relationship YL had a great fear. We met in Lausanne, the edgiest and most crime-ridden city in Switzerland. This means that the city is very safe. Old ladies with manicured dogs dominate the promenade and three night-clubs stay open late on weekends. This also means local taste is adapted to saucissons, choucroute, […]
Food is an amazing cultural artifact. I love food. I love meals with friends. I love the magic of raw ingredients becoming cooked. The very essence of what it means to be human is bundled into every meal. But I’m getting carried away. Backpedal. When I travel, I try every single thing I get my […]