Is there anything better than a slow start to a day?
For hours, I savored this morning in Belgium, witnessing the residents ambling out of their homes, into the light drizzle, off to the market or maybe a friend’s house.
I was a traveler, but not in a rush to get to any destination, just content to be unhurried as well, starting my day in one’s own time like the people of Antwerp.
I had a cozy window seat with a view to all the comings and goings both inside and out while I nibbled at my blackberry porridge.
Unhurried and ambling has a tendency to reveal the best moments when traveling. In this case, taking time to notice the unfamiliar ingredients in my porridge, and bringing that newfound knowledge home with me to add fresh ideas to my own cooking.
I eat oatmeal almost every morning topped with fairly traditional things like cinnamon, hemp, flax, banana, and coconut milk. This porridge, however, had tahini, oatgurt, orange, and roasted almonds. Tahini so far, for me, had been constrained to making hummus. I had also never heard of oatgurt. Apparently, it’s a plant based yogurt made from fermented oats. While I sat, I did some research, and at home you can make it by adding a probiotic just like you would if you were making dairy yogurt.
Every meal in another place, near or far, can be an opportunity to improve and expand your cooking, and the way you pair foods together. That’s got to be high up there as one of the most amazing things about travel, wouldn’t you agree? What ingredients or techniques have you brought home from traveling and have now experimented with in your own cooking?
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