Serious wanderlust leads to creative culinary adventure

Food Culture and Family Traditions: 

The American dream as told through recipes

Like the amorphous antagonist of the 1958 film “The Blob,” my wanderlust is growing larger by the day. Visions of unlimited airplane tickets, conversations with strangers in foreign cafés and solitary walks down cobblestone streets have been permeating the daydreams that I have every time my mind starts to drift.

Tom Richardson cures salmon gravlax in

his home kitchen in San Diego.

Photo Credit: Lauren J. Mapp

While I would love to take off for a year to travel to the many foodie destinations on my bucket list that I lust for via the Internet – Tokyo, Bali, Rome, Paris, Seattle, Munich, Dublin, New Orleans, London, Moscow, etc. – I figured out the perfect way to discover the world’s unique culinary history while continuing to save up for a hot air balloon and a trip around the world. Since I can’t travel to all of these places simultaneously, I will take advantage of America’s melting pot by interviewing people about the family recipes that have been passed down through generations.

“Food Culture and Family Traditions: The American dream as told through recipes” is a new series that I will be publishing on this blog where I interview people about their family history as they cook a traditional recipe. I believe that food can create powerful connections between people, places and the past, so I will be exploring this idea in this series of interviews.

My first interview subject is Tom Richardson of San Diego. Originally from the Midwest, he talks about his Norwegian roots, family, farming, religion and food in the first segment of this series. Stay tuned to read his story along with a recipe for gravlax and its accompanying dill mustard sauce.

I am excited to be starting this new project and I look forward to sharing these experiences with my audience and hearing feedback.