Travel Bites
Writer: The Hungry Traveller
Publisher: Wattle Publishing
Cover art: L. Whyte
Published: Out Now!
Pages: 222
Imagine you could sample a meal in almost every country around the world, well that is what the Hungry Traveller has done. Spanning a whopping fifteen-years, his travel writing has involved diary entries of his many trips worldwide with the recipes of what he has eaten at the end of each chapter. His first day has him in Ho Chih Min City, Vietnam trying to locate a decent priced hotel room. His journeys go from normal to exotic, yet our Hungry Traveller goes through near sheer hell to find the best cuisine in such places as Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia as well as other far away places.
Travel Bites is a no nonsense guide for holiday makers looking for the best food in places they might not have been to, or those which have been more familiar (Brighton, Ireland and Greece). Here, readers can plan their journey with ease, or if they prefer, re-create the food from the recipes he has provided in the book. He knows that these recipes have been modified from the ones he ate on his travels, so he knows he can't fully recreate eating camel burgers in Morocco. In fact, the Far East and the Middle East feature quite a lot as the more unusual, say exotic locations he has been to. And as far as the Hungry Traveller is concerned, the best place to eat burgers is in the US, whereas most of us would be amazed at where we would eat the best kebab, we would also be equally as shocked at where the best curry is prepared - even if it is only his own opinion.
Finding a cab in Ho Chih Min City is difficult when you're a newcomer. It is the haggling that proves hard, but the pay-off are the two dishes mentioned. After his his sort of day it's just as hard to get across a busy road without getting run down and finds a friend as well as a signature dish with enough time to relax and enjoy it. in Singapore, our Hungry Traveller starts out thinking he will find the perfect dish, but stumbles upon a very famous cocktail instead. Raffles is well known for its cocktails and its past and having such visitors as Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad. It is also famous for its unusual, say exotic décor, Long Bar and the Singapore Sling. Though there are several reasons why he will never have another one, it is a good thing he has included his own recipe for everyone else.
Vietnam is another of his destinations where he takes in the extraordinary. For two weeks he had been travelling around the Southern regions of Vietnam in heat that would floor a much lesser man. While there he found several drunken men who invited him to sample their beer and a dish called drunken prawns. Though he remembers it under a different name in his native London, he still fondly remembers his time with the locals of Da Lat.
In Cambodia our Hungry Traveller finds a very exotic dish, Amok Trei. He finds his time there very strange, enlightening if disturbing as he is shown around Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This marks the time when Pol Pot's regime took over and thousands of people called "dissidents" were rounded up and murdered. There he also discovers their special dish.
Vietnam is again the location where he sets foot on Sapa, which was a must see, though the residents feel he doesn't want to stay in Hanoi. Despite their feelings of sorrow at him leaving, he makes for another family who keep rather pesky pigs on their farm, and to his surprise the men don't do the cooking there. His cooking proves to be enlightening as well as impresses the women and unlike his other dishes which mostly contain meat and fish, this one is vegetarian.
Kanchanaburi, Thailand ends up where our Hungry Traveller tells us of the reality of what went on in the novel written by Pierre Bouille; The Bridge on the River Kwai. Readers are taken on a quick history lesson about the "Death Railway," where details of what occurred to the Thais and other countrymen in the war during 1942 to 1943. These men from America, Thailand, Australia, England and Holland were the ones responsible for building the bridge. He hears about the JEATH museum and also the Buddhist temple in which the museum was situated. His eventual stay in a floating hut gives him a delicious home cooked meal of a curry he was familiar with back home.
The cover art by L. Whyte is a comical depiction of almost all the places the Hungry Traveller has been to,with a huge world globe strewn with familiar landmarks, limes, camels (a skull), fish and flamingos. It is only when it is looked at more closely that it is the representation of the Hungry Traveller himself holding a pint in one hand and dangling from an air balloon.
Travel Bites leaves the reader as hungry as the traveller writing it, and even more encouraged to continue reading the short stories that are once in a lifetime experiences. The Hungry Traveller is the UK food hunting equivalent of Bear Grylls.
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