Travel blogger interview: Stories of slow food and indulgent destinations
Monika and Petar Fuchs have a lot going on in the culinary field on their blog: They enjoy with all their senses and like to slow down a bit. The passion of the two is also immediately noticeable to them.
From Africa, up to the USA or also with a side trip in Asia one finds with the two on their travel magazine. There is always an enthusiasm and also curiosity for new culinary discoveries.
I asked these two a few questions about their blog and their passion:
Travel Blogger Interview: Stories of slow food and indulgent travel destinations
Tell us a little about your blog and what you focus on!
Our blog was born out of the idea of providing tips to U.S. and Canadian travelers on where to eat well in these two countries. The reason for this was the first question I was often asked by my travel guests: "Can we eat somewhere other than restaurant chains that only offer steaks or salmon?." (At that time I was still working as a tour guide in these countries.)
In the 17 years that I worked in these two countries, I had discovered numerous restaurants where you can eat excellent food. When I started publishing online in 2001, it was based on the idea of making this knowledge available to other travelers as well. Over time, they added , farmers, in food production, with chefs and in foreign kitchens, which showed us aspects of food and travel that we had not thought of before.
Culinary travel and everything that goes with it has finally become one of the main topics in our Gourmet Travel and Slow Travel Blog. For us, enjoyment encompasses everything that has to do with food, well-being and what lies behind it.
The cuisines and ingredients of the world are incredibly diverse. In addition, man is inventive, and constantly develops new things. I find it very exciting how much food can differ even regionally. Therefore, we are always on the lookout for new and unusual taste experiences on our travels. It is important to us on our trips that we also look behind the scenes and learn how the food for these dishes is produced.
What culinary experience has had the greatest impact on you??
That was a lot of culinary experiences. I've traveled a lot my whole life and I've worked on four continents. Inevitably, this led me to learn about the cuisines of the world. Their diversity is unbelievably exciting and is not limited to the culinary arts. Food and everything connected with it is at the same time an expression of a culture. This is what we try to show in our blog.
What dish (or ingredient) can you not keep your hands off of?
Oh, there are some. But what I like most is the seafood of the Canadian Atlantic coast. Whether lobster, mussels or oysters, when we are traveling there, there are almost only dishes that are prepared from them.
What did you also bring home from your culinary travels?
We bring home regional ingredients and spices from each of our trips. This can be oils or vinegars, specially prepared meat specialties, or the like. But my favorite are spices and spice blends that we don't get at home.
This allows us to recreate the dishes we have encountered along the way. This then brings with it cooking recipes like z.B. this .
What is your absolute favorite dish and why?
Next to that is the Rillettes de Canard. That's because I associate it with memories of trips to Quebec. There's a hotel there that we've stayed at frequently. This serves rillettes for breakfast every day. Since the first time I ate this, I look forward to it every time I come back to this hotel. Another hotel is out of the question for me in this region.
How often do you try new recipes?
Your questions should rather be the other way around: when I don't try out new recipes. It is rare that we cook dishes more often. Only the dishes that remind me of my childhood are more often on our table.
However, there are dishes that we cook on certain days of the year. For example, every year at Christmas we have roulades like my mother used to cook them. The rest of the year, however, we try our way through the recipes that world cuisine has to offer.
Which food trends do you find particularly exciting??
On our travels we are confronted again and again with. We have grown very fond of this food trend in the meantime. So much so that we even use our herb patch to grow foreign plants and herbs that allow us to try exotic dishes at home. So we can try out recipes from all over the world in the kitchen at home without leaving an enormous ecological footprint.
Thinking outside the box: What's your next big project??
In the future, we want to focus our travels more on regions or cities in order to get to know their regional cuisine and ingredients, producers and chefs better. This not only allows us to take a deeper look into the culinary and culture of a region, but also to reduce the ecological footprint we leave behind during our travels.
We do not exclude flights to distant countries. On the contrary, because everywhere there are people who live from what they earn in tourism. Social sustainability is as important to us in our travels as environmental sustainability. However, through our regional coverage, we want to encourage people to take a closer look at a particular region and its people.
More about Monika and Petar:
Monika and Petar Fuchs have been traveling the world since 2001 in search of pleasurable and slow travel experiences, which they present in their.
The main goal is to get to know the regions they visit better. The culinary of their destinations gives them a good access to the cuisines of the world, but equally to the people who create them. You will visit farmers, winemakers and food processing plants as well as gourmet restaurants and luxury hotels that celebrate indulgence.
From their travels they always bring back new cooking ideas, recipes and trends, which they present in their blog.