- 72 pages, 8 x 8”, wire-O bound, sturdy laminated cover
- 50 photographs of markets, farms, kitchens, monuments, street scenes, and dining places around the world.
- 59 recipes, all include a photo of the finished dish
My husband Julius was brought up in a kosher home and has been a vegetarian for 30+ years. I grew up in a house where Sunday breakfast was bacon and eggs. Our meals were as secular and as simple as anything in the women’s magazines Mom picked up at the supermarket. Except when it came to dessert; that’s when her Viennese tortes and chocolate-dipped spritz cookies came into play, but often made with Betty Crocker mixes.
At my first job as a design assistant, I found a stack of Gourmet magazines in the office. That was the beginning of a whole new worldview that ultimately led to making a series of privately published cookbooks.
FREE PDF download if you post a review of any Visual Language Book on Amazon or Etsy!
My food trips began as a volunteer for Project Amigos, a UCLA student group that built schools and clinics in Tijuana, where I first tasted carnitas and tamales. I was already into cooking and was appointed chef, shopping at Supermercado Limon for ingredients to make carne con chile for 30 over a campfire.
I’ve never traveled without a camera, first a Rolleiflex with 12 exposures to a roll. Then, an Olympus with three lenses and 36 exposures, in color! By 2007, an iPhone. I’m not shy about asking for recipes and photographing the food as well as the surroundings.
My best memories have been made during vacations with Julius to Mexico, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Israel. My trips as a design writer brought me to São Paulo, Beijing, and La Havana. How to incorporate all that deliciousness into meals at home that everyone can enjoy?
Most of the recipes in this book are vegetarian, some with cheese and/or eggs. Most can be part of a kosher meal. Many are vegan. I hope you try some of these recipes — and take your own food trips to some of the places pictured.
Since 2002, Julius and I have been joining Alex in China, Singapore, Bali, and Thailand, where he’s been living. Soon, with our daughter-in-law Yan, and a few years later, with two super-cute grandkids.
Everywhere, we visit local farms and markets. We cook at their place, learn from their home cooking, and enjoy meals together at local restaurants with vegetarian specialties.