Culinary tourist eats his way around the world in Los Angeles
AP Photo, Damian Dovarganes
By Raquel Maria Dillon | ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Noah Galuten spent the past three months eating his way around the world – all within a day’s drive of his Santa Monica apartment.
The 25-year-old playwright was broke and unemployed when he decided to eat cuisine from a different country every day and write about it on his Web site, Man Bites World.
Galuten figured he could stomach 60 traditional dishes from a different country on consecutive days until he ran out of options and was sated. But the project took him further than he ever imagined, stamping his culinary passport with food from 102 cultures by his final bite of Slovakian poppy seed cake more than three months later.
That he could cross so many borders so close to home is both a testament to Los Angeles’ cultural melting pot and the help he got from strangers who invited him into their homes to share traditional meals.
“If there’s anywhere you should be more inclusive, it’s eating,” he said.
The final feast – plum brandy, roasted chestnuts, sheep milk feta with paprika and caraway, homemade gnocchi, and a traditional Christmas soup – was home-cooked by Peter Simon, a Slovakian immigrant who offered his homeland’s best.
The end tasted both bitter and sweet: The adventure was over, but he was relieved because it had been exhausting – and expensive.
The international gnoshing left Galuten with $4,000 in credit card debt, which he hopes to erase by writing a book about his experiences. His girlfriend, Jackie Honikman, 25, a Web designer who covered his rent and other costs gained about 15 pounds dining with him.
In the early days, the couple mapped out meals a month in advance, anticipating which restaurants would be closed Mondays and when certain specials would be served. Despite calling ahead to make sure restaurants were open and hadn’t changed menus, there were near disasters.
A restaurant formerly known as Macau Street promised authentic street food, but new owners were cooking Hong Kong cuisine, which he had already crossed off his list.
As the clock ticked toward midnight and the project threatened to end in Monterey Park, Galuten scrambled and found a place that served Macau-style pork shank.
Purists may argue that Macau isn’t a sovereign nation, but Galuten didn’t make such distinctions. He ate food from Palestine, Tibet, Puerto Rico and both Koreas.
The project became a movable feast joined by old friends and strangers who became dining companions and then friends, often with the help of ample amounts of ethnically appropriate alcohol. It often included Michael Gross, Galuten’s college friend who goes by the nom de blog Mr. Meatball and documents dishes with digital photos.
Meals ranged from a bad experience at a Samoan restaurant to a fabulous one when Pascal Olhats, the chef at Tradition by Pascal in Newport Beach, served a seven-course French meal with wine pairings for free.
“He’s so passionate,” Olhats said. “He doesn’t just like food, he likes people. He’s very curious and gentle. That’s why he’s always welcome in all the ethnic restaurants he goes to.”
One of Galuten’s favorite finds came through a chain of e-mails that led him to a Ghanaian market named Nana and Naa International Cuisine in Inglewood.
The cook eyed the two men suspiciously until they said they liked spicy food.
“That was the magic password,” he said. She filleted and fried fish in a back kitchen and served up a delicious okra stew with steamed cassava dough in the courtyard under a tarp roof.
“There was no menu, no prices, but it was a priceless experience and delicious,” he said.
Most of the central African nations, plus Kazakhstan, Wales, and others remain uncharted by Galuten, who waited until a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to knock his home country from the list with turkey and the classic fixings.
When the experiment came to a close this month after he failed to find Somalian food, his cravings returned him to his own roots, where he was comforted by a childhood favorite – turkey Bolognese cooked by his mom.
SIDEBAR:
102 cuisines, 102 daysNoah Galuten, who writes the blog Man Bites World, started his culinary odyssey Sept. 4 and ate at least one traditional dish from a new country every day until Dec. 14. Every meal was within driving distance of his apartment in Santa Monica. Here’s a list of the countries he visited in a culinary way: Day 1: Mexico Day 2: Argentina Day 3: Spain Day 4: Thailand Day 5: Ukraine Day 6: Vietnam Day 7: Honduras Day 8: Poland Day 9: Serbia Day 10: North Korea Day 11: Trinidad and Tobago Day 12: Morocco Day 13: Pakistan Day 14: Peru Day 15: England Day 16: Jamaica Day 17: South Africa Day 18: Ecuador Day 19: Taiwan Day 20: Sri Lanka Day 21: Croatia Day 22: Ghana Day 23: Italy Day 24: Laos Day 25: Germany Day 26: Singapore Day 27: Nepal Day 28: Guatemala Day 29: Russia Day 30: Lebanon Day 31: Lithuania Day 32: Venezuela Day 33: Canada Day 34: Indonesia Day 35: Kenya Day 36: Chile Day 37: Bosnia and Herzegovina Day 38: Cambodia Day 39: Ethiopia Day 40: Armenia Day 41: Burma Day 42: Nigeria Day 43: France Day 44: Ireland Day 45: Haiti Day 46: Egypt Day 47: Portugal Day 48: Greece Day 49: Nicaragua Day 50: Switzerland Day 51: Syria Day 52: Malaysia Day 53: Bolivia Day 54: Bahrain Day 55: Austria Day 56: Uzbekistan Day 57: Hungary Day 58: Australia Day 59: Japan Day 60: Denmark Day 61: Colombia Day 62: Iraq Day 63: Georgia Day 64: Eritrea Day 65: Bulgaria Day 66: Norway Day 67: India Day 68: Bangladesh Day 69: Cuba Day 70: Afghanistan Day 71: Belize Day 72: Romania Day 73: China Day 74: Vatican City Day 75: Israel Day 76: Czech Republic Day 77: New Zealand Day 78: Brazil Day 79: Tunisia Day 80: Mozambique Day 81: Philippines Day 82: Hong Kong Day 83: Senegal Day 84: Turkey Day 85: U.S. Day 86: South Korea Day 87: Scotland Day 88: Iran Day 89: El Salvador Day 90: Puerto Rico Day 91: Macau Day 92: Belgium Day 93: Sweden Day 94: Finland Day 95: Latvia Day 96: Yemen Day 97: Dominican Republic Day 98: Tibet Day 99: Samoa Day 100: Jordan Day 101: Costa Rica Day 102: Slovakia |