In My Kitchen with Paula

Culinary Adventures Part 1: Paula's Method of Travel and Connection

• Paula Mohammed • Episode 25

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Ever wonder how to create deeper connections through travel — and how food can be the key? 

In this special solo episode, I’m kicking off a three-part series where I share my personal story, travel philosophy, and the principles that help me discover the world in a more meaningful way.

I’ll take you behind the scenes of my own culinary adventures, from childhood memories of fragrant curried peas made by my Bibi to spontaneous moments of connection that shaped my life in Portugal back in 1998.

You'll also hear about my diverse upbringing — with Pakistani and New Zealand roots — and how growing up around a global kitchen table inspired the creation of In My Kitchen.

In this episode, I share:
 🌎 How I use food as a vehicle for connection when traveling
 🇵🇹 Stories from my unexpected and life-changing adventure in Portugal
 ✨ The beauty of discovery when things don’t go as planned

This episode is for anyone craving more meaning in their travels and looking to connect with people and cultures in authentic ways — with a plate of something delicious in between.

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SAY HELLO

In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

I'd love to hear from you! Connect with me in one of three ways:

Paula Mohammed: Hi, I'm Paula Mohammed, and welcome to In My Kitchen with Paula. This podcast is a gathering place for culinary adventures who love to travel. Every week, we'll come together with chefs, cookbook authors, talented home cooks, and everyone in between to talk about their story and their unique dish. Using food as the vehicle, we'll take a ride into the ins and outs of their culture and country. 

Come on, let's get this party started. 

Hi, welcome back to the In My Kitchen with Paula podcast show. I am going to speak to you about my process, principles, and story, in terms of my method of traveling to allow for spontaneity and discovery and connection to happen. This is going to take place over a three part podcast series. 

And right now I think we'll just dive right in. 

Over these last 20 or so episodes, we have been exploring culture through food. And right now I also find myself in the midst of getting ready for my own trip to Portugal. 

And I figured this was a good time to share with you my process in order to really maximize feeling connected and immersed in my travels, no matter how much or how little planning time I have. And I do it by using food as the vehicle.  

We all know what it is like when we go on a trip. You're here because you love to travel the world. I'm sure that's one of the reasons why you're listening to this podcast show. I'm assuming like me on many of your travels, you are seeking an immersive experience in a different culture from your own, that feeling of being connected to the people and places you visit. One of my biggest inspirations for travel before we get too far into this was growing up and listening to my mum's travel stories when I was a child, in my teens, and even now I'm hearing stories that I have not heard before. 

We all love a good travel story, so in this episode I'll do my best to share with you some of my own stories of my time living in Portugal back in 1998, connecting with others over delicious dishes. 
   

We are culinary adventurers. We love to travel. We love to explore culture through food. But what if we could free ourself also from a rigid itinerary, from set expectations and to discover on the go. Social media and living in a smaller world in some respects has made it hard to do that because we can learn about anywhere at any moment and we get inundated with the places you must see, the places you must eat at, the things you must do. 

In my opinion, we are losing a sense of the value of slow travel and discovery on the go. I hope my four steps and travel principles will help you to embrace this and give you the confidence to discover on the go and deepen your connections.  

It doesn't mean not doing tours. I want to be really clear about that. Tours are a great way to provide the structure so you can enjoy the spontaneous opportunities to discover. Tours have come a long way and many now offer access to places you wouldn't be able to attain on your own. Listen to podcast episode 22, it's a great example where Sonia Bozzi talks about her culinary cultural tours to Modena and Parma in Italy.  

Also in terms of not just the discovery, but also creating a deeper connection, what if we could travel and create this deeper connection that I keep talking about. Why do we seek connection? Why do we want this deeper connection? 

I'm going to talk more on that a little bit later. But for now, I just want to say it's totally possible: the discovery, the spontaneity, the deeper connection, and I can't wait to show you how to do it through food. 

In this short episode today. I'm going to share with you my story and connection to food, travel, and culture. Next week, you'll hear about why connection is so important and why slowing down in our travels is important or beneficial. And finally, in our the third episode of this series, I'll speak in detail about my four steps to exploring a culture through the lens of food. 

I live in Vancouver, Canada, and I also spent four years living in New Zealand when I was younger. I was very fortunate to grow up in a very diverse household. My father was from Pakistan and my mother from New Zealand with Maori heritage. My great, great, great grandfather was a Maori chief. And if you want to hear more about that story, I encourage you to listen to episode 24. 

Together, my parents had friends that spanned the globe. Our kitchen table was a place to gather and everyone in my house enjoyed cooking and loved to share their foods with our family and friends. My first food memory actually is, oh gosh, I was about four years old and is of Bibi, who is my grandmother on my dad's side making curried peas for me for the very first time. 

 I remember sitting in her apartment in Vancouver, looking through the butler window into the kitchen, and she was going to make peas for lunch. And I detest peas. Some of you may have heard the story before, so I apologize if you're hearing it again. Anyway, I detested peas growing up and I was like, uh oh, I remember thinking, uh, peas, uh, but I enjoyed the moment. I enjoyed the process because just picture my beautiful Bibi in her saris, stunning colors and I distinctly remember the jingle and jangle of her multicolored glass bracelets that she was wearing and then all of a sudden the scent that was coming out of that kitchen made me stop and really take notice. 

It was this masala that she was making. So the ginger, the garlic, the onion, the ghee being sauteed or cooked slowly till the onions are transparent. Then adding the spices, probably cumin, coriander, turmeric, , maybe a little bit of chili, maybe not. And it was at that moment that I remember, understanding how ingredients can change flavor profiles; how a bowl of peas that are normally cold and mushy and awful can be transformed into this delicious gravy of spices. That was the first time when I really understood how you got to try a dish more than once. That's for sure. Also grew up listening to my mum's stories of her travels. My dad didn't actually share too much about his life in Pakistan, but he did tell us about the partition and how his grandmother fought for their land. That always stuck in my mind. I was fortunate to also meet, my great grandmother. These stories, these recipes, these dishes, they are what inspired me to start In My Kitchen. 

Now let's jump back, all the way back to 1998. I was, uh, well, let's just say I was in my late 20s. And I went to Portugal seeking a set of preconceived experiences. Now, of course, at the time, that's not how I would have described this, but looking back with a little bit more maturity, I know that I had a story I wanted to live and be able to tell that story. I had expectations and no surprise many of them didn't go the way I planned, but I think they turned out actually even better. Not easier, but I definitely grew more as a person. The experiences I was seeking was that experience of working abroad, late nights over great food with new friends, scuba diving in the Azores Islands and mountain biking in the hills of Portugal, uh, specifically between Cascais and Sintra. Side note, if you are someone who's really into mountain biking, which I'm not anymore, but that is one of the best areas apparently for mountain biking.  

Sometimes I describe this time of my life as I went to Portugal to find myself, but instead I created myself. And I say this because it's because of those hundreds of micro moments of connections that I had. Many due to the fact that the experiences I was expecting did not go as planned. And many, if not most of them, happened over a plate of something. 

Whether it be beautiful shellfish on the coast of the Azores Islands or cataplana clams on the seashores of Cascais. Those small connections and my experiences accumulated like collecting pennies in a jar. And the sum of those moments, not all easy, helped me thrive. What I saw was that something positive happens to both people in those connections. And this is why I am so passionate about creating connections, especially through food, to learn about other cultures. I wonder if the food piece came into it because by nature, I'm actually, or was, a very shy person. This connecting over food made it a lot easier for me because I did not have the type of personality that was just going to go up to somebody and introduce myself. I'm going to go off on a bit of a travel story tangent for a minute and paint the picture here.  

It's uh, 1998 and how I ended up in Portugal. I was supposed to move to Toronto with the boyfriend that I had at the time. And quite frankly, I didn't want to go live in Toronto, truth be told. I was a real West Coast girl and I took the opportunity to try and get a job with the expo that was taking place in Lisbon in 1998 in Portugal and once I had that figured out and booked, next thing you know, the Universe is contriving to make all these wonderful things happen for me, I thought. 

Uh, but I was asked to basically be an au pair, or that sounded quite fancy, au pair, I like the sounds of it, but really I was just a babysitter in the mornings for a couple that lived next door to my parents at the time. And Annette just wanted me to look after her daughter in the morning so she could go for morning runs and I'd have the rest of the days free. So I ended up leaving three weeks earlier and had this amazing experience in Paris. I was welcomed into their two story pied à terre, I'm not sure, townhouse, and I have memories. My favorite memories are drinking champagne late at night and eating beautiful salads for dinner. That was my introduction to the dinner salad. Annette and I would sit around and talk and have glasses of champagne. I mean, I never, it was such a luxury. I couldn't imagine just having a bottle of champagne in the fridge to drink and these beautiful dinner salads.  

But I arrived at the airport to meet them in Vancouver, lugging my giant suitcase and a big box with my mountain bike in it that had been taken apart at the bike store and packed up for me to take to Portugal. I honestly don't know what I was thinking; not even taking into consideration what it was going to be like to arrive in Paris with this gear. You can imagine me trying to lug my suitcase and this massive box with my bike in it up the narrow stairs in Paris to the apartment and then into this tiny elevator to take me into where we were staying for the next three weeks. 

Anyway, I managed to get up there. I had a fabulous time. After three weeks of babysitting, I was off to Portugal to start my adventures. I couldn't wait. So I arrived in Portugal to Visconde de Luz, to a still quiet Cascais in May. So back in 1998, Portugal wasn't a huge tourist spot. It was a really wonderful time to actually be in Portugal. 

Cascais, for those of you who may not know, is about 40 minutes by train from Lisbon on the coast. It's a beautiful seaside little town. So I arrive into my little apartment that Maria helped me set up. So Maria is a guest on a podcast, earlier podcast, and she is from Portugal and was my first introduction to Portugal. 

She used to tell me stories about her upbringing in Portugal and the way of life and the parties. And that was what first inspired me to go to Portugal actually in 1991, backpacking. So the first thing I try to do is take my mountain bike out of the box and put it back together. No way I could do that. 

And I ended up having to to find my way to the one and only bike store in Cascais sort of up behind where I was staying in the hills. I actually managed to get this bike on a, on a bus and nobody really spoke English and there was no Google Maps. I didn't really know where I was going. I'm actually very proud of myself that I found this bike store and the amazing thing was, talk about an amazing culture, this bike culture, the owner of that bike store was faxing with the owner or emailing the owner of the bike store where I got my bike because there was a piece missing or broken off and they managed to ship pieces back and forth and build my bike back together again for me. 

However, it took four months. So by the time it was ready, it was going back in the box to be shipped back to Vancouver. The next thing on my agenda was to go and have my meeting with the production team from the U. S. Pavilion for the expo. And that didn't quite go as planned. They were so kind and very gracious. But basically they were all, apparently all of the pavilions and vendors were fearing that the expo was going to go bankrupt, and things were not going as planned and so they were putting a freeze on any spending. No more hires and the job that I thought I was going to have did not come to fruition. So now I was really like, what am I going to do, because I had this vision. I was going to have this work abroad experience. I had brought my laptop, which my God would have cost me a fortune back then, a little portable printer as well. I mean, I was going to set up shop on Visconde da Luz and, uh, spend my days at the expo working and riding my mountain bike on the weekends in the hills of Cascais. 

That was the vision. It did not happen, and I really didn't know what to do. Uh, if I had nowhere to go home to, didn't have a place. We had given up the house we were renting. I would have to go straight to Toronto, and I didn't really want to live in Toronto.  
   

I wasn't ready to give up yet, though. I decided I was going to physically go to the expo grounds. So this is a few days before the official opening and see what would happen. See if I could find a job on my own. So I had printed off some of my copies of my resume, put on my raincoat the next day and off I went on the train and found my way to the expo grounds. Went in through the security, got kicked out pretty quickly because I didn't have a pass, but instead of going out the door for the exit. I, without hesitation, went straight ahead and found myself on the expo grounds and, uh, I was pretty proud of myself because I actually wasn't much of a rule breaker and this was, this was a big thing for me to do, but I really, really wanted to live out my, my vision of my life in Portugal.  

So the first place I went to, I thought, well, of course I should go to the Canadian Pavilion. They'll hire me. And at this point, I was offering my services for free. I was going to volunteer. I just wanted an experience and to get something that I could add to my resume down the road. So I went to the Canadian Pavilion, which is run by Heritage Canada. And I'm sorry to say that they were not very friendly to me. They were not very Canadian. Even though I was offering to volunteer and seeing how I could help out, , they actually called security on me because I didn't have a pass. So] I quickly took off from there. I went to the U. S. Pavilion they were actually much nicer to me. They were very friendly. Sent me off on my first volunteer excursion , lo and behold, I got busted and, was told I had to leave the grounds.  

I left the expo very dejected, sitting on the steps just at sort of the entrance into the whole area and I see these four clowns all dressed differently. There were three men and a woman and it was like they were practicing their routine for what they were going to be doing during the day like buskers, right? , on the expo grounds they were really funny I must have looked a really sorry sight. Next thing you know they come over start miming different things and you know putting a smile on my face and and in pretty short time, I was laughing and smiling with them. They couldn't speak my language I couldn't speak. Well, maybe they could, but they weren't going to break character. But we communicated just by smiles and miming and had a good laugh. And that turned things around for me in a big way. I hope that perhaps they have a story that they share or it was a moment that they got a positive interaction out of. But that was one of those key moments of connection that really changed my outlook on where I was and what I was doing. I quickly realized I didn't want to miss this opportunity to be in Portugal. There was going to be a different way. I was going to make this work somehow.  

So I called home and asked for, asked my parents for some advice. Now, I was raised to never spend what you don't have. If you want something you save for it. Don't use a credit card unless you spend only what you have in your bank account. So I was shocked when my father of all people suggested I get a cash advance on my credit card and just stay in Portugal and have an experience. 

Now, being a parent of 18, 17 year olds, I realized he was just trying to keep me probably from moving off to Toronto with a boy and being concerned about not hearing from me or seeing me again in the near future. That's all it took. I decided to stay on and that was the beginning of Paula's Portugal 1998, 2.0.  

Today, actually, I'm looking at myself from a, in a photo from 1998, and, I'm in the Alentejo in Monsaraz, standing on top of the ruins of a castle there, a very famous castle there, with a view that goes for miles. I have my black baseball cap on backwards, Ray Ban sunglasses, and wearing my favorite spaghetti strap, calf length, light denim style, cotton dress, feeling like I don't have a care in the world, not knowing what my future may hold.  

I plan to go back in a couple of weeks and take that same shot. I was laughing to myself today as I'm trying to pack two weeks in carry on and making sure I have the right tech pants, my thin Patagonia, my high tech lightweight raincoat. My fully supported full running shoe with orthotics, et cetera, et cetera. And I look at this picture that I took, there's no tech wear. And I decided if I could walk for miles in 1998 without tech wear and look stylish and happy, I'm sure as hell gonna do it now. Got rid of the tech gear, went and bought myself a cute pair of trendy jeans, a cute little jacket and a French looking blouse that will hold a French tuck beautifully. 

I am so excited to go to Portugal in a couple of weeks to the Alentejo region and back to Cascais to the street called Visconde da Luz and have a look at my old apartment and just Take a moment to reflect on what these last, oh gosh, 20 plus years, have brought into my life and, , feel very grateful to have had the experience there in 1998. And I can't wait to see what experiences I have there in 2025. 

Let's now move into a little bit about In My Kitchen and more on In My Kitchen, the listen to episode three on why I started In My Kitchen and episode nine titled a brand is born.. 

I had an event career that spanned about 22 years, and in that it taught me the importance of systems in order to comfortably move through the chaos. This has influenced how I travel, cook, and run In My Kitchen. I started In My Kitchen, it was founded in 2018, so about six years ago now. And I wanted to create a platform where passionate, knowledgeable home cooks from diverse cultures invite you into their kitchen to share their recipes and stories. 

Some of our hosts were Melissa from Umbria, Italy, Leila from Rasht, Iran, Raymond from the Mekong Delta, Chef GJ from Northern India, and at one point we had 12 different hosts. It was my hope that through these experiences coupled with traveling, people will gain a better understanding of each other through food. 

Present day In My Kitchen is an after school cooking club, speaking engagements, our podcast show, and we do some corporate team building events as well. But back then, um, after we did the in person events, we then had the, pandemic. And everything went online and then it took about a year or two to see how everything was going to flush out. And I'm really excited about where we are now. And I'm also really excited about where we're going.  

That's a little bit about my story, my connection to food, travel, culture and what inspired me, my connection to Portugal and a little bit about In My Kitchen. Next week, I'm going to share with you my perspective on why is connection so important and my three travel principles. 

Until then, happy cooking, happy travels. And thank you for tuning in to the In My Kitchen with Paula podcast show. 

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Paula Mohammed

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