In My Kitchen with Paula

Culinary Adventures Part 3: Paula's Method of Travel and Connection

• Paula Mohammed • Episode 27

Share episode

Want to explore the world more meaningfully — one dish, one market, one moment at a time?

In this final installment of my three-part series, I’m wrapping things up by sharing the simple framework I use to explore culture through the lens of food. It’s a method I unconsciously developed during my 22 years in event planning, and it’s become the secret sauce behind some of my most memorable and meaningful travel moments. This approach helps me slow down, connect deeply, and travel with intention.

In this episode, I share:
 📖 How I prep for a trip in a way that fuels connection, not stress
 🍴 My favorite way to discover a culture through food
 🧳 Why systems can actually enhance spontaneity

If you’ve enjoyed the travel stories in this series or want a new way to connect with people and places, this episode is for you!

HELPFUL LINKS

SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW

If you love this podcast and want to give me your support, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This goes a long way in helping me get in front of other culinary adventurers like you.

Just open up the Apple Podcasts app and go to “In My Kitchen with Paula”. Or, in this episode, click on the 3 dots in the right corner and click on “Go To Show”. At the bottom of the show page, you can rate and review.

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 will take a ride into the ins and outs of their culture and country.

Come on, let's get this party started.

 In this three part series, I shared my personal story, travel philosophy, and the principles and steps that helped me to discover the world in a more meaningful way when I'm traveling. I've also used travel stories from when I lived in Portugal for a short period of time in 1998, and stories from my most recent visit to Portugal where I just got back a few days ago.

I use these stories because who doesn't love a good travel story, but also to highlight the framework that I'm discussing in these three episodes. Just a quick recap. Last week in episode 26, I shared all about the power of micro moments, those small spontaneous connections that can transform a trip, and how they have also shaped both my personal adventures and actually help create the foundation of In My Kitchen.

I also shared my three trip planning principles that helped me maximize my connection to the places I visit using food as the vehicle. And then in the episode before that, in episode 25, I shared my experience of an unexpected and kind of life-changing adventure that happened to me in Portugal back in 1998.

I also share the beauty of discovery when things don't always go as planned. Finally, in this episode, I'll share my four go-to steps to exploring a culture through the lens of food. It may sound a little dry, but it's actually a framework that I unconsciously evolved and adopted from my event days, and it has served me really well.

Now, I am not a chef. I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not a travel expert, but I do love to understand the people and cultures I encounter, and I love to do that using food as the vehicle. It has provided many, many micro and macro connections for me,  as I've learned about the culture, the people, the places I visit, and it fills my jar with many moments that accumulate to create an abundance of long lasting, positive emotions that allow me to flourish.

So I hope that by the end of this three part series, you might have some takeaways that will help you flourish by connecting through food and your travels. Let's dive right into part three of my three part series.

 As I said earlier, my event career of 22 years instilled in me a respect for systems. My event planning tools that I created gave me a framework where I could live in the chaos and not only handle, but hit out of the ballpark, the unexpected curve balls when in the throes of production.

Unconsciously, I create systems in many err arenas of my life: simple or complex systems. I do this for In My Kitchen of course, but also I was surprised to recognize that I do this in my travels. I was surprised as I like to think that I still travel with the mindset I had back in the day when I was backpacking and had unlimited time.

But the principles I outlined in the previous podcast episode and these four steps actually helped me to attain that sense of freedom and connection in my travels, even in limited timeframes. So let's get started on my four steps to exploring culture through the lens of food. 

My first step is get organized. Having a system to manage and track important elements of my trip in advance actually gives me the freedom to discover spontaneously while traveling. I can spend my time exploring rather than stressing out if I renewed my health insurance or have a confirmation for the bike rental company, et cetera.

It was interesting. I had a conversation recently with someone who I was traveling with to Portugal, and he said for him, freedom equals freedom. Because we were talking about this upcoming episode I was gonna record. So for him, freedom equals freedom. A break from systems and organizing.

So again, this is what works for me. And it may not work for you. I will say that I was the one that had a plan for our trip, and we had most places booked where we were going to go, but not all the places. And we did change our minds in the middle of the trip. We changed directions. Locations. Uh, decided to get the rental car earlier. We took into account what the weather was doing, and of course, the unexpected also happened. 

So for two people with different mindsets, we were both very comfortable changing things on the fly and calmly navigating the unexpected. And being in the right  mindset to have some amazing connections with people, uh, mostly over meals, sitting at a bar in Lisbon, at the market in Cascais. We met some fellow travelers in a little cafe in Monsaraz. It was great. So all that to say, for me, having a framework and a structure kind of bookends at either end allows me to really comfortably embrace the different opportunities for discovery. 

So some examples of what I'll plan ahead and what I'll freestyle. Nothing is too earth shattering here.  Plan ahead, of course, international flights, visas, passport documentation, things like that. I do like to have a checklist that I can check these things off each trip.  

What I'll freestyle:  domestic travel. So as I mentioned in this last trip, we changed our plan for the rental car. We booked internal flights very last minute. , Restaurants, we don't, or I don't necessarily like to book or plan things too far in advance. I find that when I do, I don't take into account how I might be feeling that day. For example, in this last trip, one night in Paris actually, or last night there before we went to Portugal, we ended up going to this butcher across the street from where we were staying because I'd seen it earlier. Loved what he had. He had some pre-made stuff, some charcuterie, and we just did a picnic. It was great.  We had been planning to go to another restaurant that was recommended to us. We didn't make it. One day, I'd like to go back and try that restaurant out, but also like to have the opportunity for spontaneity in some of those decisions while we're traveling. 

Cultural excursions, tours, things like that, I don't generally book in advance.  Outdoor activities. Some things will book in advance, but oftentimes I like to leave some room for flexibility and see how our travels unfold.

So a few ways I like to get organized, uh, and oh, and I should say,  when I went to New Zealand, which was  a different kind of trip- stayed in one place, visited family, fantastic holiday- I didn't necessarily implement all these steps. I used a simple way of getting organized, just  a manila folder, my notes in my phone . 

When I do a trip where there's more traveling's involved and more, a larger scope I guess of organization, then I'll move into using  a digital spreadsheet that I love. I call it my Travel Planner Tool. And if you've been listening to these episodes, you'll have seen the link to it in the show notes. It's something that evolved out of my event days and it's served me well. In my event days, but it also has serving me really well in these  traveling times. Uh, it's a Google doc.  It's easy to share with other people that you're traveling with. I can access it on the go, click on confirmations. You don't need to be proficient in Excel.  Highly recommend to try it out. And if you want, feel free to email me and I'll walk you through how I use it. 

But just to go back to some other ways I get organized: so simple manila folder to gather printed materials. I'll also start jotting down ideas in my physical travel journal. So I do like to take a  a journal in my travels. I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to fill out each day, but it's there if I feel moved to record and write down a moment. I do like to do quick notes to keep track of what I've seen. Sometimes it doesn't happen until the end of the trip and I go back and just quickly record what we did each day, but I will start using it before my trip and I'll put notes in there. I'll jot down flight times as I'm working through the process of planning, and then things from that planning process that get used in the trip will find their way into my digital spreadsheet. 

I also love using Gmail and notes because I link the confirmation emails into my travel doc. I can click on it. It's all there. In Gmail, I use labels a lot. So I go back, I can go back now to trips, I think I went back to France 2013 and actually found where we stayed in Paris. Because I really liked the area that we were in back there and was able to easily find those emails. So I love Gmail. I use my notes and my phone all the time as well, just to track quick things.

Okay, let's move on to step two. My favorite step to exploring a culture through the lens of food is reading food focused books. So there are three types of food focused books I seek out: historical fiction, typically set in the country or region where I'm traveling. Food focused fiction with recipes sprinkled in and stories. And autobiographies, also, ideally with recipes in there. Some examples of three books like this,  three of my favorites. Hawaii by James Mitchner. I love this book. If you haven't read it, highly recommend reading it. It's a big read, but crack it open on your first day in Hawaii, with the sun beating down on you in the morning, your Kona coffee. And it starts with the, basically the evolution of the islands. And then it goes right through, into I think the early 1960s actually. And it's a really fascinating story and it's pretty special reading that while you're in Hawaii. The other book I really like is Isabella Allende's Aphrodite. And it's, um, her own personal stories, and then it's full of recipes, and so it's this very magical narrative. And every third or fourth page, there's a new recipe there that ties into the stories. And then my all time favorite is this little gray book called Cooking For Me and Sometimes You, a Parisian Romance with Recipes. And this book was written by Barbara Jo Macintosh, who was uh, a Vancouverite and a restaurateur. She now has a bed and breakfast in Lyon, France. But this book is like, I think it's probably one of the best roadmaps as well for traveling in Paris and it's full of great recipes that are for one or two people.

I was reading it on this trip.  So basically two weeks ago, I was sitting in Paris in Luxembourg Garden and wanted to reread this book and it was wonderful. Because you can go to the restaurants that she mentions. I found a bookstore that she mentioned that I'd never heard of before. There's little maps on either side.

I feel, um, like I'm being a bit of a tease telling you all about this book. Because sadly it's not in print anymore, but I'm hoping that we can get it back in print and I would love to get some copies and to be able to share it with you. But if you can get your hands on it. Cooking For Me and Sometimes You, a Parisian Romance with Recipes by Barbara Jo Macintosh.

So you'll have noticed. That's right. No cookbooks. For me, it's not about the how to or the technique. I will get cookbooks often. I buy cookbooks when I'm traveling. I have to cut myself back now, but I don't necessarily dive into the cookbooks before I go. 

I'm gonna contradict myself here though and say that recipes become the treasure map when I'm in my travels. But I like to use the recipes that I've read about in these books that I've just shared with you, because they've connected me a little bit to the culture. There's a story there. I'm committed to the recipe. It's triggered something in me.

So I love to take the recipe, whether it's in my travel journal, I've put it in my notes, and use it to find out more and learn more about the people, the ingredients, the culture, and the stories behind the dishes. It doesn't feel like research. It's more like exploring. I feel like I'm on an adventure,

Just to recap, I'll read a book pre-trip, then take a recipe that I've discovered in that book with me on my travels, and then I love to go to the market and spot the ingredients in the wild. So using that recipe as a bridge to communicate with the vendors. When I was in Portugal back in 1998, there was a market that took place every Wednesday and Saturday, just not far from where I was and it was a big, big market. And  it gave me an opportunity to go and, and be around people. And I, I took, um, a recipe. I don't know, I had a recipe for chicken stock and I'm trying to think where I got it from. But in my first week, I took that recipe to the market and I was able to connect with some vendors and they showed me the ingredients and I pulled things together. 

Now, we all know chicken stock is pretty basic. I must have got myself a chicken and then roasted it and used the carcass. And then I would've got some vegetables, the celery, onion, carrots.  But I also remember striking up conversations with different people, different vendors.

What was really cool is when I was just back in Portugal, that market is still there running, every Wednesday and Saturday still. It's grown quite a bit, but it was really fun to, uh, go back in there and, again, I can, it's a, I just love connecting to the vendors. I met a lovely woman, young woman there and they had sea urchin. And so I was talking to her about it and she happened to speak English and I said, oh, in New Zealand we call these kina and it turned out she had lived in New Zealand so of course we connected over that because uh, if you listen to one of our previous episodes, you'll know how much I love talking about my time in New Zealand.

Here's a great quote that I love. "A recipe is a story that ends with a good meal" and this is a quote by Pat Conroy. You may recognize the name. He's an American author who wrote Prince of Tides, also one of my favorite books. 

Third step to exploring a culture through the lens of food is discover relevant podcasts. I like listening to podcasts that include people like the guest or the interviewer from the region that I plan to go to or that I'm interested in. I like to know their story: who they are, not just the topic at hand. I then wanna know where they go and hang out, what dishes they make, and what stories are behind those dishes.

I'll use that info to explore further if those are places I want to add to my trip. When we go on road trips and we're driving through the middle of nowhere,  I'm always peering out the window, driving by houses, wondering what are their lives like? What do they eat? What do they do here? What excites them?

And the same thing happens when I'm traveling. I'm always curious about the daily routines. What would people have for breakfast, lunch, dinner? You'll notice I often ask that actually in the podcast episodes because I'm genuinely curious about what that routine looks like. It gives me, um, a window into what the culture is like, the cultural norms. So for me, I try to find podcasts that are windows, like I said, into those homes of the places I want to visit. And I found  a while ago that it was not easy to find the kind of podcast I was looking at. And that's why I started In My Kitchen with Paula podcast show. And one of my favorite moments just took place last week when we were on a road trip in the Alentejo region of Portugal, and I actually used one of our In My Kitchen podcast episodes for our own travel experience. So we're driving through the Alentejo listening to episode 21. The date of that episode is February 19th of this year, and it was an interview I did with Alfred Cunhal Sedim.

And he champions a Montado Agro ecology ecological system on his grandfather's old estate. Super interesting story just about that estate itself. Uh, and it's called the Freixo do Meio, and we decided to go to the Freixo to see the project and say hello to Alfredo. It was a sunny, warm day. The windows were down, we're driving through, uh, it's about an hour past Lisbon. It was the first leg into our Alentejo road trip and there we are listening to Alfredo describe the area as we are in, right in the thick of it with cork trees on either side of us.  And it was really something else. And then going and meeting Alfredo was the cherry on top. We had a brief but lovely visit and it was great to see firsthand what Alfredo discussed so passionately about in our podcast chat. Just this short experience that we had at the Freixo do Meio was heightened by listening to the chat that I'd had with him a few weeks earlier. If you're not someone that listens to podcasts very often, don't just go blank right now or, or turn a blind eye to this. Um, I always include a link to our podcast in the newsletter.

So I, I send out the newsletter now on the same day on Thursdays when the latest podcast is launched. And you can always just click the link right there and listen to it from our website.  Think of a podcast like an audiobook. You can listen to an episode straight through. Or you can stop and start at different times.

Many people will have one episode, but they only listen to it when they're driving. So that picks back up again when they hop in the car and they're listening. If you get the chance to listen to an episode while traveling through a region like I did, I highly recommend it. Tips for finding relevant podcasts, because like I said, it's not super easy. I highly recommend this podcast show In My Kitchen with Paula, but also let Google work for you. For example, I put in the search "podcast on food and culture in Portugal", and I found that that steered me in the right direction more so than looking on the podcast platforms.

And then, like I said, aim to listen to podcasts featuring someone who is from the destination that you wanna go to, rather than an outsider's perspective. And of course, I'm always looking for ones that are tied to food and have that, that connecting through food as the vehicle.

 The fourth step to exploring culture through the lens of food that I, I've actually sort of gotten into more recently is understand the communication style. I was inspired to learn more about this through a book called Culture Map by Erin Meyer. And to, just to sort of give you an example about what I mean, uh, when I was in Japan last March, I met a really interesting woman from a place that we were staying at, and  I really wanted to invite her to be a guest on our podcast show.

I asked her if she would be interested in being a guest on a podcast show. And what she said was,  she was honored and, and  felt very honored that I had asked her. And so I reached out to her again and I, of course, I just took that directly as meaning, yes, she would love to be on the show. Why wouldn't she wanna be on the show? 

When I got back to Vancouver, I emailed her, and again, she emailed back. Now, she's never actually said yes, she wanted to be on the show.  What she said was,  very humbly, oh, I don't think my English is good enough. And then. I emailed her back. Oh, I think it's fine.

And then we had a little back and forth and then it  stopped on her end and I didn't really hear anything again. I was a bit perplexed because I, I really thought we had a nice connection and I thought she was saying yes she wanted to be on the podcast show, but actually. It's a lot about what was not said. So she was making sure that I did not lose any face and she did not want to be on the podcast show. And she was telling me that by saying things such as,  I'm honored that you asked, but I'm not saying yes. That's the what was unsaid. And in many countries what is unsaid is as important as what is said.

A great way to learn about a person, culture, etiquette and how they communicate is over a meal, right?  It's a wonderful way. So take a cooking class before you go, or if you know somebody from the place that you're going to, invite them around for dinner. Observe when you talk to someone at a market. What is said? What is not said? Ideally, again, have this little bit of awareness of this before you go. It'll help with little things, like even asking for directions. You'll know if you need to be more specific in how you ask or not. 

I was chatting with my friend Selena yesterday about this actually. And one of the things we landed on is understanding how another culture communicates is key. Maybe more so if you're doing business with the other culture. In terms of traveling, we agreed what a difference it truly makes when we try to learn some very basics of the language, even just, hello, thank you, please, may I have a beer? 

We talked about why this makes such a difference, and here's what we decided. We will make mistakes when we try to speak another language. It will not be correct and it will not have the correct accent. Quite frankly, that is almost better than being perfect. 

The art of imperfection in this case lies in the act of being vulnerable. The confidence to allow yourself to be vulnerable to someone else when you're ordering your Cafe con leite or um, agua con gaze. Uh, yes. They may respond in abrupt English or they may smile and ask if you prefer English or Portuguese, but they'll have more respect for you, in my opinion, for putting yourself out there.

And more often than not, it'll open the door to more communication. It really makes a difference. And I've witnessed this over and over and over again and  it does take us out of our comfort zone, but even walking in and the first word that comes out,  is a bonjour, it might be English all the way after that. But you've shown a willingness to learn. 

And this brings me back to a quote that Alfred from the Freixo do Meio said in our interview. Because I asked him how he feels about the impact of tourism because Portugal is getting busy, guys, like really busy. And he said something that really resonated with me and he differentiated between tourists and visitors, and in my own words, I'll just summarize what he said. Tourists come and go through and sort of take, take, take, and have their experience. Visitors show a willingness to learn from the people of that region. And people of the region want to learn from visitors. It's a two-way street. 

And again, I think doing this over a meal at a market, reaching out, you're opening that door to that type of experience and relationship by being a visitor versus a tourist, when you just make an effort to put yourself out there and try and speak the language, even if it's just one word.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this three part series as we traveled through Portugal from 1998 to 2025. I have fully enjoyed doing this while being back in Portugal, and I hope there were some nuggets of info that are helpful to you. And if not, I hope you enjoyed some of my travel stories. If you are interested in downloading my travel planner tool, the link is in the show notes and it's also in all the episodes of the show. Don't hesitate to email me paula@inmykitchen.ca. Or you can send me a message on Instagram at InMyKitchenPaula, and I'm happy to walk you through it as well. As always, thank you for listening to In My Kitchen with Paula, and please share these episodes with other culinary adventures in your life.  📍 Obrigada

People on this episode

Contributor

Paula Mohammed

Host