No, don’t worry! We are not turning into a cooking show! I just had this wild idea the other day: why not share my other love with you too, besides traveling – no, not my boyfriend… the other thing, cooking! Okay… well, food in general, really.

All this time the banner of the website was saying: Travel | Photography | Food – while in the “About Me” you can read:  Made In Hungary | Lost in Spain – Currently in Barcelona
… And there’s travel – duh. – there’s quite a bit of photography too, but I realized there’s not so much of a food content going around here. So, last week I had that lightbulb moment 💡

I want – but I don’t know if you guys need tho’… – a proper food section here on the blog

Look… we keep the focus on travel guides, but let’s see, how about maybe 1 or 2 foodie post a month? I’m thinking of Spanish and Hungarian recipes – we will expand our territories as we grow, obviously – with step by step guides, and photo instructions. I’m not just yet ready for TikTok I’m afraid – but let’s see… maybe with time, you guys will give me the confidence I’m lacking of now, and I will do videos. Okay so there’s this, and my other idea would be restaurant reviews, recommendations, and my personal favorites… Mainly in Barcelona, but again, let’s see…

Travel and food go very well together, no? Yes. – I mean… I certainly think so.

I remember the first time I reeEaaAally traveled abroad- it was to Croatia, and it felt like 🎵 a whole new wooorld🎵 for me, and I couldn’t wait to try as much local food as I could. This thing hasn’t changed, every time I travel I want to try something new. I was never a picky eater and I think I’m a very open person when it comes to food! Bring on the snails from France… with a bit of shark meat… and some eels in Spain and ah, of course… the bugs in Mexico. Any questions?

I was scrolling back in my phone’s camera, looking for food pictures to add to this post, but now I’m thinking, how far I should go back – a few days, weeks, or years?
Years probably…
My love and connection with food goes all the way back to my early years. My mom is an amazing cook, so was my grandmother – Hungarian cuisine is very rich, and thanks to them I memorized all the flavors.
Spanish flavors – I’ve always loved them on my travels, and they permanently moved into my kitchen about 5 years ago when I started to see my mother-in-law cooking, and since then I’m learning her tricks too.

When I moved out from home for university I started to cook for myself – but back then nothing serious, cuz I went home every weekend, and left with a bag full of Tupperware – my mom made sure I was not starving all week.
The reality hit when I moved to Manchester – England in 2014. It didn’t take much time for me to realize that British cuisine is… sad. Sorry. So, I had to start cooking real dishes other than scrambled eggs and the easy stuff... My first stew was a success… And then I was like holdonasecond… I think I actually like cooking – I really do, and I love the feeling when I see people enjoying what I cooked for them – but I’m not a chef. I almost became one tho‘.
… I used to hang out in the kitchen all the time at my old workplace. When they got hammered with orders, I usually went in to help and the head chef loved the food I was making – she said I put together a plate in a rush better than some of her chefs. She wanted me in her kitchen, and she told me many times that she will teach me things from scratch. I was thinking about it a lot – but back then I felt so very burnt out already in the hospitality business and the unreal working hours, that I said no. It would’ve been a change I was longing for, true… but for the better? I’m not sure about that. Yet sometimes, there are still days when my mind wanders far away for a second, and thinking how it would’ve been if…

Oookay.
I need to tell you one thing in advance before we start this – don’t ask me if it’s 3 or 4 grams of this, and what’s a pinch of that. I don’t know.
Put as much as your flavor buds say – that’s what I do, I swear. As I said, most of the time I literally cook from memories of the flavors I have of certain dishes. Of course, I check the main ingredients, but the flavors, the finishing touches, those pinches and hints of this and that… I look for them in my memories.

Now that’s cooking… BUT… baking is an evil art, you MUST follow a cake or cookie recipe to the last letter because I swear if you put 1 gram extra of something the whole cake turns against you and starts bullying you until you cry in the corner.

Okay, now that you got the whole idea of this, I hope you are a little bit excited – I sure am

I guess it’s better if I start sharpening my knives.

See you at the next one
… I mean the first one then

Noémi

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