Here is Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium on the web. Their Bar Harbor location is closed until next month, but they also have a store in Massachusetts–and mail order.

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Destination: France

Books: As They Were and Long Ago In France by M. F. K. Fisher

I could list many more books by Fisher above, but these two just happen to be on hand at the moment.

One summer a long time ago we were spending some lazy time on the beach in California and I wandered down a little street in some lovely seaside town and stumbled upon a wonderful book store. Not knowing then that I would be writing about it now, I did not bother to write down its name, but it was one of those wonderful multi-roomed cottages filled with a jumble of books and a pretty little garden of unruly zinnias and roses  in front and out back.

There I discovered a shelf of books about food and living in France and in California,  by a writer I had never heard of before. I bought two or three of the books for reading on the beach and Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher(1908-1992) became one of my favorite writers.  I love food. I love to prepare it, to eat it, and to read about it. So does Fisher, but her sense of food is so much more educated and refined than mine will ever be that I will never stop learning from her.

Not only that, but her writing is inspiring, as well. As They Were (1985) contains a collection of essays and articles that she published throughout her career, and she tied them together with introductions telling a bit about her life. I love them all, but one stands out. In, “I Was Really Very Hungry,” she is walking in northern Burgundy, and stops in mid day at the country restaurant of a famous chef, empty except for the serving woman. “…who was frightenly fanatical about food, like a medieval woman possessed by the devil.”

Course after course comes out, lovingly described by the waitress as it is served, until  ” ‘You may feel you have eaten too much.’ (the waitress said)  I nodded idiotic agreement. ‘But this pastry is like feathers…it is like snow. It is in fact good for you, a digestive! And why?’….’Because Monsieur Paul did not even open the flour bin until he saw you coming!’”

In all of her work, she draws characters with precise recall of dialogue and with sharp observation and apt metaphor. It helps to understand how she developed such skill  to read about her beginnings as an expert on food and writing.

In Long Ago In France: The Years in Dijon (1991), Fisher was young. It was 1929 and she was 21, newly married, and studying to be an artist. While her husband attended graduate school in Dijon, she went to art classes.  But always she kept a journal and she learned by observing and experimenting not only to speak French, but to appreciate wine and good food.

After a year in a boarding house, she and her husband moved into their own apartment. There she began to learn to cook and shop for food. “butter here, sausage there, bananas someplace again, and rice and sugar and coffee in still other places.”

“We ate well, too.  It was the first real day-to-day meal-after-meal cooking I had ever done, and it was only a little less complicated than performing an appendectomy on a life raft…it was fun.”

She decided writing was effortless and fun compared to painting, and published her first book on food Serve It Forth in 1937. Besides the book on Dijon, she wrote about living in Province– Arles, Avignon, and Marseille both before and after  World War II. And if you are traveling on the coast of California, Fisher can paint pictures of that land for you as well.

Click on the photograph to go to the Flickr source and get the bonus of a recipe for Pain d’Epice of Dijon. And remember that you can always get more articles on France by looking at the page tab above ↑ that says “By Country” or by typing “France” in the search box over there →.

And it will be France on Friday at A Traveler’s Library. Last week it was Hemingway in Paris.

Is there a food writer that makes you want to go somewhere? Please share in our comment section.

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The River Walk. Stroll through lush landscaping, keep an eye out for architecture representing many periods of San Antonio history. Eat. Drink. Shop.

The Food. Book a boat and eat on board. Several River Walk restaurants feature dinner cruises. Mexican-influenced menus dominate, but this is a big city, and you can find all kinds of food. Still–those table-side, fresh-made, custom ingredient guacalmoles can’t be beat. Food shown here from Zuni Grill, Boudrou’s, and Hyatt Hill Country Resort. And how about learning to make a marguerita? We’re talking really BIG margueritas at Aldaco’s at Sunset Station!

Here’s a book of essays by Larry McMurtry about Texas Hill Country, and his road trip book which praises San Antonio (even though I did not think much of the book overall).

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Destination: Croatia

Book: Croatia: Travels in Undiscovered Country by Tony Fabijansic

(Continued)

3. Batana Boats

A tall, thin man wearing a red and white striped stocking cap and matching long-sleeved shirt rows the flat-bottomed batana boat around a rocky promontory. It’s just four Croatians and me on this dinner “cruise” celebrating this traditional handmade boat that Rovinj’s fisherman have used for centuries. There are no waves or wind on this moonless night as we head to a basement wine cellar at the water’s edge. The only thing guiding our way in the inky night is a small halogen light that one of the men holds and points at the rocky shore. Finally, I glimpse a set of steps that end on the waterfront. We dock beside them and climb up to a stone dwelling where I can hear a woman with a melodious voice singing sweet folk music. She’s joined by string instruments. In the basement that’s pocked with huge wine barrels and a handful of long communal tables, bowls and plates sail out of the small kitchen: a thick fish stew in tomato sauce, sardines in olive oil, anchovies atop arugula, several kinds of whole fish, giant grilled shrimp. It’s me and now 12 Croatians. No one speaks English. But wine jugs are passed around. Glasses are raised and glasses clink for a toast. More fish dishes arrive on the table. I don’t need a translator.

4. Peacocks

Once the ferry drops me on Lokrum Island off of Dubrovnik, I’m alone. The other tourists remain at the sandy beach beside the ferry dock but, with picnic lunch in hand, I wander the narrow tree-lined lanes. The signs are in Croatian so I simply pick a trail and follow it where it may lead. One heads through a wild botanical garden loaded with bamboo, palms, carnivorous plants and roses. All live peacefully together. Each plant is labeled with its origin: New Zealand, Holland, China, and Australia. It’s like a round-the-world trip all within half an acre. Then I take a stony trail that rises to the island’s one hill, the setting for the ruins of a fort. I climb to the top even though neither the stairs nor the floor looks stable. From this vantage point, I gaze across the water at Dubrovnik where yet another immense cruise ship is docking. My picnic lunch of bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives and apples hasn’t been touched. I’m looking for a place that speaks to me as the perfect picnic spot. So I follow another trail that wanders to the other side of the island through a dark wood. It’s so dark, it looks like the noonday sun just switched off. I hear rustling in the brush and am seriously thinking of turning back when I peer through a break in the branches and see peacocks. They are congregating near what looks like a water-filled quarry that’s shaded by an immense umbrella of foliage. I walk to the rocky edge where there are a network of gnarled tree roots and gaze at the seamless turquoise water at the bottom. I take the steps that are cut into the rock leading down to the water where I find a small wood platform for sunning, and picnicking. My only company as I bite into a vine-ripened tomato and freshly baked bread: a lone peacock who left his clan at the top.

Thanks, Jeanine, for this evocative tour of Croatia.  So often we learn the most about a country around a dining table.  Readers, what experiences have you had with food in a foreign place.  What did you learn about a culture by eating and drinking with the residents of a place?  Have you read any books on Croatia that we should add to the traveler’s library?  Join the discussion. We look forward to hearing from you.

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