CITY Issue 59

FOOD FOR THE SOUL ON THE GO There’s much more to international cuisine than touches the tongue M y stepmother, Julia, calls me minutes before my ﬂight is set to leave fo Venice, Italy. She wants to wish me bon voyage, o buon viaggo, and we talk about my t avel plans. I’ve calculated that I’ll be the e fo about waking hou s, which, I only half joke, means se vings of gelato. She points out that I’ll be able to get Taleggio in its native count y, unsullied by hou s in the ai plane and days in the f idge at the local cheese shop. (Choosing a favo ite cheese seems a bit like choosing a favo ite child, but if I we e asked at the pea ly gates about my p efe ence, Taleggio would be it.) I’ve been so focused on the gelato, and whethe they’ll have yogu t, Ricotta, o something even wei de , that when Julia points out the e’ll be amazing pasta, past ies and almond-y things, and we sta t talking ove each othe about all the food I’ll be t ying, I suddenly have even less patience fo that seven-hou ﬂ ight. In the backg ound, I can hea the G eek cho us of my fathe . “Piazza San Ma co!” he’s saying. “Look at the way the light hits the buildings!” It’s emba assing to admit, but the ﬁ st thing I think of when I pictu e my t ip to Venice isn’t that I’ll ﬁ nally see the chu ches of Italy and the way the light st ikes the ogees and the gondola-cove ed canals. Rathe , I think about eating, and what I will t y. I t avel constantly, and even though it’s a luxu y I ﬁnd it ha d to skip ove so many time zones, to have so many lonely hotel check-ins, to spend so much time at JFK. So, I have to dist act myself. Befo e I sta ted t aveling so much, ﬂying, to me, meant McDonald’s at the te minal and an obscene amount of chocolate du ing the ﬂight. It was all about a few hou s of escape f om no malcy. But now I’ve lea ned that that much McDonald’s is a bad idea, and discove ed that I need food cues to feel fully settled whe e I’ve landed. I used to only hope ILLUSTRATION BY PATRICK MORGAN that my Ge man g andmothe would make what my family calls “kischenmannle,” which is he mixtu e of pudding of b ead, milk, che ies, and an insane amount of cinnamon — but now I p actically demand it on a ival. In my mind, it cla iﬁes that I’m visiting he . It ope ates as a talisman of ou togethe ness, and it’s taken on epic p opo tions: I need to taste it to know that I’m t uly the e. This summe , I took my stepfathe to lunch at the Nu nbe g Essigb ätlein in Nu embe g, Ge many. It’s a estau ant that used to have one Michelin sta and now has two. s we sat and talked about feelings and elationships, I ealized ou connection didn’t need that estau ant to happen, but it ce tainly helped that it was the thi d yea in a ow we sha ed g een bean butte and tomato seeds. “ ll of you sto ies a e about eating,” my new f iend Chani says to me a few days befo e I leave fo Venice as I launch into yet anothe monologue about something that happened to me and how exciting it was. I t y to co ect he . It’s not that all of my sto ies a e about eating, but that they’ e all ancho ed a ound food. nd that’s what happens when I t avel, especially now: I need to ancho myself to something, and that something is dinne . In New o k, when I’m above th St eet, I know I’m going to The Mode n; below th St eet, it’s Momofuku Ssam. When I’m inventing easons to feel insecu e about my family, I pou all of my love into a baking dish. nd when I’m excited — but ne vous — about spending a few hectic days in a fo eign city, I plan my t ip not by studying a map o dete mining how I’ll get to my hotel, but by listing all the dishes I’m going to t y. The wo ld is so much smalle today, and I know I’m not the only one who sometimes feels unmoo ed. We all need emotional ancho s, moments to hold on to, and objects to pin ou love, happiness, and expe ience onto. Mine just happen to be edible. CITY TY 53

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 59

CITY Issue 59 Contents Have You Heard? Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment Diary Temporary Contemporary In Rogue The Amused Bouche Fast Food Tara Subkoff Alvarourbano Hardy Blachman Javier Peres Cult Classic Dream Jewels London Calling Argentina Good Airs Mission from God Your Place, and Mine One City, Many Destinations I'm Good, I'm Gone. 7 Hour Overdrive Where to Buy It Cityscape

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