Travel tip #171: How travel brings back the happy, leisurely lunch
Published about 6 hours agoย โขย 9 min read
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Hi Reader,
I am just back home after almost a month away in the Pacific, what a trip of a lifetime that was!
While I reflect on all the amazing moments and finalise the details of our new tour to French Polynesia (join the waitlist to be notified when it goes live), I am also trying to get over the 12h time difference and the 48h of travel, including 30h in the air and 2 nights, that it took me to get back home.
I landed at 7am yesterday and by noon I was crashing, completely unable to stay awake. This is why you are receiving this week's Friday email on a Saturday, I could not stay awake to write it.
Leaving Bora Bora
Flying across date lines is totally wild.
My journey started on the 1st of September flying from Bora Bora to Papeete, Tahiti and ended on the 4th of September at 7am in Barcelona.
I went to the airport in Tahiti on the 2nd of September at around 1am and landed in Auckland, New Zealand 5 hours later on the 3rd of September at 7am. I lost a full day in 5 hours, go figure!
I then continued flying west and gaining time, and by the time I landed in Barcelona, 35 hours later, it was already the 4th of September at 7am.
If your head is spinning, imagine mine!
I do not wish this on my worst enemy ๐
You can follow me on Instagram to see the last few days of this amazing trip as I finish sharing it in stories.
My Sky Couch seats (remember there were 2 of us)
My trip was also fully in Economy, although from Papeete to Auckland and Auckland to Singapore I had booked the Sky Couch Economy seats from Air New Zealand that allow you to book an extra Economy seat (so you get 3 across for 2 adults) that have a footrest that comes up all the way giving you a sort of flat bed.
This was pretty useful to be able to stretch your legs and have extra space, although if there are 2 of you there is no way you can sleep flat even if you both lay down on your side and love to cuddle like pretzels.
So on to this week's newsletter.
I wanted to talk about a piece I read last month about how we are losing the tradition of a long, sometimes boozy, leisurely lunch and how travel may be bringing this back, as it sure does on our tours!
But before that, go listen to this week's podcast episode which has me and Meg talking about group travel.
Who it is for, who it not for and what it asks of you. You will also hear Meg's magnificent singing in between our talk.
And if you are enjoying the podcast, leave us a review, it really helps others find it as it tells Apple, Spotify or whatever platform you use, that this is a worthy podcast to listen to.
And thanks to all those who have emailed us and let us know your thoughts and comments, it really means a lot to us.
PS We will also try to speak slower next time. When we get excited, we speak even faster than usual, and we both have been told all of our lives that we speak too fast. Tip: You can also use the player on the platform you use to listen to us to slow us down ๐
Travel is often a time to slow down, to see the world from other people's perspective and to participate in their traditions.
On our tours, we spend a lot of time and effort to bring a place's culinary roots and traditions to the forefront of the program because we believe that this is such an important and fundamental part of a place's way of seeing the world and its culture that it deserves attention.
The food of a place tells you a lot about the wars it was involved in and the civilisations that invaded it, the trading relationships it forged, its strategic and geographical position, its climate, its landscapes, even its religion.
If you can understand its gastronomy and food traditions, you can learn a lot about a place.
For example, if you have traveled to Southern Europe, you know that meals here are not a transaction, they are not designed with the objective of fuelling the body only.
They are social gatherings, they are cultural expressions, they are set around conversations and they are above all, unhurried.
A waiter will not bring you the bill unless you ask for it, because the meal does not end when all the food is consumed, the end of the conversations signals the end of the meal.
At home, with your family, Sunday lunch is the most important meal of the week, the one that deserves a grand opening, an introductory aperitif, a big time allowance and even an invitation to eat out or at someone else's house in what turns into a grand shared feast.
This is a meal that does not have a timeline.
It can take 2 hours if it is rushed, or turn into 6 if it is summertime, the days are long and hot, and you have nowhere else to be.
Historically, lunch used to be the main and only meal of the day, as this piece by The New Yorker in honor of lunch explains. The masses had only time and money for one main meal and it was taken in the middle of the day.
As Western societies expanded, the wealthy started to eat multiple times a day and then the middle class did too. By the middle of the 19th century, the three-meal a day formula had settled in.
These days, the work week lunch is more often than not a transaction.
You bring a sandwich from home, a Tupperware of the nutritionally balanced meal that will allow you to build muscle and maintain your weight, or go out to "grab lunch" and eat it at your desk.
A burrito, a meal from a food truck, a deli sandwich, a burger, a salad bar, a sandwich deal, a fast food meal deal...
A boozy lunch in Girona, during our Barcelona & Beyond trip
In Spain, we have the tradition of the lunch set menu (menu del dia) that every restaurant in a city will offer at lunch time during the week.
It has a fixed, very affordable price that is the same every day and used to be determined by the government, and it is what most office workers eat. It is convenient, fast and widely available near your office.
All this to say that lunch has become a quick and dirty affair that is designed to take up the least amount of time so you can go back to work and produce.
Lunch feast of traditional salads in Fes, Morocco
On the other side, taking a long leisurely lunch during a work week is an act of rebellion reserved for the wealthy, the retired or the important business meetings that want to impress. even if The New York Times thinks it is going out of style.
But, do you know who else has the ability and privilege to enjoy a long, leisurely lunch?
The traveler, especially the solo female traveler who wants to avoid being out at night but still wants to sample the cuisine of a destination.
I have been known to make dinner reservations at Michelin-starred restaurants before, especially when I am visiting cities that have a well regarded dining scene.
I enjoy my own company, and I love to people watch and to talk to the waiters and the staff at upscale restaurants bars. They simply have THE best recommendations for food and drinks and even for lesser popular places to check out or activities to participate in.
As I continue to combine work and travel, I am becoming more accustomed to using evenings to catch up on work, so these outings are less common these days and I am favoring a longer, extra leisurely lunch instead, even if it takes up time out of exploring a city.
I consider food the ultimate expression of a place, and I love experiencing the culinary creativity of chefs be it in the form of a cafe lunch with a side of cool drinks or a set lunch at an awarded restaurant which comes with the added benefit of being significantly cheaper than its dinner equivalent.
On our tours, we favor long leisurely lunches over dinners because we love to break up the day and enjoy conversation without the late night threat looming over an early start the next day.
Lunch time conversations in Georgia
I love the long lunches in Tuscany with wonderful views of the rolling hills, the lunch feasts we enjoy in Georgia, shared with powerful women stirring things up in their country, the paella feast right on the beach in Costa Brava or the farewell dinner above the crashing waves Sitges, during our Barcelona & Beyond trip.
I find that there is nothing better than a midday meal in between dips in the sea and visits to Medieval fortified towns that we will enjoy every day on our Sailing Croatia meal.
I am trying to reclaim the leisurely lunch idea, because it is the perfect vessel for the type of connections that we have with the women we meet on our tours.
When you open your taste buds to new flavors and smells you are also opening your senses to new expressions of life and culture. It is then that your mind is most keen to see a different perspective on a topic you were hard set on.
This is how travel opens doors to connection, and to understanding, while pushing away preconceived notions and stereotypes.
Moutabal in Egypt
How do you feel about lunch? I would love to hear your thoughts. Just reply to this email and let us know. We read and answer ALL emails we receive.
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The paella we eat by the sea in Costa Brava, on our Barcelona and Beyond tour
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