Learning about the food culture tells you a lot about a country — from the way they like to eat to the flavours that colour their cuisine.
A cookbook will give you a taste for the type of dishes you’ll experience when you’re on vacation and the recipes will allow you to recreate your favourite dishes — and bring back happy vacation memories once you’ve come back home.
Eat Portugal
This brand new guide may be small, but it’s big enough to tell you all you need to know about Portugal’s rustic and delicious cuisine. This simple but essential guide includes recipes a glossary of ingredients and dishes, and a Portuguese-English dictionary. Whip it out at your dinner table and you can identify whether you’re ordering a meatball (almondega) or an almond (amendoa). eatportugal.net
A Kitchen Safari
This colourful guide gives a snapshot of the cuisine served at luxury safari camps and lodges It includes delicious, copious meals, exceptional hospitality and magical settings from sundowners in the bush to lantern-lit barbeques in the forest. Recipes are pan-African including Springbok carpaccio and Can Can chicken, but globally pleasing rather than wildly adventurous. The book is filled with evocative images of the animals, dishes — and warm people — that will make your visit there so memorable. amazon.com
Food Journeys of a Lifetime
A sort of gastronomic encyclopaedia, this National Geographic book covers food markets, incredible ingredients, street foods and top restaurants to try, food festivals, recipes from the world’s finest chefs and foodie destinations. The glossy photos here evoke the smells and flavours of gourmet delights worldwide, from fish and chips in England to the fragrant floating markets of Thailand.
Recipes from an Italian Summer
Italy is the perfect summer destination for many food-lovers and this new book from the Silver Spoon team reminds you why that is. The charts of seasonal produce and Italian food festivals, the 380 recipes for refreshing salads, rustic picnics, tasty barbeques, tantalising deserts and ice cream, and the photos of rolling landscapes, market-fresh produce and kids playing in sun-kissed piazzas will make you want to book your next holiday. phaidon.com
Time Out London’s Best Restaurants
Serious gastronomes plan holidays according to where they’ll be enjoying breakfast, lunch and dinner, and there’s no better place to do that than London, where you can also add afternoon tea. This well-written, objective, comprehensive guide illustrated helps you cherry-pick whether you’re hungry for pie and mash or a Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich. The 2012 edition is out in October. timeout.com
