Food Pilgrimage by Liat Bird

Finals week is almost over (thank goodness!), meaning the end to my first quarter of college and the beginning of a beautiful, beautiful respite. All hail Winter Break. The family will be together, meaning Mom and I will be together, meaning the Food Pilgrimage will be taking its final steps from the realm of imagination into the world of substance.

For those who haven't heard yet, the Bird women have decided to do something a little crazy, perhaps one might even say over the top (although when has Anat Bird ever been known to be moderate?) This summer, we're going to be taking a three week whirlwind tour of our favorite restaurants across the world, beginning with Brazil and ending in the good ol' US of A, California, to be specific. I feel like those English women of yore, who used to travel with large trunks and fur hats to "see the world," except that we're traveling with the clothes on our backs and thick-soled shoes to "eat some food."

This overreaching, out-of-the-box idea was, I have to admit, mine. Our family, being our family, had been having a discussion about what our last meal would be, if we could choose the dishes from any place we had eaten. After compiling this meal (which was enjoyable in and of itself) I wondered what it would be like to actually eat it, a musing that developed into the journey we have before us today. It grew from a single dish from each restaurant to the entire meal, seeing as choosing one main course from the myriads eaten was nearly impossible, and selecting a single dessert was, to be frank, not going to happen.

After I'd pondered this for about a second, Mom walked in, and I said, "Hey, you know what would be a fun trip? If we traveled around, not to see anything, but to just eat at all our favorite places." Now, please believe me when I say this was about as offhand a comment as ever was uttered; I really had no intention or hope of doing this. But my mother—oh, my mother—was on board right away. Her face lit up as she said, "Yeah... yeah! What a good idea! Let's do it!" and hopped up to collect paper and pen so we could form a plan of action.

Today, we have this plan of action. From Brazil to England to Morocco to France to Italy to Israel to Thailand to home, our route has been carefully plotted and executed by the industrious Mrs. Bird.

Honestly, I am almost afraid to see what will happen.

Are we missing a real good one? We'd love to get your recommendations. After all, a food pilgrimage isn't a once in a lifetime event, and we'll be back on the road again...