BonVivant

Swedish-style herring.

Lentils and Spätzle with Knackwürste. This home-style food is on menus everywhere in Swabia nowadays. The original mac and cheese, "alpine noodles and cheese". Has chunks of boiled potatoes in it and served with apple mush alongside. So simple and yet satisfying, especially after hiking or skiing. The cheese I used: 2 hard wedges bottom right

Never had "promite" (sounds like a knockoff). Would eat vegemite if there's absolutely no other options, life and death kind of situation. Bovril for me, preferably with some really old cheese on it. I sometimes bring Bovril on holidays. Surprised to see how common it is in Namibia, and the jars are big. I mean the size of peanut butter jar. (Ex) colleages used to make condescending comments and faces whenever I ate it. To irritate them I ate it even more often. Never tried it but slagged it off anyway. Not a fan of any thing Italian but this is a good cheese. Haven't come across it again since but fortunately I have access to good stuff from other established cheese-producing countries..

Leftover octopus More duck Finger-size sausages.

Galician-style or simply grilled (Portuguese) is my favourite when it comes to octopus. All you need is good olive oil, paprika powder and boiled potatoes. (SV it first) SV duck leg. Last summer I made a big batch of scotch-infused cherry compote and finally it's all gone.

I can get it whole (half the price of skinned tails) or tails only (membrane removed and without bone). I usually buy it whole and use the rest for something else. Fishmonger always removes the membrane for me. Here I seared the tail and roasted it in the oven. Tying it with butcher's twine makes it easy to turn when browning. This is it and it's huge. Price has doubled in recent years.

Ishigaki island. Last time to eat some Okinawan classics on my last day. "National dish" of Okinawa. Dinners at home: Golden brown The most typical meal in Zürich: "sliced meat with Rösti Zürich-style". Basically it's calf ragout.

Returned to Taketomi island for a festival in which almost all residents took part. Most lodgings were closed for 2 or 3 days. When I was here previously the streets were almost empty of residents (but absolutely full of day-trippers), today they were all outside watching traditional performances throughout the day. If you want to see a high concentration of healthy elderly Japanese just come to Okinawa. Typical Okinawan food stands because restaurants were closed during the festival. Besides, there are about 3 restaurants on the island serving lunch only. I got a few things from the stand above. Sticky rice needed a chainsaw to cut through. Where I sat to eat my lunch on my last day in Okinawa and started planning my next holidays. Lunches at home: Tamari marinated trout roe on soft tofu (soba not shown).

Half yellow and half Chioggia (pink stripes).

Found several sashimi specialists near my lodging so I got a few things from different places and put together my own picnics. Interestingly, the fishmongers are usually women. I devote my sashimi-eating life to Japan. My travelling companion wanted rice, I only needed vegetables. Fish again at home:

Ishigaki island. Yaeyama-style soba noodle soup with braised meat. Mine: Beetroot Rösti with Speck And cured salmon

Quick "frittatas" with burrata. With cheese, corn and sweet onion ones are equally yummy.

Butter of the forest, the one tree I wish I could have. In Chile it's common to fill hot dog and sandwiches with avocado mash. One can make avocado ice cream, chocolate mousse/cream, blend with milk and some honey, uncooked cheesecake etc. Have also seared or grilled, with crispy-fried Speck and/or soft eggs. But 99% of the time I just cut if open and eat with a spoon. There are several versions of "completo" hotdogs and sandwiches in Chile, here are the 2 I have photos of. Completos are Chilean "iconic" fast food sandwiches. Btw, avocados in Chile are the size of rugby ball! Hotdog is buried under there. I especially asked to omit the mayo, which comes in the same amount of avocado, or more. Chileans are baffled when you don't want any mayo. They eat so much of it. Half the supermarket space is for mayo, the section is big. Mine: With avocado-99% pure chocolate-macadamia paste (homemade, just blend all ingredients together). With nori and sesame oil Beetroot salmon/eggs/roe Seared salmon, wasabi yogurt sauce. Franconian Silvaner. Hard to find outside silvaner producing places in Franconia where it is one of the most important grapes (second only to Müller-Thurgau)

Last week many places celebrated carnival. There are several snacks/light meals that are eaten during the silly partying days in Köln, Germany but I made them a bit differently. Purple sweet potato rösti with apple mush (in Germany you get potato fritters). Tempeh tomato paste on bread (in Germany Mett-häppchen or Tartar-häppchen. Raw mince on half a roll.) Herring with cream and beetroot The dough is simple: flour, ground almond, booze, eggs, baking powder etc. Berliner is a must during carnival. These are store-bought.

Tyrolean sausages and Speck. Stir-fried squid

Tofu and fish. Iriomote island. Mine: 2 kinds of Speck, blood sausage and foie. A typical light meal in north Germany. Herring and scrambled eggs on bread.

Back on Ishigaki island again where I stayed the last 3 days in Okinawa. Wanted to eat at this restaurant earlier but it was full so I returned for dinner. Ishigaki has its own beef production and of course there are many (high-end) beef restaurants on the island. They have videos of the farms where the pork and beef come from. To order one browses the menu on the same tablet. Everyone round me ordered so much meat. Mine was already too much. The restaurant, taken earlier. Wanted to try the meats after seeing these 2 pages on the window. The pigs are a Japanese species according to the translation app. Mine at home.

The massive presence of American military is a contentious issue in Okinawa, but the locals don't mind American(-style) food. You'll find taco rice even on far-flung islands (0where I visited). Beef chanpuru. Mine at home: pistachio sauce for the raw vegs. Home-cured meat and fish.

At my lodging, Iriomote island. Mine: cheat's cassoulet with SV duck leg.

Last dinner in Morocco. Partner loves fish but scoffs at shellfish. I am partial to shellfish and got myself 2 plates. My dinners at home. Marrowfat peas (dried) with smoked sausage. The 2 meals I like more than anything involves dipping and sitting round a fire.

Last lunch in Morocco. At the airport the following morning. I like these, nothing like the pancakes we make in the west. My lunches at home. Dumplings 2 ways.

Crossed the border into Spanish territory in North Africa. Melilla looks and feels almost like anywhere in Spain. After 3 weeks in Morocco I almost forgot what a developed country is like. Even the Spanish looked at us. Not many tourists go to Nador, Morocco, and fewer make it to Melilla. The contrast between Spain and Morocco is strong, unfortunately the bad air quality remains the same. My lunches at home.

Another hair-raising bus journey through the Rif mountains to Nador. First meal at one of the many seafood restaurants behind my lodging. To order you pick any (shell)fish to fill a big platter. They tell you the price, which comes with water, rice and all the sides. My dinner at home.

My one and only lunch in Al Hoceima (I was sick). This was at the fishing port where there are fish restaurants. I could order beer here. Lunches at home. Noodles already have prawn roe in them but you can't really taste much. Prawn roe I brought back from Hong Kong. Enough for many noodle meals.

My only proper and warm dinner in Al Hoceima. I was bed-bound sick the entire final week in Morocco. It's low season now and we were the only 2 tourists in town, and a big curiosity for the locals. Dinner was at a dingy local restaurant. It was full and dark, food was cheap and good. The people who ate there didn't look like they could afford anything more than this, in terms of cost. This meal for 2 costs 4,50 euros. I know I didn't get ripped off (common in Morocco) because I ordered from the very short menu on the wall with prices listed for each dish. Morocco does legumes and pulses well. I'm especially fond of chickpea dishes. Spicy green pepper. We both lost the most weight during this final week due to me being sick. Partner needed some meat and fat asap. This was my cheapest meal in Busan, Korea. Also 4,50 euros (last year's exchange rate). Which one is "better"? I like both, just not every day. Dinners at home. Solea solea