Indulge Your Wanderlust and Engage Your Palate with National Geographic’s ‘Food Journeys of a Lifetime’ [REVIEW]

We are definite foodies. Anytime we travel, our trips almost always include exploring a farmer’s market, taking a cooking class to learn how to prepare regional cuisine, perching on a stool inside the tasting room at a vineyard to sample delicious wines, or finding the restaurants the locals love to eat at most and sinking our teeth into their most renowned dishes. So, when National Geographic’s second edition of Food Journeys of a Lifetime crossed our desk, we couldn’t wait to read it. Within its pages, we were delighted to discover that several of our favorite places made the cut and made an appearance. But we were equally delighted to learn even more about the very topic that makes us reach for our luggage and call our travel agent: food!

This gorgeous coffee-table sized book is jam packed with hundreds of inspiring, mouth-watering, full-color photographs that will tempt you to take your taste buds on vacation so you can eat your way around the globe.

This volume is divided into nine sections: Specialties & Ingredients (which takes “you to some of the world’s most enticing landscapes, such as the ancient olive grove of Greece” and on “urban adventures… such as the disciplined frenzy of Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market”); Remarkable Markets (from New York to Barcelona, readers will see “where dedicated cooks seek out their ingredients”); Seasonal Delights (that proves “each moment in the turning year brings its own opportunities for gastronomic exploration and experiment”); In the Kitchen (featuring “small cookery schools that welcome foreign guests for informal, hands-on classes”); Favorite Street Foods (that leads readers down “the byways of a foreign city” to businesses “offering an irresistible choice of traditional dishes and exotic snacks”); Great Food Towns (where “gastronomic pilgrims in search of authenticity” will find their next favorite meal); Ultimate Luxuries (for the “dedicated food lover” with “a strong constitution… [and] a healthy bank account”); The Best Wine, Beer & More (for those who wish to explore “the pleasures of the global table” and expand their knowledge of adult beverages); and Just Desserts (that features great desserts as “a surefire way to enhance the sum of human happiness”).

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There are also plenty of top 10 lists included too which point readers to the best food factories and museums and show the fishermen among us where they can catch their supper. If your passion is cheese, there’s a list to take you across France to 10 of the fromageries you can’t afford to miss. Got a sweet tooth? Check out 10 old-fashioned candy stores where you’re likely to find your childhood favorites. And for those who love fermented foods like sourdough bread and sauerkraut, there’s even a list for you! Since we love breakfast, our favorite was the list of breakfast and brunch places which takes us from Atlanta and Malibu to Munich and Copenhagen in search of pastries, homemade jams and yummy scrambles.

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There is so much to see and read about here, it will definitely take more than one or two sittings to peruse this compelling guide to all the foodie hangouts there are to discover. But that’s perfectly okay, because you’re going to want to refer to this book with its vast, encyclopedic insights that beg you to indulge your wanderlust and engage your palate, whether you prefer to travel to exotic lands or stay closer to home. We guarantee you’ll find yourself showing your favorite travel companions pages from this book only to tell them, “This is where I want to go next!”

If you like to eat, this is the perfect complement to the travel and food sections of your personal library. But more likely, you’ll want it to feature prominently on your coffee table as a stern reminder to save your pennies so you can pack your bags and take one of your own Food Journeys of a Lifetime.