Infant gourmet
As a kid some of the books that I most reread were from the Time Life science library, an affordable expensive (at that time and place) and fascinating book collection my parents happily bought for the family. They say that when I was very, very young the book I loved the most was the one about Primates, which had lots and lots of great pictures of monkeys.
But I don’t remember that far (I have a poor memory of very early childhood).

What I just remembered tonight is that my favorite book was the one on Nutrition, very particularly the section on foods of the world. I remember being awed at the descriptions and drawings of the food in India, in Japan, in Polinesia, in Europe…
To think that with less than 25 years I’ve already eaten very widely across Mexico’s best restaurants, I’ve tried all sorts of ethnic food in the States (Thai, Burmese and Ethiopian being some of my favorites), I’ve been all over incredible Japan and sampled Korean’s delicacies at Seoul, I’ve been to Spain, to Portugal, to France, to London, and will soon be in gourmet paradises Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok!
You must remember that in my hometown, Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city, the most exotic fare available is Indian and there’s exactly one tiny restaurant in the whole town — and it opened just a couple of years ago.
I’m grateful, I’m living my childhood dreams!

3 Comments
At least in Guadalajara there are some places where you can say there is exotic food. You cannot find something different than “chilango” food in Queretaro; people don’t know how to eat over here. When you mention anything from the head or inside of a pork, people look at you with a weird expression, so you can imagine that if I am not able to find Mexican dishes, something from around the world is much more difficult (almost impossible!!!). I looking forward to a trip to NYC, maybe next year, and my plan is to eat on as many places as possible. One of my favorite TV shows is “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” and there is one episode dedicated entirely to different places in NYC, this is one of my guides for exotic food places hehehe. Looking forward to chat with you.
What the fuck dude? I also go under a pseudonim like “lzr” and I got a blog, AND i have that encyclopedia too. too many coincidences, lol. greetings mate.
The photo of the encyclopedias in the post is just a random one from Flickr. Here’s my encyclopedia set, what’s left of it: