Food for the Journey

In this inspiring memoir rich with the flavours of other cultures, the author journeys by bike, on foot, by bus, plane, and train in her quest to understand the lives of the people she meets.

You know you're not on a typical turista tour when you read, "We stopped for a mid-day lunch of piranha and hiked to a lagoon." This writer's explorations are unpredictable, sometimes perilous, often amusing, and always fascinating. While Elizabeth J. Haynes is an outsider -- in the Philippines as a volunteer working with disabled children, at a pig killing in a remote Indonesian village, or even at a family wedding in rural North Carolina -- she offers a compassionate view of those around her.

Insights and revelations emerge from stories Haynes tells about the vagaries of the human heart. Cycling with her sister in Cuba, she hopes her sister will find the strength to leave a difficult relationship. On a working trip in Armenia, she recalls a lost love; in Cambodia, in an encounter with a little girl, she faces the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge regime. Like many first-world travellers, she is pained by the want and suffering she witnesses and is moved by the generosity she receives.

As Elizabeth Haynes writes, "No one travels alone. No one journeys without help." And sometimes help comes in the form of food -- Southern grits with pancakes, Armenian eggplant stuffed with walnuts and pomegranate, grilled guinea pig in Peru -- nourishment for the soul of the traveller. This travel memoir is a sumptuous meal with many courses, savoury and sweet.