Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [0]
The Ultimate Culinary Adventure
Cheryl and Bill Jamison
For the Neale family:
our daughter, Heather; son-in-law, J. B.;
grandchildren, Riley, Bronwyn, and Chloe;
and the youngsters’ Flat Stanleys
Contents
Acknowledgments
Off to Eat the World
Bali
Australia
New Caledonia
Singapore
Thailand
India
China
South Africa
France
Brazil
Let’s Do It Again
About the Authors
Other Books by Cheryl and Bill Jamison
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Acknowledgments
If we’ve had any success at all in relating our tale, much of the credit goes to three talented and inspirational ladies. Our former editor Harriet Bell suggested we take a pause from writing cookbooks and try our hands at a new genre, in which she gave us important early guidance. Doe Coover, our hard-toiling agent, made us see and understand some of our initial mistakes and how to correct them. Carolyn Marino, who took over as the editor, went through our first draft with a sharp pencil and piercing insight, cutting extraneous material and showing us what needed tightening. None of them, of course, shares any of the blame for blunders that remain.
We also want to thank Sam Daniel; Rebecca, the reservation agent; and other employees at American Airlines who assisted us so ably in putting together our flight plans for an around-the-world trip. In a modern take on medieval alchemy, they turned frequent-flier miles on paper into fifty thousand actual miles with wings.
OFF TO EAT THE WORLD
NOTHING SPOILS A DAY MUCH MORE THAN SAM DANIEL CALLING TO SAY THAT you have too many legs.
“Mr. Jamison?” he asks cheerfully when Bill picks up the phone, signaling in one short breath that he’s a stranger we probably don’t want to hear from.
“Yes,” Bill answers warily, holding the phone askance.
In a soothing, sonorous voice—imagine Bill Clinton on Valium—Sam introduces himself and says, “I’m with American Airlines, assigned to the office that coordinates AAdvantage award travel involving our partner carriers in the ONEworld alliance. Our committee of all the airline representatives met yesterday and reviewed the around-the-world Business Class itinerary you booked recently. We found that it contains more than sixteen legs, or flight segments, the maximum permitted.”
Bill is fully alert now and determined to remain tactful, contrary to his natural instincts. “Sam, I’ve read all the published rules for this kind of award travel many times, and they don’t include any limitation on the number of legs.”
“Yes, sir. It’s a new policy.”
“Do you have it in writing somewhere so I can review it?”
“No, not yet, but the committee feels strongly about it.”
Bill thinks back quickly to the long conversation he had two days earlier with Rebecca, the perky international agent who obligingly booked our three-month trip without a single protesting peep about the number of flights. “Why didn’t Rebecca catch this? She’s clearly sharp and professional.”
“She doesn’t know about it yet. We haven’t had an opportunity to inform the reservation agents.”
“Sam,” Bill says in a slight slippage from the most diplomatic approach, “you sound like a decent and intelligent guy. You don’t by any chance think I’m a total fool, do you, the kind of guy who might, for instance, pay the delivery charge on a truckload of bullshit?”
It’s either that or else a crackpot committee has put him in an untenable jam, changing the award rules after a booking, which of course he would not admit. Sam assures Bill that he doesn’t consider him a fool and promises, “I’ll help you make adjustments as painlessly as possible.” Needing time to consider the agony of amputating legs, Bill lies about an imminent appointment in town and schedules another call with Sam later in the day.
For us, this is the adventure of a lifetime, not the kind of thing you want to see hacked to pieces in advance. For decades now, ever since each of us spent a year studying and traveling in Europe during college, we’ve dreamed—separately at first and then together