CalFresh, Cookbooks and a Taste of Travel
You can learn so much about a country and its people through their food stories. For me, cookbooks are like travel guides seen through a lens of taste and smell.
Many of the books on my kitchen bookshelves have come home with me from my globe-trotting days, and I love to recreate memories of those trips through food. Sure, photos are a good reminder in the moment, but there’s nothing quite like sitting down to a steaming cilantro-and-cumin-scented bowl of Costa Rican rice and beans on a cold winter’s evening.
Back in 2009, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Bhutan, when the high-Himalayan country was a much more other-worldly place than it is now. One of the most intriguing books I brought home with me was “Chilli and Cheese: Food and Society in Bhutan.”
This book continues to hold a very special place in my heart as a tangible memory of an evolving world. The author grew up in the 1950s as a member of the literate elite when Bhutan was still a largely feudal society, and she traces the story of the country’s emergence into the modern world through the deep relationship between food, religion, ritual, agriculture and economic status.
Dipping into the book brings back so many memories of chillis drying on the roofs of buildings encircled by prayer wheels and the scent of pungent yak cheeses fermenting in ornate pots. I still use the rice baskets I brought back, and I still place an order every year for a supply of deliciously perfumed safflower and cinnamon Tsheringma tea.
In this hemisphere, Ecuador has also been a source of wonderful culinary memories for me. Back in 2015, some friends and I went on a birding adventure in the wilds of southern Ecuador, and the aromas of an authentic pot of “Nancy’s Soup” are guaranteed to take me back to the Copalinga Lodge, just outside Podocarpus National Park.
The lodge was run by a fascinating Belgian woman, Catherine Vit, who spent years putting together a book of recipes for the meals she created for lodge guests. To my eternal delight, she sent me several copies, so, of course, I had to reciprocate. A copy of our own Humboldt food bible, “Locally Delicious,” was soon winging its way south to Zamora.
Combine your favorite cookbooks with CalFresh, a great way for qualified participants to eat healthier year-round. The program helps lower-income Californians stretch their monthly food budgets when they purchase fresh, healthy and nutritional food and produce at groceries and farmers’ markets.
The monthly benefit varies depending on income, household size, expenses and other factors, ranging from an additional $24 to as much as $298 for a one-person household.
To learn more or to apply for CalFresh benefits, go online to BenefitsCal. com, call 1-877-410-8809, or stop by the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Social Services office at 929 Koster St. in Eureka.
Pat Bitton, 74, likes to bask in the flavors of the world at home in Eureka.
