DIY Food Passport: Travel Around the World in Your Kitchen
Food is such an important part of our experiences. There are certain dishes that instantly transport me to a particular travel memory and foods that are so tied to a specific country that I cannot think of one without thinking of the other, like Greece and gyros. When my husband and I travel, we always sample the local cuisine. If possible, we also participate in a local cooking class so we can make that country’s dishes once we return home. Food is an amazing link to other places.
With the state of the world right now, most of us will not be traveling for quite some time, especially abroad. However, you CAN travel to faraway places from the comfort and safety of your own kitchen! For the past several weeks, my family and I have been “traveling” around the world through weekly themed dinners. We pick a country, research some recipes and adapt them to our preferences and/or dietary restrictions, and order the ingredients. Some weeks we even decorate for the occasion or dress up in themed costumes! It is an amazing way to connect with each other and to learn about other places around the world.
We started this food journey for a new activity during quarantine and to ease the disappointment of having to cancel trips. However, we look forward to this meal each week and we do not plan to stop. We will likely start doing it once a month once we return to our normal schedules. This is such a fun idea for date nights with your partner or celebrations with your kids. We cook the meals together and then rate them afterward using the food passport I designed. This booklet has space for you to list the country you visited and the dishes you prepared. There is also space for you to rate the meal and list your favorite and least favorite parts. Periodically, we review the booklets and this allows us to reflect on our “travels” and the memories we made while making the dishes.
This is the food passport we use. I made it a free printable so you can use it too!
Assembly Instructions
To make the food passport, you need a printer to print the pages, a stapler (and an eraser or piece of cardboard if your stapler is small), and scissors or a paper cutter. Each set of the design makes 2 passports.
First, print page 1. This is the front and back cover of your passport.
Next, print page 2. This is the first page of your passport (where you will put information for each “traveler”) and a rating page.
Then, print page 3. This has more body pages of your passport where you rate the dishes. Also print page 3 on the back of your previously printed page 2, and on the back of your previously printed page 3. You may print as many of page 3 (front and back) as you want to make a thicker passport book.
After all your pages are printed, cut them in half using scissors or a paper cutter.
Once all the pages are cut in half, they need to be stapled together so the half pages form a booklet. Place the open pages in order on top of each other (you can fold and unfold each page first to make a crease for guidance). If you have a large stapler that will reach to the middle, you will not need the following “trick” and you can staple the booklet on the spine.
If you have a standard size stapler, you can place a piece of cardboard or a large eraser under the booklet and staple gently into the spine with the stapler open. Pull the stapler up gently and turn the booklet over. The staple arms will be open and you will need to carefully push them down. After stapling, your booklet is ready to take you around the world!
Where will you travel to in your kitchen?
Katie G.