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Shows like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations have given rise to gastrotourism and a strongly held belief that you haven't fully experienced a place until you've eaten with the locals. But what if you want to experience good local cuisine and 1) don't know any locals, and 2) don't have the cash or appetite to experiment?
Thankfully our BlogHer Voice of the Week, Layne of Taxi Gourmet, liberates us from the limitations of being tourists without production budgets and opens our minds to a resource we wish we'd thought of the last time we were in a "foodie town": city cab drivers. All one needs to eat well is cab fare.
In her post "Berlin Dispatch: Döner Dreams and Kunefe Reality", Layne breathes life into a city not always known for its cuisine, Berlin. Escorted by friends of friends who hilariously host a German-language show with a profane, English name, she enlists the help of a Turkish cabbie, who takes her and her entourage on an informed tour of Turkish delights. The first stop: döner kebab, a favorite German fast food.
The place where Harun, their cab driver, takes them is disappointing--not because of the food, which from Layne's description makes your mouth water, but because of the price--apparently too high to chart well on a "price-quality ratio" calibrated by the locals. We appreciate the insight.
Dessert is another matter, cheap and satisfying. Layne says of the kunefe:
It’s amazing: shredded filo (a.k.a. kadayif) soaking in butter and honey, filled with soft Turkish cheese, baked to a crisp in a clay oven, dusted with walnuts. Softness and crunch converge. The cheese checks the sweetness. Our eyes roll back in our heads. We try to be polite, urging each other to eat more of it, to go deeper into pleasure, even as we hope the last bite never arrives.
Layne's conversational approach to food journalism, coupled with a highly evocative writing style that puts us across the table from her, makes good eating accessible. She gives us each a fork and satisfies cravings we didn't know we had.
Congrats to Layne, our BlogHer Voice of the Week.
And thanks to everyone for continuing to send in your nominated posts. Remember to nominate individual posts, not entire blogs, and keep them coming! If you want to check out all these posts, check out the BlogHer Voice of the Week archive.
Best,
Jory
For Elisa, Jory, and Lisa, BlogHer Co-founders
