The world famous cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the almost legendary Napa Valley, are the easiest and best known symbols of this magical place. And in those places the food and drink are of a caliber as high as anywhere in the world. But it doesn’t stop there. That isn’t the sum of “California’s Gold.” This is the birthplace of North America’s only indigeneous brewing style, the font of its emerging coffee culture, the center for fine tea, and a great place for a steak. California’s lesser known Central Valley sets the world prices for commodity crops ranging from almonds to zinfandel. The only place where you can find more Asian restaurants is, well, Asia! San Francisco is the cultural capital of the western USA and Los Angeles is the capital of the Pacific Rim. And all those nations of the PacRim bring their culinary offerings to the City of Angels, even as the western Americans look to Bagdad by the Bay and think of delicious things to eat.

Winner of the International Gourmands Cookbook award for best book series

Three men, an American, an Indian and a Chinese, were standing on top of a hill taking in the view. A spacecraft landed in front of them and an alien creature emerged from within. The creature was like nothing any of the three had ever imagined. The American, brash fellow, demanded of the alien to “Take me to your leader!” The Indian, pious Hindu that he was, threw himself down upon the ground before the alien and worshipped it as a god. All the while the Chinese gentleman searched his memory for an appropriate recipe.

Vietnam first comes into western consciousness via spices. Roman traders landed here in 166 AD as they worked the spice route. The Portuguese stayed longer and did more for the business in the 16th and 17 centuries. By the time the French arrived Vietnam was known in the west as a land of spice. Rice and nuoc mam define Vietnamese “food.” But it is spices that define Vietnamese “cuisine,” the study, practice and development of the kitchen arts. There could be no pho without them. There would be only plain beef and noodle soup, and nothing to wax rhapsodic about. It would just taste black and white, as it were. But the picture of Vietnamese cuisine is painted in vivid colors.

The cuisine of Greece is western history right in your mouth. It is a cuisine created by people who have long known the greater world and its gifts, but equally its hardships. And so it is a cuisine whose practitioners have learned to extract the last ounce of nutrition, as well as the last iota of pleasure from every ingredient. Greek cuisine will give you sensory memories to savour forever. You’ll marvel at the bread and wonder why they don’t make it like that at home. You’ll quaff wine straight from the barrel, eat cheese that was milk only that morning and enjoy sweets made from recipes that are over a thousand years old. You’ll eat a garden of tasty vegetables and you’ll extend your capacity for olive oil (lucky it tastes so good). And everyday, everywhere in Greece you’ll encounter mezedhes, the small dishes taken as snacks or, if there are enough, a full meal. Mezedhes are not just food, they are where Greek gustatory verve and kitchen panache are displayed. This is where food is fun, colourful and whimsical. Mezedhes are a twinkle in the cook’s eye, a smile on the diner’s lips. They are the way the Greeks make love to your tummy.