Hi, I’m Tommi.
Drop me in a city I’ve never been to and I’ll walk until my feet give up. I take the long way back on purpose, poke my head down every side street, and somehow always end up wherever the locals are eating.
Food is how I get the feel of a place. Grab a wobbly stool at a busy stall, point at whatever the person next to you ordered, and ten minutes later you understand that city better than a whole day of sightseeing could manage.
Most of it ends up here, along with a lot of recipes I couldn’t stop thinking about on the flight home.
Trying to see it all
I’m hopeless at slow travel. There’s always one more neighbourhood to check out, one more viewpoint, one more town the train happens to stop in. My notebook fills up with scribbled directions and the names of places I swear I’ll come back to.
Those scribbles are where my travel guides start. If a place made me miss a train, it’s definitely in there.
My favourite day of every trip
Wherever I go, I keep one day free for a class. Sometimes it’s cooking, sometimes it’s something the locals have been making for generations. Either way I’m usually the worst in the room, fumbling a pleat while someone who has folded thousands of dumplings tries very hard not to laugh.
That’s where the good stuff is, though. How the dough should feel in your hands. The little trick somebody’s grandmother swore by. Nobody writes those down.
And yes, things go wrong
The ideas for my recipes come from my travels. Back home I test them and try to recreate each dish as closely as I can, which usually takes more than one attempt.
This cake sank. It happens. I’d rather show you the version that collapsed than pretend every bake comes out of the oven perfect.
Say hello
Got a question about a recipe, a place you’re planning to visit, or a dish you’d love to see here? Send me a message. I’d love to hear from you.