Ibn
Battuta was my kind of guy. Not
only one of the very first travel writers, he was probably one of the greatest
travellers of all time. Aged 20, in 1325, he set off from Tangiers in Morocco
on the Hajj pilgimage and only made it home after 29 years of travel, several wives, many
great meals and an astonishing 75,000 miles without the aid of modern
transportation. The countries he visited were the equivalent of 44 modern
countries and include China, Russia, India, Malaysia and almost all of Northern
and eastern Africa and the Middle East. He even made it to the fabled Timbuktu.
In Europe, he got to Spain and Bulgaria. He died aged around 65, finally back
home in Morocco.
This kind of travel was made possible by a world order
that saw much of the world largely peaceful, divided by the Ottoman Empire and
the Mongols who had by then consolidated their empire. This guaranteed
relatively safe passage for caravans and it was a time of expanding world trade
and the rise of the Silk Road. It is no coincidence that Marco Polo also
journeyed around the same time, although only 1/3 of the distance. We too are
lucky to live in such a time but the lessons of history tell us that this does
not always last, in that case it was brought to an end by the Black Death, so we
should enjoy it whilst we can.
Well we have almost half a world of recipes to choose
from but here are some of the great dishes from a selection of the countries he
visited. I’m sure he had some truly awful meals too but we’ll try to avoid
that!
To be honest, I’d be very happy with the left-overs from any of these dishes, they are all delicious! Very difficult to decide what to cook.... Price will be £45 of which £35 will go direct to MSF
as usual.
Please e-mail us with bookings on info@parkholmesupperclub.co.uk
Alicia
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