Who loves French cheese?

Our Provence Gastronomad Experience is a French cheese lover's dream.

France has a way with dairy products. French butter is amazing. French pastries can be sublime, in part because of the quality of the butter.

And nobody makes cheese like the French.

Every region of France has its specialty cheeses. And Provençal cheeses are amazing.

If you want to explore the exquisite cheese of Provence, you'll definitely want to join our Provence Gastronomad Experience.

We're going to taste cheese in salad, during picnics, with truffles, as part of wine pairings and for no reason at all. And, of course, we'll eat cheese the French way -- between dinner and dessert.

We'll eat amazing new cheeses you've probably never tried, every day.

Good news for you cheese lovers: We just had a spot open up for our upcoming Provence Gastronomad Experience (for a couple), which takes place June 24 - June 29.

During the Provence Gastronomad Experience, a small group of us will stay together in a beautifully restored French farmhouse, a short walk from a picturesque medieval village. From there, we’ll strike out to explore the very best of everything Provence has to offer, from the rocky vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to the canals of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to the sunny beaches of the Côte d'Azur.

Go here for more information if you're even slightly curious about our Provence Gastronomad Experience. Or you can just send me an email at: mike@elgan.com

We'd love for you to join us in June on this unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Who loves lavender?

Our Provence Gastronomad Experience could be called the Lavender Experience. Provence is the global epicenter of exquisite lavender fields, and we surround ourselves with it, learn to distill it, eat it in honey, desserts and other provencal treats -- we practically (or, if you like, actually) bathe in it.

Yeah, sure, we taste Provence's best wine, cheese, cuisines, pastries, truffles, bread and more. We explore one of the most breathtaking European regions at the peak of summer, when the lavender is in full bloom. You'll meet our food and wine visionary friends, who will receive you like family and share the unparalleled culinary culture of Provence. And did I mention lavender?

Good news for you lavender lovers: We just had a spot open up for our upcoming Provence Gastronomad Experience (for a couple), which takes place June 24 - June 29.

During the Provence Experience, a small group of us will stay together in a beautifully restored French farmhouse, a short walk from a picturesque medieval village. From there, we’ll strike out to explore the very best of everything Provence has to offer, from the rocky vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to the canals of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to the sunny beaches of the Côte d'Azur.

Go here for more information if you're even slightly lavender-curious about our Provence Gastronomad Experience. Or you can just send me an email at: mike@elgan.com

We'd love for you to join us in June on this unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Lavender!

On the joys of 'detourism' in Venice

Venice is amazing, historic and breathtakingly beautiful. It’s also radically overcrowded with tourists. Every day, thousands of visitors crowd together to see and take pictures of (mostly selfies) of Piazza San Marco, Rialto Market and the Santa Maria della Salute church.

As with other places burdened by overtourism, Venice gets hammered by far too many people trying to see and do far too little.

So the City of Venice has come up with a wonderful concept they call “Detourism.” That means to explore far more broadly, with an emphasis on discovering things off the beaten track, rather than to join the hoards crowding the city’s “Greatest Hits.”

That’s what Amira and I do when we live abroad. That’s what we do (and did) on our Prosecco Gastronomad Experience, which includes Venice. Yes, we see the major attractions (always in a way that avoids the crowds). But we also explore several Venetian islands, some of which are unrecognizable as being part of Venice. We find quiet spots to drink wine by the water, check out islands mainly populated by actual residents, rather than tourists, and and even spend time on a farm. (Yes, Venice has farming — a fact most visitors to Venice never learn.)

The Gastronomad way to travel is “detourism” — which means the opposite of tourism and also implies going off the beaten track where people don’t normally go. These little-known places are where you can find the true soul of Venice — or wherever you go — and experience the true joy of discovery.

We love the concept. We love the lifestyle.

So easy to be happy in Italy

Sprinting across Rome to meet a friend at the Vatican (our friend Rev. Robert R. Ballecer, a.k.a. “Padre” of TWiT fame) and having successfully completed our epic and wondrous Prosecco Gastronomad Experience with six beautiful people, we’re taking a week off to explore parts of Italy we’ve never encountered.

Of course, we’ve been to Rome before. We came here on our honeymoon. But after Rome, we’ll travel to Naples and Sicily. And the anticipation of discovery in these places fills us with lightness and joy.

Veneto, Rome, Naples, Sicily — whatever, man! We’re in Italy!! And we’re living la Dolce Vita!

Refusing to adapt, hedonically speaking

You can't buy happiness. Or, at least, you can't buy lasting happiness. The reason is a psychological phenomenon called hedonic adaptation. (Or the "hedonic treadmill.")

The theory goes that we each have a baseline of happiness (some people are just naturally happier than others). When great things or horrible things happen to us, our happiness goes up or down accordingly. But after we get used to the new thing, our happiness level reverts to the baseline.

That shiny new smartphone makes us happier than our old phone did, but only for a short time. We ultimately revert to our previous level of happiness -- we "adapt" to the "hedonism" of owning an overpriced new gadget.

In other words, new things and new experiences do make us happy. But once they're no longer new, their effect on our sense of happiness fades with the novelty.

It turns out that we never loved that new phone because its features were great. We loved it because it's great features were new.

Living as a gastronomad, moving constantly from place to place and actively exploring new food and cultural experiences, leaves hedonic adaptation in the dust.

This month alone, Amira and I have lived or will live in Silicon Valley, Barcelona, Venice, the Prosecco Hills, Rome, Sicily, Fez, Chefchaouen, Marrakesh, Meknes, Essaouira and a tent in the Sahara. We rarely stick around any place long enough for the newness -- and the happiness -- to wear off.

There are many aspects of living as gastronomads that are happiness inducing — the friendships, the memories, the cultural enrichment.

But one aspect that’s under-appreciated is the happiness that comes from new experiences.

Happiness comes from many places, including personality, relationships and overall income level and wellbeing. We can't control some of this. But we can make life new all the time by living as globe-trotting Gastronomads -- and never letting hedonic adaptation catch us.

The City of Vienna goes after Instagram tourism

I noticed this ad in The New Yorker today run by the City of Vienna. They’re advertising visiting the city. But most of all they’re slamming Instagram tourism, where people spend all their time simulating leisure for social media followers instead of actually enjoying themselves.

Their slogan is: “Enjoy Vienna. Not #Vienna”

And: “Unhashtag your vacation!”

If you visit the campaign’s web page, which is unhashtag.vienna.info, you’ll be greeted by a friendly lecture on the stupidity of Instagram tourism, with an invitation to visit Vienna for a “digital detox.”

At the bottom of the page is a button that links to “Six signs you should think about a digital detox.“

The page also links to the City of Vienna’s Instagram page, which is mostly photos of a bunch of buildings.

An elegant solution for portable power

I just bought this product, which is called the Anker PowerCore Fusion Power Delivery. I like it because it does double duty as a charging plug and a mobile battery.

When Amira and I are out and about, we carry at minimum one Pixel 3 and one iPhone, and at most we add to that my Pixelbook, iPad and Amira’s MacBook Pro.

The device has one USB port and one USB C port and plugs into a wall. If I find an outlet, I can plug two devices in at once, and they both charge from the power outlet. When the devices are done charging, the PowerCore Fusion Power Delivery switches to battery mode, and the outlet charges the battery.

If I don't find an outlet, I can charge two devices at once from the battery.

In battery mode, it will charge both our phones, or my iPad, but not my Pixelbook or Amira's older MacBook Pro. When she gets a new MacBook, it will charge from the battery via USB C.

The USB port uses Anker’s PowerIQ technology to identify the device, then use that device’s rapid charging protocol for fast charging.

In the past, I would walk around with a mobile battery, two cables and two plugs -- one each for USB C and Lightning. Now I can get the same capability with just this one device, plus the cables. And it fits in my pocket.

This Berber boy tried to sell us a fox

After a long drive across the increasingly arid Eastern Morocco and greeting our favorite desert Berber, Mohammad, our Morocco Experience Gastronomads, Amira and I drove out to the edge of the orange sand dunes of the Sahara and got ready to mount camels for a ride to our camp.

A boy came running across the flat open stretch before the dune and appeared to be holding a cat by the neck. Is it dead? Does he want to sell us a dead cat?

When the boy got closer, we saw that the cat was actually a Saraha-dwelling desert fox called a fennec fox. And it was alive.

We turned down the fox, but paid him 5 dirhams for a picture.

A quick selfie in Moulay Idriss

Wrapping up our preparations for The Morocco Gastronomad Experience, which begins Monday, we stopped to snap a selfie with this amazing scenery in Moulay Idriss. What a cool town! What a beautiful area.

Our favorite dive in Fez

A few years ago, while lost in the Fez medina, we stumbled across a small family restaurant cooking tagines on coal in the alley in front of their restaurant.

We had a good feeling about it and decided to have lunch there. We ordered a couple of tagines and a small salad.

Other patrons were all local, and the staff unceremoniously dropped their bread directly on the table for them. For us non-Moroccans, they put our bread on a plate.

So many Fez dives are tiny, and lack bathrooms or any place for you (or the people making the food) to wash hands.

This place, however, has a nice sink with powdered soap right there in the dining room.

The food was delicious and cheap. We enjoyed it and left.

Then today, while not lost but passing through a remote corner of the medina, we encountered the restaurant again, and decided on the spot to have lunch. And it's just as delicious as we remember.

So I'm now elevating this restaurant to my favorite in Fez. It's cheap and basic, but the fact is that their food is super delicious.

I don't know the name of the restaurant, however, because their sign is in Arabic and they don't show up on Google Maps.

But we know how to get there now, and I'm sure we'll be back. Maybe we’ll even take our Morocco Experience Gastronomads there.

Why this glass of wine came with an empty can of Coke

Amira and I had dinner at an undisclosed location here in Morocco — a pretty nice restaurant with some pretty good food. While ordering, our owner/waiter asked if we wanted wine. I said yes. And he said: “We don’t have our liquor license, so if you have wine please be discreet about it.” And so when he brought the wine in a glass, he also brought an empty can of Coke so it looked like I was drinking a soft drink. I looked around the restaurant, and just about everybody had empty cans of various soft drinks on the table.

Ruins on the beach

Essaouira in Morocco reminds me of my home town of Carpinteria, California. Carpinteria is famous for its gently sloping beach, which means that you can walk out into the surf 30 yards and still only be waist-deep in water.

Essaouira's beach is far bigger, wider and more gradual. You can walk out 100 yards here and only be waist deep.

Better still, the water in Essaouira is warmer, and there's no tar to step on.

The only two downsides compared with Carpinteria is that in Essaouira you'll encounter trash in the water.

And also: camel pellets.

That's right. Some enterprising local camel and horse owners will take you on rides on the beach. Riding camels on the beach is actually a must-do activity if you ever make it to Essaouira.

You can also rent a quad bike and do donuts in the sand. And Essaouira is notoriously windy, and so it's a kite-surfing paradise.

Amira and I like to take long walks on the beach whenever we can. And Essaouira is great for walking. You can walk for miles on the sand. One curiosity along the way, just south of the town is what appears to be a rocky formation on the beach. Upon closer inspection, it looks like a man-made structure completely fused with natural rock.

The structure is called Bourj El Baroud, an 18th-century watchtower for a castle built for the Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah. That tower was destroyed by a flood in 1856. And it was built on a Phoenician structure.

Anyway, it’s great to be on the beach here in Essaouira. It’s just like home — plus ancient ruins and camel pellets.

My office today: the patio of some hotel off the main drag

Hunting for a celebrated fish joint in Essaouira, Morocco, we stumbled across this hotel patio and decided to hang out for awhile, get some work done and enjoy a nice Moroccan rosé. 

Snails are a big hit with the kids here in Essaouira

Essaouira is Morocco's favorite beach town, popular not only with European holiday-maker types, but also Moroccan families from elsewhere in the country. (Our gorgeous gang of Gastronomads is going to love it, too...) 

Street food is everywhere. And the most popular kind of street food appears to be escargot.  

As the sun goes down, families crowd around these escargot carts, and kids as young as two seem to love them.  

I'm personally not aware of any other place where escargot is a popular street food.  

The Italian food and wine trip of a lifetime

Tucked away in the Northeast corner of Italy is one of the most beautiful places on Earth: The stunning vineyard-covered Prosecco Hills of Veneto, just North of Venice.

This is the location of our Prosecco Gastronomad Experience.

Our Spring trip sold out quickly. So we scheduled another one that takes place June 4 - June 9, 2019.

During this magical time, we'll taste some of Italy's best wine and best prosecco. We'll make and taste cheese. Really learn to make pasta. Dine at Veneto's best restaurants. Picnic in stunning vineyards. Enjoy magical gatherings filled with music, fun, food and friendship. And many secret surprises.

If you love food and travel, but don't want to travel alone or on a "tour," then join us on this unique experience.

Our tiny group of six people will stay together in a beautiful farmhouse perched on a breathtaking hill overlooking an amazing valley of green. From there, we'll discover the exquisite hidden spots along the Prosecco Road that only the locals know about.

This adventure will sell out quickly, so send email to mike@elgan.com right away for more information and to grab your spot.

I ate eels and didn't even know it

After two fantastic days in Spain's cava wine country planning for The Cava Barcelona Gastronomad Experience, our friends Florian and Veronica made us lunch, which included a delightfully mild, oddly grey-colored pasta. Or so I thought.

It was a wonderful outdoor lunch, and we had a great conversation and very good food and wine, which included local cava and a nice red wine from a very cool winery nearby.

Amira and our hosts talked about the "pasta" in Spanish, and I was kind of spacing out and not really paying attention -- something about seafood, I gathered. The flavor was very mild, boosted by some garlic and chilis.

I had seconds. Then thirds.

Later, in the taxi to the Barcelona airport, Amira mentioned to me that the "pasta" was in fact a Spanish delicacy called angulas, which are baby eels -- a traditional and monstrously expensive Basque dish (some $200 per pound).

Their lifecycle is the opposite of salmon, which live in the oceans but swim up freshwater streams to spawn. Angulas live in European freshwater streams, but swim out to the Atlantic to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.

Upon their return to the Atlantic coast of Spain, fisherman scoop them up with nets.

Thank you, Florian and Veronica for the wonderful lunch! (I have GOT to improve my Spanish!)

Creating the Cava Barcelona Gastronomad Experience is an act of joy and love

We’re hard at work planning our upcoming Cava Barcelona Gastronomad Experience! It looks like a lot of fun, but in fact it’s really a lot of fun. The planning is an act of joy, because of the beautiful, brilliant people we get to be with. And it’s an act of love, because we love the culture of Catalonia.

We’re meeting with old friends and new, and Amira is working with our food visionary friends to hand-craft magical gatherings and delicious experiences. We’re tasting everything, scouting locations and planning the deepest, most authentic and most life-changing exploration of Catalonia’s mind-blowing food and wine culture.

During this adventure, our small gang of gastronomads will learn how to cook, drink and party Catalonian style. We’ll explore the amazing foodie city of Barcelona with the both deep traditionalists and new-school innovators who make Barcelona’s food scene unlike any other in the world.

Join us!

Can't wait to get back to taco city!

I mean Mexico City. Amira and I are returning in a couple of weeks to resume our exploration of the world's most perfect food.

Tacos are perfect because they're endlessly various, and almost always delicious. We've eaten a great many tacos. We've paid 20 cents for a taco; we've paid $20. And everything in between.

Later this month during our Mexico City Gastronomad Experience, we’ll introduce some cool people to the best tacos we’ve ever encountered. We’ll learn to make tacos from scratch from one of Mexico’s most famous chefs. We’ll have tacos at the best restaurant in Latin America — and some killer street tacos. We know a couple of newish spots that are doing some very innovative and delicious things with tacos.

(And, of course, we’ll eat a lot more than tacos — we’ll sample the full range of Mexico’s greatest foods, drinks, wines and more, all in stunning locations.)

Did I mention we’re going to have tacos? Can’t wait!

One spot left for the Mexico City Gastronomad Experience!

Mexico City is one of the greatest food cities in the world. And there's no better way for a food lover to experience Mexico City than our exclusive Mexico City Gastronomad Experience: March 26 through March 31 -- five days and five nights of exploration of the best food and drinks Mexico City has to offer.

We have space left for only one more couple! Click here if you're thinking about join us!

Here's how the Mexico City Gastronomad Experience works:

* We'll pick you up at the airport on March 26 and drop you off on March 31.

* Our small group stays at a beautiful, luxury, central location (you'll have your own room and bathroom)

* Wine-tasting and learning about Mexico's growing, 500-year-old wine industry

* Exploration of the beverages of agave: Mezcal, tequila and pulque

* Exclusive cooking and Mexican-food making instruction with some of Mexico's top chefs and food visionaries

* Floating picnic on ancient Aztec canals

* Special chocolate experiences

* Quality time at the city's famous markets, including the world's 2nd largest fish market

* Exclusive dining experiences at Mexico City's very best restaurants

* Professional-quality, Instagrammable photos of everything you do means you can enjoy yourself and not worry about taking pictures.

* And an many delightful and secret surprises!

Mexico is where some of the world's greatest foods originate -- chocolate, vanilla, corn, avocados, tomatoes, chili peppers and so many others. And while these popular foods have gone global, the most creative and delicious uses of them still happen in their nation of origin. Mexico is gastronomad heaven, and in Mexico City all that delicious food culture is concentrated and perfected.

During the Mexico City Experience, you'll learn everything about all these foods -- learn to cook with and make them -- as well as taste and explore Mexican wine, mezcal and tequila, chocolate, chilis and so much more. You'll learn to bake and cook truly authentic, profoundly delicious Mexican foods. And you'll experience the best restaurants in the city -- and the best street food.

Everything we experience will be the best in the city -- every bite you take, everything you drink will be the best of its kind the city, the country and the world has to offer; everything you do will be exclusive to our group.

Send me an email here if you'd like to join us -- or even if you're thinking about it!