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Peggy Markel -Flavorista Icon

February 11th, 2009

Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of attending a special event at The Kitchen restaurant in Boulder (a place deserving of its own blog post, but I’ll save that for another day) to try some amazing food from Rajastan, India.  Peggy Markel has been leading culinary tours with Asia Transpacific Journeys since 1991 to Italy, Elba, Silcily, Morrocco and Thailand.  This Fall, she adds Rajastan. Her reconnaissance trip to India is featured in the February issue of Food & Wine magazine. The recipes for the meal we had last night are featured in the article as well.

The food was fantastic and of particular interest were the cilantro-corn fritters (even made with out of season corn these had an amazing fresh corn taste), spinach simmered in yogurt, 3 lentil dahl, and spiced millet stew with onions (which was close to my favorite dish, as it had a polenta-like consistency, but oh so much more interesting).  The meal was closed with an amazing yogurt panna cotta, perfectly scented with honey, created by the chefs of The Kitchen for this special event. This was one of the more inspired Indian meals I’ve had in a long time.

My dream is to one day take a trip with Peggy. She is passionate about travel and educating foodies as to the wonders of culinary traditions. She brings you into the kitchens of people wherever you go to learn the soul of the region’s cooking.

It’s lucky for me that she lives in Boulder and I have the opportunity to travel vicariously through events like last night. Peggy’s contribution to the world of food through her zest for travel and connecting with people and their culture are numerous and should be a part of any aspiring flavorista’s quest.

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