Souvenirs: the t-shirts, tchotchkes and last-minute duty-free items that are squished into carry-ons, and soon forgotten, do they really help us remember our vacation? The word souvenir, from the French, "to remember" has always seemed, to me, like a wonderful invitation to reconnect with my vacation joy throughout the year. As someone who usually takes a summer vacation (my husband and I both work academic schedules), I make a point to create specific memories from vacation that I will take out, months later, when I need a "pick me up" - remembering the call of a hermit thrush in the Maine woods creates a calm summer mood even while I am typing at my computer in the middle of the city. To some degree, the photos that become my screensaver serve as a touchstone to vacation memories, but what about something more integrated into daily life?
Over the past several years, I inadvertently created a new souvenir routine. We rarely purchase mementos from vacation, but for each vacation I had collected a specific recipe. As someone with a variety of food intolerance and allergies, eating on vacation can be a bit of an adventure. Prior to international travel I prepare a food allergy card in the native language as well as research the local cuisine and restaurants that might be appealing on our trip. (Thank you happycow.net!) Therefore I go into each vacation focused on the food and informed about the possibilities. We have had wonderful and memorable treats, from the most perfect fig I have ever tasted at a street market in Venice, to the amazing arepas in Montreal to delicious gluten-free pasta with fresh truffles in Tuscany. 
After returning home and recounting our adventure to friends and family, I found myself in the kitchen recreating a dish from our travels. In many cases, the recipe is not that exotic, but the impetus for the meal's creation is our trip. Whenever I serve baked potatoes, we actually are having "Galway Potatoes" in honor of the meal we had at Couch Potatas (a delightful restaurant in Galway, Ireland - now closed). The meal is simple; baked potatoes topped with corn and white Navy beans with a homemade cheese sauce, but every time we eat them, we recount our wonderful Irish vacation.
The author and her husband near the Cliffs of Moher.
Sometimes it was a certain delicious food I tried to recreate, (the Dijon vinaigrette dressing from the café near the Chartres Cathedral in Paris) which necessitated trying every possible mustard dressing recipe I could find and then experimenting. (1/3 cup olive oil, 2 Tbsp champagne vinegar, 1 Tbsp honey mustard). Other years, we rented apartments and the Souvenir Recipe is something that I created based on my interpretation of the local cuisine, or just the ingredients that I found in the local grocery store. Staying in Aruba at the cheerful and relaxing Bubali Bliss apartments inspired our scallop-coconut milk-pineapple-plantain-saffron stew over coconut rice that we refer to as "Bubali Bliss".
For me, the power of these recipes is immense; during a grumpy day in the winter a magic portal is opened to vacation memories, summertime delights, bountiful smiles and cheerful storytelling all for the price of dinner.
Bon Voyage and Bon Appetit!
Share your vacation memories and favorite vacation recipes/foods below.
All images were taken by the author, on vacation and are used with permission.