You won’t find a takeaway in today’s post. Just food for thought.

My 13 year old son, Dane, has a fantasy about heaven, and it revolves around food. The basic premise is that life’s greatest pleasure is eating decadent meals. “If heaven were perfect,” he muses, “we’d have our favorite foods and eat until we’re the perfect level of satisfied, then get hungry and do it again.” My man wants to sit around and eat…all day every day. What do I have to do to get in, 22?

He’s got the right idea. Food is a universal language, bringing people together and cementing bonds. The best chefs in the world play this game all the time – if you had one more meal, what would it be (and where?)

While we’re on the topic of heavenly experiences, I thought I’d share my dream restaurant. I will find my way to D.O.M in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

D.O.M’s chef, Alex Atala, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for essentially inventing a new cuisine in Latin America. A punk rocker turned chef, he knew he wouldn’t be able to compete with French or Italian chefs cooking their native cuisines. Instead of trying to play someone else’s game, he created his own. He committed to mining the Amazon and the nearby areas for local, flavorful, unique ingredients. From the Guardian:

So Atala stopped aping cuisine that relies on imports or poor substitutes, and turned for inspiration to his country’s natural resources, in particular to the Amazon. The world’s greatest ecosystem is home to a cornucopia of ingredients (and many species of plant still undiscovered), and this is where he stocks his pantry. So on the menu at DOM are some weird and wonderful Amazonian foods. Tucupi is a yellow sauce extracted from a manioc root that must first be boiled to remove the toxins; jambu leaf numbs the lips and tongue and, says Atala, “makes everything taste bigger”

He’s undeniably a strong individual. Utilizing your region’s natural resources and doing so better than everyone else is a formula that will never fail. That’s the basics.

I encourage you to participate in the discussion. Whatcha got? Where would you go? What would you eat?

Strong Mind,

Kap