PROMPT: Future Travel

Daily writing prompt
What are your future travel plans?

I plan to travel to the future one minute at a time.

At least until they invent a time machine that can transport something bigger than a subatomic particle, and only milliseconds into the future at that.

PROMPT: Comfort Food

Daily writing prompt
What’s your go-to comfort food?

It depends on where I am. I recently discovered that my Busan comfort food is “Hotteok with seeds.” In Central Asia, it’s tandoor bread — by whatever name it’s called in the local tongue. In Tblisi, it’s khinkali. In Peru, a lomo saltado is a beautiful thing. Chicago is the only place I’ll eat a hotdog, but I do love one there.

As a traveler, I find it’s important to not get attached to any one thing. If you crave a bagel, you’re great if you’re in New York or Tel Aviv, but if you insist on one in Hyderabad, it will be a sad experience. But, by the same token, if you order Chicken Biryani in Des Moines, expect to be underwhelmed (or — if not — to pay an exorbitant amount, either way it’s depressing.)

Probably the single most widespread comfort food would be whatever the local dumpling is, be it called mo-mo, khinkali, pierogi, dim sum, etc. All quite unique, but with an underlying familiarity.

So, in the immortal words of (the apparently quite slutty) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “If you can’t be with the one you love… love the one you’re with.”

On Tourists & Travelers [Free Verse]

A tourist looks back fondly upon 
A favorite destination;
A traveler is always at it.

A tourist loathes travel hiccups;
A traveler calls them stories.

A tourist jumps from one
Postcard vista to the next;
A traveler moves through the world.

A tourist collects knicknacks & geegaws;
A traveler collects experiences.

A tourist, between sights, seeks
A life experience as close to
Their homelife as possible.
A traveler wants a life experience
As close to local as possible.

A tourist has a favorite meal;
A traveler assumes he hasn't
Crossed paths with it yet.

A tourist leaves nothing to chance;
A traveler embraces the spontaneous.

A tourist takes comfort as a main course;
A traveler uses it like a condiment.