Around the World (Without Leaving Home)

Our 9-year-old granddaughter, Samantha, is happily ensconced in a deep pile of oh-so-soft pillows at Maatam Fez, a Moroccan restaurant near our home in Denver, Colo. The waiter asks us to hold our hands over a huge silver bowl, and he pours warm water over them. "You'll be eating with your hands," he explains, "so we have to make sure they're clean."

Samantha's eyes widen. "Really?" she says.

"Really," he answers.

An hour and a half later, we’ve devoured a delicious meal, including a sugar-coated phyllo pastry stuffed with almonds, and watched another server pour mint tea into a glass balanced on her head. In a few minutes, she assures us, the belly dancer will come out and show us how people dance in Morocco.

Samantha's grin is cheek-to-cheek. No doubt about it. This is the best stop yet on our "around-the-world tour," without traveling more than 20 miles. We’ve already “been” to Brazil, Nepal, China, and Vietnam. Next month we’re going to Germany, and the month after that ... well, we’re still deciding.

It would be wonderful to take our grandchild on a real around-the-world trip but, quite simply, we have neither the time nor the money. So we’ve decided to show her the world another way. We’re taking her to restaurants where she can taste the foods, learn some facts about the history and, when we’re lucky, like we are with Morocco, actually see the traditions of other countries.

We got a map to plot our itinerary, and Samantha told us where she wanted to go first — to the Chinese buffet up the street, which has a bin of French fries next to the tray of stir-fried chicken.

“No,” we told her. “No Americanized fast food. We’re going for authentic.” This was fine with Samantha, after we promised her she didn’t have to eat anything really strange. So, my husband and I started to make a list of restaurants that fit our criteria.

Rule 1: Temper your desire for authenticity with a child’s desire for familiarity and fun.

We wanted tasty meals, but we also wanted to expose Samantha to something beyond the food. In short, we wanted our burritos dished up in a place that had sombreros on the wall and mariachi musicians in the aisles. But the truly good Mexican restaurants, the kind that cater to Denver’s Hispanic population, don’t need these touristy trappings.

“Authentic,” we learned, can only go so far when you’re dealing with a 9-year-old. Samantha hated the well-recommended Himalayan restaurant we found. The food was so authentically spicy that after one bite she settled down to a meal of rice and water. Afterwards, we sprang for an ice-cream cone.

Rule 2: It takes time to find restaurants that offer more than just food.

Planning our restaurant tour took almost as much time as planning some of our real tours. The Internet can help. I Googled “Indian food Denver” and found a restaurant that, according to an article posted on its website, offers “gracious service by smiling Indian women in jewel-tone saris.” We’re going to give it a try.

I also found a website that gives mini profiles of Denver-area restaurants. Best of all, it allows for users’ comments. That’s where I learned about a place that specializes in “dim sum for beginners.” A user’s comment that “kids love this place” encouraged me to add it to our list.

I’ve also called ethnic associations. A local Asian group pointed me to three different types of Japanese restaurants: one with a tatami room, one with a teppan grill, and one that has patio seating in a Japanese garden and is right next door to a martial arts studio. What a find!

And a German language professor recommended a restaurant that not only serves sausage and Weiner schnitzel, but also has an oompah band and dancing once a month. Perfect!

Rule 3: As with any trip, search for creative ways to maximize the experience and minimize the expense.

A local restaurant tour may be cheap as world tours go, but it still adds up. We soon found three ways to keep costs down. When possible, we went for lunch, rather than dinner. Other times we ordered appetizers rather than main courses, which actually let us sample a greater variety of foods. And when our research showed us that Swiss cuisine includes snacks of sausage and cheese, we decided to “visit” Switzerland by taking a picnic lunch into the nearby mountains.

We also learned to expand the eating experience by linking it to a festival. On Chinese New Year we went to a celebration at a nearby recreation center where we saw Chinese dancing and a small dragon parade. Afterwards we went to a restaurant festooned with lanterns and banners in honor of the New Year. The waiter gave us a calendar and explained that 2008 is the Year of the Rat, which led to a discussion of the Chinese zodiac.

Since we wanted to be able to answer Samantha’s inevitable questions about why different countries do things in different ways, we preceded most of our outings with some research. Our goal was to be able to deliver three fascinating facts about each country. As a result, we now know why Chinese stir fry, why Brazilians eat so much meat, and why Japanese chopsticks are pointy while Chinese chopsticks are blunt-tipped.

After four months “on the road,” we got the inevitable question. “What do people in China eat when they want to learn about America?”