What to Bring Back
Food is the best souvenir there is: unlike a fridge magnet, I actually get to enjoy it at home, and for a moment I'm back there. That's why I bring food souvenirs back from every trip. I usually travel light with nothing but a small backpack, but for food I make exceptions - I came home from Iran with a suitcase and went "only" a kilo over the weight limit 😁
My Three Favorite Food Souvenirs
The ranking shifts a little with every trip, but these three have come out on top for years:
- Iranian pistachios. Iran's most famous souvenir and my number one. It pays to look for the akhbari variety - it's the priciest of the lot, but you can taste the difference. I write about what else earns a place in your suitcase in What to Bring Back from Iran.
- Tea. I go for black or green. I bring home Iranian tea from Gilan and Turkish tea from around Rize, but the one that won me over most recently was a perfectly ordinary black tea from Pakistan: Tapal Danedar, a granulated tea from a family business in Karachi that's been going since 1947.
- Local Italian pasta. Italy has a staggering number of pasta shapes, so I always bring back the one typical of the region I've visited - busiate from around Trapani and caserecce from Sicily, orecchiette from Bari, which even have a street of their own, where women shape them by hand right outside their front doors. I like buying the wholewheat versions.
Sweet Finds
Bringing at least one chocolate back from every country I visit is (almost) a must for me - even from countries hardly famous for chocolate. The biggest surprise of late was the Iranian take on Dubai chocolate: chocolates filled with pistachios and kadayif that hold their own against the European ones. Swiss chocolate remains the classic - I simply don't head home without a few bars.
Halva is my favorite Turkish sweet - it crumbles and melts on your tongue at the same time. I "had to" try Tunisian halva squeezed into a plastic chub, the kind meat spread comes in - and now I know to steer clear of that packaging 😁 From Poland I bring back krówki, milk fudge candies made from nothing but milk, sugar and butter, from Iran honey sohan or pistachio gaz, from Turkey lokum and from Britain fudge.
Cheese and Cured Meats
Cheese and dry-cured ham are usually the biggest part of what I carry home. From Switzerland it's the sharp Tête de Moine, shaved into thin rosettes with a special cutter, from Spain the smoked Basque Idiazabal (the piece I bought had taken bronze at the World Cheese Awards) and jamón, from Bulgaria the white cheese sirene. It works the other way round too: I often take Olomoucké tvarůžky, our pungent little Moravian cheeses, to France, a country famous for its cheesemaking - and their bold flavor goes over really well there.
Coffee and Something Stronger
As a coffee lover I have to bring some back from practically every country - even the ones where no coffee grows. What matters to me is that it comes from a local roastery. And ever since I brought a moka pot home from Italy, there's no going back from freshly ground coffee for me.
With spirits I go for tasting sets: I brought Mauritian rum home as a set of five miniatures from the Saint Aubin distillery and Armenian Ararat brandy as three vintages side by side - they're a neat demonstration of what time in the barrel does to it. And I take Moravian slivovitz out of Czechia in the other direction; our family distills its own plum brandy too.
How and Where I Shop
- An ordinary supermarket does the job nicely. COOP in Switzerland, the Winners chain in Mauritius, a perfectly ordinary shop around the corner in Turkey. Even better, though, is buying straight from the producers wherever you can - I bought both pistachio butter and a hand-hammered copper tray in Yazd, Iran, from the people who make them.
- I buy spices packaged, not loose from market stalls. With this kind of thing I like knowing it comes sealed and clean from the supermarket. That goes for saffron too - the Iranian one is the most prized in the world.
- Small, unbreakable packages belong in your carry-on. Miniature bottles of spirits stay within the cabin limits on liquids, and vacuum-packed cheese or olives make it through security. Pack fragile things like Spanish mantecados in the middle of your checked luggage instead - otherwise all you'll bring home is crumbs.
- I keep an eye on customs regulations. Especially on flights outside Europe, check in advance that you're allowed to bring them in.
- I think about shelf life. I buy fresh items on the last day and eat them first once I'm home; dried fruit, halva or bsissa, on the other hand, keep for weeks.
So what's your best food souvenir? Safe travels - and may your suitcase come home full of good things!
What to Bring Back from North Macedonia?
From North Macedonia I mainly bring back cheese: sheep's kaškaval from Trnica below Mount Korab, the hard and salty bieno sirenje, the mixed mešano sirenje, and goat cheese from around Bitola. Add to that a fiery ajvar - though that one only travels in checked luggage - and chocolate from Skopje's Evropa, whose minty Minti bars were the biggest surprise of the whole shopping trip.
What to Bring Back from Czechia?
Czechia, my homeland. The land of beer, Becherovka, spa wafers, and other exceptional food souvenirs. Not to mention Moravian slivovitz or wine, and the unique use of poppy seeds in Czech cuisine.
What to Bring Back from Iran?
Iran is a country that offers an abundance of culinary treasures ideal as souvenirs. Among the most famous are pistachios, especially the Akbari variety, known for their size and intense flavor. Traditional sweets from Yazd, such as qottab and loz, are also sure to delight any lover of sweets. Let’s not forget saffron, exotic barberries, tea from Gilan, or crystallized sugar nabat. But Iran offers much, much more.
What to Bring Back from Tunisia?
Among my favorite culinary souvenirs from Tunisia is the local couscous. It is a staple of Tunisian cuisine and is of superb quality. Tunisian olive oil is one of the best in the world. I also can’t resist the local bsisse, a nutritious mixture of grains, legumes, and spices, which I consider to be Tunisia’s version of "Nutella."
What to Bring Back from Poland?
Among the most popular Polish gastronomic souvenirs are traditional sausages like kiełbasa and kabanos, renowned for their quality and taste. Sweet temptations include the beloved caramel candies called krówki and the dessert ptasie mleczko (literally "bird's milk"). My personal favorite is suska sechlońska, a smoke-dried plum with a protected geographical indication. I can also never resist the refreshing fruit dessert called kisiel.
What to Bring Back from Spain?
I never come back from Spain without a backpack full of delicacies. Cured jamón, chorizo sausage, Basque Idiazabal cheese, marinated boquerones anchovies and crumbly mantecado and polvorónes cookies. Plus cocoa that turns into the thick hot chocolate they serve with churros in Spain.
What to Bring Back from Armenia?
Armenia is one of the most delicious countries I've ever set foot in, and it's a brilliant place to shop for edible souvenirs. I came home with a gift set of Ararat brandy, dried apricots and peaches, sweet walnut sujukh and charcoal lavash. For the long trip back, chechil string cheese and salami sticks did the job.
What to Bring Back from Switzerland?
From Switzerland I bring back cheese above all: pungent Appenzeller, real Emmentaler from the Emme valley, Gruyère as the base for fondue and a tasting selection to help you find your favorite. Alongside them I pack birnweggen pear pastries, cured meats from the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino and a few bars of chocolate - milk chocolate was born in Switzerland, after all. You'll find nearly all of it in an ordinary supermarket.
What to Bring Back from Mauritius?
Mauritius blends Indian, Chinese, African and French influences on its plates, and the local food souvenirs are every bit as varied. I came home with a Saint Aubin rum tasting set, a spice mix to flavor it, beans from the Dodo Café roastery and Bois Chéri vanilla tea. Salted banana chips and fiery ginger candies brightened up the long flight home.
What to Bring Back from Israel?
Israeli cuisine pulls together Jewish flavors from all over the world, so I'd already tasted plenty of these treats in the countries they came from. In the end I brought home three specialties: pasta-shaped bisli snacks, peanut bamba, which holds a quarter of Israel's salty snack market, and ptitim pasta nicknamed Ben Gurion's rice.