Welcome to Food with Mark Bitman.

As always you can reach out to us at food at markbitman.com.

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com we have many things going on and we are increasingly making them better and tying them together

But we really do rely on suggestions and comments from you so reach out to us at food at mark bitman.com. We'll get back to that conversation in a minute, but first I want to talk about

something that lots of people ask me about when it comes to global cuisines.

There is something magical about eating a cuisine in the place where it originated.

One of the reasons for that is that the dishes that define a cuisine are built around

the produce that's native to a place.

It's why the feta and tomato in a Greek salad tastes so perfect in Athens, where the artichokes and olive oil in Rome are

to die for.

They have a certain sweetness and tang that you can get close to, but not easily replicate. And not surprisingly, one of the best ways to get a

sense for how something should taste is to visit a region of the world and

sample a dish in several forms from lots of different neighboring areas.

Then you can appreciate the local variations as well.

And the most efficient way to do that, for me at least, is the first-class experience of a Regent Cruz.

I was able to do that on our recent all-inclusive Torovasia.

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