Hi, it's Mark Bitman, and welcome to Food.

Our guest today is Al Roker,

and we'll get to him in a minute.

But first I just want to remind you

that you can reach out to us at food at mark bitman.com.

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The Bittman Project at bitment project.com. Okay, on to Al Roker. 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 it 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,

or the artichokes in 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 cruise.

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

of Asia. I had a hankering for seafood. Well I always do. Seafood that you don't

...