Hello, I'm Lale Arakoglu and welcome to women who travel, a podcast for anyone who is curious about the world,

and excited to explore places both near and far from home.

Whenever I visit my dad's side of the family in Turkey,

it's usually impossible to leave a relative's house without having a variety of different dishes shoved in front of me.

Regardless of the time of day, or the fact that we've all said,

literally just had a three-hour lunch together.

It's considered deeply rude if you don't eat everything, because it's meant with such

kindness, especially if, like me, you're a guest visiting from someplace else.

Some of my favourite childhood memories, or actually travel memories, are of being on the terrace at my family's

house in Istanbul, overlooking the Bosphorus during long dinners on late summer evenings as the

sound of the water laps in the background. And so it was such a joy to introduce my husband

on his first trip to Turkey to some of those meals, and to that slightly overbearing level of kindness and generosity

that comes with extended family welcoming new visitors into their home.

I'll never forget watching him politely eat a piece of cheese,

a food he detests, to appease a distant older cousin.

After all, probably one of the most universal ways of showing hospitality is through food and drink.

It's something that London-based Iraqi actor, cookbook author and theatre producer Dina Musawi understands inherently.

It's not just thanks to her own background, but it's also through her work with refugees from different

parts of the world, work that frequently relies on the kindness of strangers.

I was born in England, but when I was five weeks old, my parents took me back to Iraq. So I was

brought up in Iraq. But yes, my dad's from Iraq, but my mum is British-Ukrainian.

So, but now most of my family are in Jordan or kind of scattered all over the world.

...