When you go on vacation, and you’re bombarded with the ticky tacky, do you wince under the pressure and part with your pesos for a Corona bar towel? Do you get the Tommy Hilfiger knock tshirt that says “Nassau Bahamas” on it? Maybe pooka shells, or hair braids are more your style?

Not me.

I try and make my souvenirs truly memorable, after all that’s what the name comes from;souvenir is french for memory.

When I went to Morocco in 2002, the pressure to buy Berber rugs is immense. Every market in every town we visited was keen to offer us mint tea and peel off a stack of rugs for us to watch. And they’re clever salesmen. Honestly, had I not been worried about the luggage limit to go back to Canada, I might have relented, but in the end I picked up something much more meaningful, and something that makes me think of Morocco every time I use it.

A mini tagine.

I use it store my kosher salt next to the stove. Everyday as I cook and prepare, I crack it open and think of the ancient mazes in the souk and medina of Fes, where I bought it.

In 2003, I went to Thailand. I took a cooking class and got an apron, complete with the recipe printed on the front. I also picked up a mortar and pestle in Chiang Mai. When I crush cardamom pods to make Coconut Cardamom Burfi, I’m taken back to the elephant ride in the Thai north.

Also in 2003, I ran a marathon for Team Diabetes in Iceland. I really wanted some ice from Iceland. I thought it would be easy to find reusable ice cubes made with the water from the Iceland glaciers and fjords, but they were nowhere to be found. Instead, I found these Icelandic “ice cubes.”

They’re cubes of Icelandic Gabbro rock. You keep them in the freezer, where they stay cold, and then drop a couple in your glass. It’s a chance to truly have a drink “on the rocks” without diluting it.

In a couple weeks we’re heading to France with Zacharie. My souvenir purchase might be a little different. Yes, we will get wine from the Loire. Yes, I will get some Fleur de Sel from Croisic, and I might even be tempted to get an Eiffel Tower keychain on the banks of the Seine. But, I already know the main souvenir I am getting for me and my son - matching shirts with the name and number of his namesake on the back.

Deux maillots avec le numero dix de Zizou.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 7:52 pm and is filed under travel.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.