Little Miss Itchy Feet

“If I had a million dollars and all the time in the world, what would I do?” Maybe some have already asked themselves the same question. What was your answer? Traveling the world and writing “The CouchSurfing Cookbook” was the response, Wylie Goodman, a psychologist from Brooklyn, gave to herself 2008. But as time and money were not available to her then for this project, she decided to start a blog out of her apartment instead by asking couchsurfers who stayed with her to bring a recipe to share in exchange. And they did. “People liked the idea and were eager to participate”, the newly born CouchSurfing Cook said,” and whenever I mentioned the project to others, it got great response, so I was encouraged to continue.” Since 2010, she has collected recipes and stories from all over the world while “searching for the meaning of life in other people´s kitchen”, as she puts it on her website. In this interview, Wylie tells me if she has already found the meaning of life, and how her love of food and curiosity about people expresses itself.

You are CouchSurfing and cooking, which came first?

Wylie: I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I participated in couchsurfing before starting the blog.  At the moment, I host more than I surf, so when people stay with me, I ask them to share a recipe from their home country or a recipe that means something personally to them.  I often have people cook the dish themselves, and take notes while they do.  After they leave, I make the recipe on my own to be sure I understand it, then write it in a way that an outside reader can understand, following traditional rules for recipe formatting , which most people don’t know.  In this way, I also make the recipe my own and might make slight adjustments, if needed, to be sure the recipe is accessible to non-cooks.

What about the meaning of life, you are searching for? Have you found it in other people´s kitchens? 

Wylie: I’m still searching for the meaning of life, but I think what CouchSurfing has taught me is that other people really teach us about ourselves and help us grow as individuals.  Each person who stays with me has brought me much more than their recipe, they’ve brought me their personality and life stories.  When they share those, and I open myself to the uniqueness of them and the experiences that happen between us, my own heart is expanded and my capacity for empathy grows.  That’s really what the blog is about and food is just the venue to reach that.

What recipes have you gathered so far and what are your plans for the future? 

Wylie: Living in New York City, I’m fortunate that people from all over the world want to stay with me, so the recipes I’ve gathered are really diverse.  You can find them all on this page .  It’s still true though that, due to the world economy, more of the people who can afford to travel are Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. And when the economy is bad, few people anywhere can travel. I have had some surfers from Asia (Korea, India), and a few originally from South America (Brazil, Peru), but I feel strongly that finding ways to make travel affordable to everyone is critical, so that travel is not just a one-way experience for people in wealthier countries, but can be one that people in less privileged parts of the world have an opportunity to do, too.  In the near future, I’m planning a trip to Asia that will expand my own world travels and allow me to gather recipes and stories from places I’ve never explored.

You are living mostly vegetarian, but have some meat  dishes on your website as well. Why have you included meat dishes?

Wylie: The blog didn’t start out to be specifically vegan/vegetarian, because I wanted the person staying with me to chose a recipe he or she wanted to cook and, in the beginning, I wanted to be open to everything.  However, as I myself eat primarily vegetarian, (not vegan because I have difficulty living without cheese!), I have tried to encourage people to share non-meat dishes if possible. As the blog has evolved, I feel strongly that meat should be eaten very rarely, if at all, because of how cruelly most farm animals are treated and because of the impact of raising meat on the environment.  My own body does crave meat once a month, and sometimes I give in to that. But if so, I work hard to eat only a small amount and then meat which is grass-fed and locally and humanely raised by farmers who are respectful of the animal during its life.  I hope that by encouraging and soliciting more vegan/vegetarian recipes, I can expand people’s palates by giving them recipes that are international in flavor.

You said you have big travel plans for the future. How do you plan to continue with your project while travelling? 

Wylie: Yes, I plan to travel through Asia for six months, starting in Tokyo on September 1, 2012 and ending in Kuala Lumpur on March 1, 2013.  The plan is to travel mostly by bicycle.  It will be the first time I take CouchSurfing Cook on the road for a long period of time.  I’m unsure exactly how it will work in terms of blogging, as other people will be hosting me, but I’m hoping that I can find people who want to share cooking experiences and, in this case, I would pay for ingredients as a form of appreciation and take the host out for a meal.  I’m trying to keep the cost of recipes to no more than $10 U.S., so that these are affordable dishes that any couchsurfer can make his or her host as a way of giving back.

Do you have a favorite recipe among the many you have gathered? And if so, why? Wylie: One of my favorites is a recipe for vegan chocolate cheesecake.  It’s very easy to make and was given to me by a really cool woman named Betty Hoops, who’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for hula hooping.  I guess it’s my favorite because it was so fun learning to hula hoop with her, and the cheesecake reminds me of that experience!  Her story is here:  http://www.couchsurfingcook.com/what-goes-around-comes-around/

Thank you, Wylie, and keep on couchsurfing and cooking!  

More about the CouchSurfing Cook:

You can READ http://www.couchsurfingcook.com.