Immersethrough.com  



  
                      
engaging with the world                     


welcome to immersethrough.com


grilling tomatoes for nam prik in Chiang Mai, at the market
photo: NAOMI DUGUID

CHIANG MAI!

The next
immersethrough food CULINARY TOURS are now scheduled, for winter 2013 in Chiang Mai ... and in Burma.

The first is from January 27 to February 2, 2012 and the second from February 3 to February 11, 2013 (please go to the chiang mai page for details; the Burma trip is still in the planning stages). There's a long article, with photos and recipes, in the November 2011 COOKING LIGHT magazine, about IMMERSETHROUGH written by Amy O'Connor who came with us in Jan-Feb 2011. And for a description with photos from a guy who loved this year's immerse, please go to Brad Borchardt's website expandingpalates.com

A REMINDER:
Please visit my blog:
I'm posting weekly, often with a recipe note as well as other ideas about the world. Or look for me on Twitter @naomiduguid
or on Facebook:



ploughing flooded paddy field in central Bali
photo: NAOMI DUGUID

who am I?
I am Naomi Duguid, cookbook author, traveller, writer, photographer, cook...  I built this site just as my time of working with my ex-partner Jeffrey Alford was coming to an end. We worked together on six award-winning cookbooks, books that engage with culture through food and photographs. We are now happy to be working separately. It's an interesting and in many ways liberating change.

For more on those cookbooks, please go to: www.hotsoursaltysweet.com
There you'll find descriptions of the books, some wonderfully laudatory reviews, and more.  

I have just handed in the manuscript for a Burma cookbook. Now we're in the editing phase. It's due out in late September 2012.  The title is:
BURMA: Rives of Flavor 
I've been making trips into Burma for the last three years, a lucky opportunity to get familiar with a remarkable place and its rich layers of food culture. And I've loved working solo on this book!

The initial immersethrough idea, an immersion food and culture experience based in Chiang Mai, first flowered in February 2009. In 2010, together with Thai friends and colleagues, I held a second session, and then a third in Jan-Feb 2011. There's a participant's pleased description, with photos, here.

In 2012 we had a great time, and once again there will be some media reporting about it, in the Canadian edition of MORE magazine, probably in August.  

The dates for 2013 have now been set.  We'll do one session, from
Sunday January 27 to Saturday February 2, 2013.  As it is each year, that first Saturday in February is the day of the amazing Flower Festival in Chiang Mai.  We'll have a maximum of seven people.  Again I'll be working with Thai friends in Chiang Mai and in the country north of there. Please go to the Chiang Mai page for more details. 

And the following week I'll be going with a small group to do a food-focussed introductory tour of Burma, a week-long visit, from Sunday February 3 to Monday February 11, 2013. Apart from Rangoon, we'll also visit the Inle Lake area, as well as Bagan.  Details to come!

Immersethrough.com is all about the concept of immersion, of immersing in something so entirely, that every once in a while we must "come up for air."

For me, immersion is almost always associated with TRAVEL, with crossing borders and engaging with PEOPLE and with their CULTURE wherever I am, and with making myself vulnerable.


Morning market noodle stand in the Dai town of Menghan, southern Yunnan
photo: NAOMI DUGUID
 
And the prism through which I most often immerse myself is FOOD. I have spent the last twenty-five years travelling researching writing and photographing to make cookbooks, so food traditions, traditional foodways are what turn me on: flatbreads made by semi-nomadic pastoralists, the Tajik and Kirghiz, in the Pamir mountains; the spring run of Arctic char fished by the Inuit in Ungava Bay; the rice-growing traditions of the Dioula of Senegal's Casamance region; markets everywhere and anywhere...

Please check out plans for the next immersethrough food CULINARY TOURS set for winter 2013 in Chiang Mai ... and in Burma. The northern Thai tour is from Sunday January 27 to the morning of Saturday February 2, 2013.  On Sunday February 3, 2013, I'll be heading to Rangoon to accompany a small group of food-interested people on an eight day introduction to the wonders of Burma and the amazing food traditions there.    

A detailed description of the Northern Thai tour (based in Chiang Mai and near Fang) is on the
chiang mai page; the Burma tour is still taking shape.  I'll get details posted here as soon as they're firm

You can also find me at my blog:
I post about once a week... and on Twitter @naomiduguid
I now have a fan page on Facebook.  It's http://www.facebook.com/NaomiDuguid  
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