FoodLove: Francis Tapon of WanderLearn, Part II

Meet Francis Tapon, author of Hike Your Own Hike and podcast host of WanderLearn. He has traveled over 120 countries and believes that travel is the best university. Francis and I began our friendship at Amherst College while playing volleyball in the off-season for the men’s volleyball team, and so our conversation takes shape as a volley of questions after more than two decades of not having spoken with each other.

Interestingly, our divergent paths in life intersect in some ways. When I asked Francis to be a guest on FoodLove, I was interested in Francis’ wanderings through different lands and landscapes. He had hiked in the Pacific Crest Trail and on multiple famous, longer trails like the Appalachian Trail. He also had never owned a bed until Amazon sent him one when he was 48 years old. (Read more about this on his website.) That lack of attachment to material things was a point of interest to me, and I learned later in the interview that Francis has been studying Zen Buddhism while I have been studying Taoism. Sometimes kindred spirits remain kindred over the years in surprising ways.

Listen to Part I of this podcast with Francis as we talk about intersections among food, culture, and travel.

In Part II of this podcast interview, Francis and I dive into commentaries on current conversations about food, including debates on game hunting, hunting, and meat-eating, and laboratory grown, plant-based meat. We also speculate about how the food industry might be impacted by the effects of the pandemic. (Included in this podcast is a reference to a prediction about what might happen to the food industry in the Bay Area from [KQED's Forum] Our New Co-Host Checks in With Local Creators and Change Makers About What Makes the Bay Special #kqedsForum
https://podcastaddict.com/episode/124719523 via @PodcastAddict) Lastly, I talk about when to salt meat and why. This may be a key to great cooking for many of dishes that you make, so tune in! His question about salt has me entertaining a new concept for the podcast, “Bite-Sized FoodLove” where I take questions from listeners and do my best to answer them. Think “Dear Rufie (on food)” instead of Dear Abby (on life).