Lately I've taken to buying a cookbook from each country I visit (provided I can understand the recipes, of course!). Nice way to try and recreate some of those memorable holiday meals. And I love looking at the pictures - it's like food porn ;)

Love the cookbook idea!

I brought back from Israel (yeah, wrong thread, but it was a weird carryon), an olive wood table base made from a tree trunk carved into interlocking pieces that splay out to hold a brass tray (didn't buy the tray- instead had a glass topped chess table made). Most impractical carryon luggage- but a unique memory. We bargained for it in a Druze village near Haifa.

I also brought back a package of seeds from Germany - "feld salat". I was ready to give them up if they didn't go through customs but happily they were inspected and were okay. I also brought back a little wild boar made of hay. Again, was happy it passed customs. It reminds me of being in a Thermalbad in Germany.

I like to find a small dish wherever I go, and I usually pick up a gardening magazine. Doesn't matter if I can read it or not, the pics are enough. I have some from years and years ago and still enjoy leafing through them. PJK

My first trip, as a 20-year-old, to Europe was to Spain. Of course, Spanish cuisine was quite a new and fun experience, the traditional breakfast of a crusty roll and coffee especially so. I brought back a roll and varnished it, to preserve it forever. I don't know what to do with it now, but can't bear to toss out such a memento.

Well, that's a new one; weird, but new!