ANDREAS VIESTAD

Stomachs summoned by the spice whisperer

By CHRISTINE LIU

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"I once raised chickens in my apartment in Norway -- and no, it's not normal," confesses Andreas Viestad to our table at Radius, our forks poking at the folded-paper pouches of Balinese suckling pig and rice pilau. The witty Norwegian food writer, whose recent food-pornish book culls recipes and lore from the regions of Asia and Africa, also acknowledges eating grilled elephant meat, having his "LIVE POULTRY FRESH KILLED" T-shirt personally vetoed by Martha Stewart for an appearance on her show and drunkenly frequenting Boston's Franklin Café, where he still remembers being hit on by a woman who swore he looked like Benicio del Toro. Viestad, a tousled and boyish-looking Nordic blonde, couldn't agree more.

You're best known for your kitchen-in-the-fjords culinary adventures on PBS's New Scandinavian Cooking. How did this book on the Indian Ocean spice route come about?

The first thing was just to define the project. I tried to work as a scientist and I had a starting hypothesis: That all the different food traditions around the Indian Ocean were related through their use of spices. I used that as my starting point wherever I investigated. I found out they use many of the same spices in slightly different ways. I wanted to structure the book with a chapter for each spice so you could have recipes from all regions next to each other.

One of the reasons that I wanted to write this book is because it was an adventure that I found worthwhile writing about. I think these recipes need to be out there, but also I wanted to lower the threshold to get into it. That's why I included 15-second recipes -- those are among my favorites in the book because they illustrate the importance and transformative power of spices.

You cover everything from the street food-hawkers in Forodhani Gardens to Réunion's trout with rum and vanilla. What was your process to put it all together?

I went on several trips to 11 different countries; I spent almost 3 years traveling. I've been traveling a lot these past years! I wanted to have enough time to digest my impressions between each trip. You could buy an around-the-world trip, but it's too intense. Some places I was so inspired and fascinated by, I wanted to go back more than once.

Like where?

The place that I will always return to is Zanzibar, where I had my first taste of the Indian Ocean. It's a place very close to my heart. It's a wonderful mixture of different peoples and cultures. It's seemingly chaotic, but there's a great system to it. You can call it a melting pot or a salad bowl, but I like to think of it as a masala of different cultures. What's great about masala is that it's always in flux -- you can add more cinnamon, cardamom, pepper. That's the great thing about America's or Zanzibar's culture: It has an identity of its own, but the mix always changes. It's not like the recipe was written once and for all.

How did you manage to get yourself in local kitchens, culling traditional techniques and recipes?

Imagine doing that in the street in Boston! Going up to someone and saying 'I'm a foreigner; will you cook me dinner?' People would think you're mad. Sometimes I had contacts through local authorities ('You will get the best this-and-that dish from this-and-that person') but sometimes I would just talk to someone in the market. We would start communicating in our way and I would make it clear that I'm very interested in cooking, and be invited into homes. It's great; the hospitality is wonderful.

Many of these places have a rich and proud culture, but there is no basic recognition of it. Sometimes when you're a tourist somewhere you feel slightly embarrassed or bad about what you're doing; you almost feel like a parasite on other people's culture. You come, you photograph. But when you're interested in something specific like culinary culture, you give them a reason to be proud. Everywhere I went, they were really appreciative that I came all this way to write about their food.

While doing your research, did you learn any skills along the way? Bow hunting?

You do learn simple skills like traveling on the outside of a car (laughs). I learned not to stress. I have traveled a lot, but you can get stressed when things are not happening at the right time or in the right sequence. And I just learned to relax. You learn to trust people. I no longer wear a watch.

You've got a good chunk of the world covered thus far. So what's next?

I got this farm in South Africa; I'm basically growing everything imaginable. I have 50 different citruses, 25 different types of peaches, 10 types of nectarines, 8 types of figs, stuff like that. I'll spend some time doing that; it's kind of a dream project. Other television and book projects are in the works.

Obviously, your love lies in the kitchen. What's your version of comfort food?

When I get home and am able to cook, I have a craving for cardamom-scented chicken curry. There is so much comfort to me in spices, in the warm cardamom pods and the gentle sweetness of cinnamon. That's what I'm longing for just now -- I've had suckling pig four times this week. In many of the restaurants here, there's a big pig thing going on.

WHERE FLAVOR WAS BORN: RECIPES AND CULINARY TRAVELS ALONG THE INDIAN OCEAN SPICE ROUTE

BY ANDREAS VIESTAD, PHOTOGRAPHS BY METTE RANDEM

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