In her engaging new book, the author of the award-winning memoir Encounters: A Lifetime Spent Crossing Cultural Frontiers illuminates the culinary dimensions of that story. As a young bride, Nancy Forster was challenged by her new role as a diplomatic hostess in a distant land, without the familiar conveniences of home. At first, she struggled to prepare simple meals for her husband and herself. As her confidence, recipe collection, and family grew, she learned to provide stylish refreshment to a steady stream of guests, as well as delicious meals at home. Featured here are recipes collected across the globe-in the Philippines, Japan, Burma, Israel, Washington D.C., Hawaii, and California-along with vignettes about the author's dining companions and their cultures. From intimate dinners for six to official receptions for two hundred, readers will take pleasure in traveling along on this sixty-year adventure-A Culinary Journey. "Nancy weaves elements of history and culture together with her recipes, honed from the very successful career that she and her husband had in representing the U.S.A. to foreigners. Mrs. Lane and I had the pleasure on several occasions of seeing the two of them in action overseas. They made us proud " -Ambassador Bill Lane, former Sunset magazine publisher