1. Cheese is your friend

We bought our first Spanish cheese at a rural farmers’ market because we thought the woman and her pet goats were cute. The delicious small cheese (about 2 pounds) kept us going for more than a week through afternoon hunger pangs and missed meals. We’ve been buying aged farmstead cheeses ever since because we can toss them in the trunk of the car and slice off a piece whenever we want. When we tire of the taste, we remind ourselves that it would cost four times as much at Whole Foods, so we should enjoy it while we can. This practice doesn’t just apply to cheesemaking regions, though there’s hardly a corner of Europe that doesn’t make cheese. Wherever you go, indulge in a local, traditional food - preferably one that evolved before the advent of refrigeration.

By Patricia Harris and David Lyon