Yulia Dyukova, World Traveler & Food Writer’s Best Advice Community Yulia Dyukova, World Traveler & Food Writer’s Best Advice In just 1 ½ years, Yulia Dyukova has made her way around more of the United States than most people do in a lifetime. New York, San Francisco, Marfa, New Orleans, and Savannah are just a few of the adventures Yulia has written about for her exceptionally imaginative and wonderfully charming travel and food blog, The Foodie Miles. Photo By: Yulia Dyukova Before moving to New Hampshire, and most recently Austin, TX, Yulia navigated the food world in Sri Lanka. Baking her famous cakes, cupcakes, and jams, Yulia’s days were filled with keeping up with the demand at the local Farmer’s Markets. In our conversation, she put it best… “1 day cooking, 1 day selling, 1 day cooking, 1 day selling, 1 day cooking, 1 day selling, 1 day grocery shop.” – Yulia Dyukova Wanting to stay in food culture, without the demands of baking, shopping, and selling every day, Yulia launched her website, The Foodie Miles. Her website has developed a great narrative of looking at the world through cuisines, one dish at a time. We grabbed coffee with Yulia to chat about travel, coffee, and the best tips for taking trips. *Yulia’s Most Recommended Tip: Know Before You Go “Learn about the cuisine of your destination before the trip.” Do your research. And or better yet, know who does their research well and research them. Yulia’s Top 4 favorite food and travel blogs: 1. Roads & Kingdoms – for beautifully written thoughtful stories about food, travel, culture and politics. Photo By: Yulia Dyukova, New Orleans Beignets 2. Legal Nomads – for captivating stories told through food by Jodi Ettenberg, “a former lawyer who now eats soup for a living”. You can also find a lot of useful information for gluten-free eating around the world on her blog. 3. Migrationology – for food guides to the majority of Asian countries created by Mark Wiens. 4. Local Milk – for learning the art of slow living and slow cooking as well as for inspiration by Beth Kirby’s gorgeous photography. “Know what to try in each destination and what each region is famous for. Don’t look for tacos in New Orleans” Most Memorable Coffee Experience: Cowboy Coffee in Texas Photo By: Yulia Dyukova, Cowboy Coffee in Alpine, Texas Photo By: Yulia Dyukova “The food in Terlingua was one of the best experiences across the United States. And in Alpine, Texas I accidentally stumbled upon a cowboy poetry gathering and they read their own poetry. They write it, read it, and sing songs. It happens every year. Every morning they have a cowboy breakfast, out in the wild, at 7 in the morning, preparing breakfast like they would in the wild. And they’re not just a couple of guys that put on hats and boots and turned into cowboys overnight. They made their fire, put biscuits inside of cast iron pans buried in the coals, making coffee in tin kettles over a fire, it’s not just the food but the whole experience. Cowboys, reading poetry and people calling you darling” To learn more about Yulia’s experience in Alpine, Texas read: The Time I Had Breakfast With Cowboys Most Unique Coffee Experience – Turkish Coffee Turkish Tea Cups, Photo By: Yulia Dyukova “It’s so different the way you prepare it – you mix water right away with ground coffee, and sugar and you have to tell the waiter how sweet you want it to be. “ You can’t mix sugar afterwards because you’ll end up just stirring up all of the ground coffee at the bottom of the cup.” “And when you’re finished you can tell your fortune, “You flip the coffee cup on the saucer and look at the remaining coffee grounds on the bottom of the coffee cup and you tell your fortune, you get creative of course.” Learn: How to Make Coffee Without a Coffee Maker & Turkish Coffee Turkish Coffee, Photo By: Yulia Dyukova If You Could Take a Trip Anywhere Today… Turkish Delight, Photo By: Yulia Dyukova “I’d go to Turkey. I’ve only been there for 2 days. Istanbul. 2 full days of going around the city eating. Turkish breakfast, the best breakfast I’ve ever had in the world. It’s a big spread, so many plates you can’t see the table, fresh bread, cheese, olives, fresh vegetables, and jam, and honey with clotted cream with many many small plates and bottomless tea.” Top 3 Recommendations For People Starting a Food Blog 1. Do it for yourself. If your goal is to start a food blog because you want to turn it into a business and make money, think twice. It might take a year or two before you start getting any income, let alone an income sufficient to quit your day job.Do it if you genuinely love food, cooking and everything related. From the very start, my goal was to learn more about cultures through food and this goal keeps me going. Even if the only people who read my new blog post are my mom and granny, I am happy because I myself learned something in the course of researching and writing an article. Photo By: Yulia Dyukova 2. Find a niche. There are a lot of food blogs out there. To make it in such a saturated market you have to be different. No niche is too narrow. Whether it’s creating recipes inspired by books and movies, writing about the history of food or cooking only kid’s meals, you have to find your niche and become an expert in it. 3. Learn to take good pictures. Food blogging is extremely visual. You have to be a genius writer to keep a person scrolling down paragraphs of pure text and not get bored. Even the best writers out there use pictures to break articles. If you are scared of DSLR, IPhone will be enough at the first stages. Just remember to always use natural light! Yulia’s Favorite Things… Photo By: Yulia Dyukova Favorite Cuisine: Turkish and Italian Favorite Dish: Russian pelmeni served with mayo (pelmeni in Russia is somewhat like Chinese dumplings) Favorite Drink: cortado, coffee with a perfect combination of strong and creamy. Photo By: Yulia Dyukova Favorite Ingredient: Garlic. It makes everything taste better and fills the kitchen with an incredible smell. Favorite Destination in USA: New York and Austin, TX Favorite Destination in the World: Turkey Favorite Destination that Yulia is yet to Visit: Italy, New Zealand, Japan Yulia’s Top 5 People to Have Coffee With Photo By: Yulia Dyukova Elizabeth Gilbert, my constant source of inspiration Dominique Ansel, a wonderful baker whose every creation is a masterpiece. Jamie Oliver, an easy going fun and talented chef Vladimir Nabokov, one of my favorite Russian writers (if I could travel back in time) Natalia Vodianova, a Russian supermodel, philanthropist, and a mother of four who seem to have more than 24 hours in a day Yulia is constantly refreshing her website with great content! Stay up to date with her travels, insights, and stories! Instagram: @TheFoodieMiles | Website: The Foodie Miles
