Celebrity Travel: Go Away With Marcus Samuelsson
A. Tokyo. In a city of 13 million people, I'm sitting in this tiny eight-person restaurant watching the tempura chefs so expertly prepare this dish. When Americans think about anything fried, we think about it being greasy. Eating tempura in Japan, it's everything but grease. It's crisp, it has this incredible texture and it doesn't even smell like oil.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?
A. One of the first trips I took with my family was to Auschwitz in Poland. Every other year they changed up our destinations. My father was very hardcore about learning. I'm standing there in this concentration camp and thinking about one of my aunts who came from a place like that. As a child I couldn't relate to the stories, but I remember thinking how awful it was that something like glasses were taken away from people there. I was 12 and I'll never forget it. I also remember I didn't like the food.
Q. Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A. I love heading out to Montauk (in New York) and running to the beach or hitting up an antique shop while I'm there. But my favorite thing to do on the weekends is to play soccer in Chinatown with my team of Swedish expats. I'm in love with New York City and my favorite getaway is staying right here when everyone else is out of town. I like to go to places like Rockaway Beach, where the 'hood meets the water. I take the train out and read the paper and it's fascinating to hear how all the languages change as you go from uptown to downtown and then out to the beach. Because I travel so much, it's a luxury for me to stay right here.
Q. If you could do it all over again, which place that you didn't like so much at first would you give another shot?
A. Germany. I was picked up by the cops in Germany while sitting on a park bench. I didn't have my passport with me and this was before cellphones so I didn't have any identification on me. Luckily the family I was staying with was able to come and get me, but it was a horrible experience. I haven't been back since, but I would like to have a different experience there.
Q. What are your five favorite cities?
A. New York City. Harlem, because I consider Harlem a city within a city. Tokyo, Addis Ababa and it's really hard for someone from Gothenburg to say this, but Stockholm. I love Stockholm.
Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?
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