A Taste of the Good Life: Expatriate Mothers on Food and Identity

Identity construction emerges as a central theme in contemporary narratives of travel and resettlement; it is especially resonant in the case of female travellers who become mothers while living abroad then detail this identity transformation in autobiographical memoirs about their mothering experiences in a cross-cultural context. The experience of displacement is multilayered and complex as they navigate a new mothering role within a broader journey that takes them far from home and from the certainties of their home cultures. This chapter examines the sense of dislocation experienced by two transnational writers in relation to food culture as they confront foreign foodways in an effort to feed themselves and their families upon resettling abroad.