About Yaansoon’s Illustration Blog

My husband is the inspiration behind the first series on this blog, dubbed Illustrated Middle Eastern Recipes. That’s basically why I have tag-lined it: “Food Stories by a Multi-Cultural Couple.” He is a wonderful Italian man, who also has origins south of the Mediterranean. His unique and mouthwatering recipes come from obscure towns and cities in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Illustrated Italian Recipes is another blog series that focuses on homemade Italian food made with natural ingredients. In 2017, my husband and I went city-hopping across 15 Italian regions, cities and towns. We tried many local and authentic dishes from Milan and Southern Italy across a large number of trattorias, pizzerias and restaurants. This blog series aspires to bring to you simple and easy-to-make versions of these scrumptious dishes.

I also have a travel-oriented Illustrated Blog Series with an exploratory edge, dubbed Illustrated Travel Stories. As mentioned earlier, I have been to over 20 countries, signifying a myriad of cultures and exciting culinary flavours – across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Please join me as I chronicle some of these wonderful adventures using travel illustration and illustrated maps as my main visual story-telling tool!

When my husband and I went city hopping across Italy, the inspiration to start a mini series called, Italy Culinary Tour (part of my Illustrated Travel Stories) was born. Little did I know, the illustrated maps I created for this series were the very thing that launched my first commercial illustration commissions! Travelling across Italy taught me a great deal about regional Italian food, but also about this great nation’s love for seasonal ingredients, art, and above all, excellence.

Owing to my multi-cultural roots, I grew up in households run by foodies that cherished traditional cooking methods, using traditional utensils. Early 2018, I introduced a new series to my blog , dubbed Illustrated Mediterranean Kitchen Tools. I created this section because I have a particular fascination with folk and vintage kitchen tools from Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, among other Mediterranean nations.

On this blog, there’s also a strong focus on women, especially the kind of matriarchs who have taught me valuable life lessons about inner strength, kindness, and compassion. To learn more about this aspect of my blog, check out my blog series titled, Illustrated Women Who Can, featuring resilient women from the 20+ countries I have been to. I feel blessed to have experienced so much and I can’t wait to share some of these stories with you!