MARION — Participants in the Elizabeth Taber Library’s Cookbook Bookclub took a culinary trip around the world, without ever leaving Marion on Feb. 28. 

The bookclub with a food-centered twist meets about four times a year, or once a season, focusing in on recipes from cookbooks in the Marion collection, or at least in the SAILS library network.

Besides that restriction, the club also imposes other creative restrictions on their potlucks. At one potluck, participants could only bring dishes from “The Bon Appetit Cookbook" by Barbara Fairchild. At another, the group tried all gluten-free dishes. 

This month’s restriction was that the group had to bring a recipe from another country.

“We discussed it and wanted to do something that people usually don’t get to eat,” said Nicole Davignon, the library assistant. 

The results included a  Mexican stew, a dish with baby bok choy and brussel sprouts, an omlette-like Spanish dish called a tortilla, brisket, falafel, and a coconut mango cake. 

“I searched through like six cookbooks to find a recipe, because I wanted something I could do the night before and bring in,” Davignon said. 

While the group ate, it discussed the theme for its spring meeting, passing on pastel colored foods and deciding to reserve comfort food until next winter’s meeting. 

The date for the spring cookbook bookclub is yet to be determined, but the group decided that the potluck would include a variety of sweet, savory, hot and cold salads.