I was traveling in Homs, Syria, about a decade ago and I met a Dutch couple at the hotel. We had dinner together, and I had enough Arabic to order most of the f

I was traveling in Homs, Syria, about a decade ago and I met a Dutch couple at the hotel. We had dinner together, and I had enough Arabic to order most of the food, but I was trying to stress that the woman was vegetarian. When I couldn't clearly do so, the boyfriend pulled out a large picture book and started flipping through the pages. He came to one with an image of meat/chicken and a large, red circle with a slash through it. He pointed at his girlfriend, then at the picture, and the waiter nodded. She got the vegetarian version of a bean dish that often has some meat served in it as well. I was impressed. The book was indexed and divided into categories for everything – bathrooms, the airport, food, hospital visits, etc. It covered so many cases that I had needed addressed in my travels and many more I had never considered needing to communicate. I travel enough that I have sought this book for a decade, and I would pay good money for an indexed app that could do the same thing. Menus are just the tip of the iceberg.