k'nyom hao bai.

after the questions about the volunteering ends;
the next question always seems to be about the food....
more specifically about the "weird" or "gross" food i may have tried.

so here it goes...

i arrived in japan with the attitude that protein is protein and western food is no better than eastern and held this opinion throughout the journey. my ground rules--- try just about anything --- except dog and cat. asia became my new playground for food tasting!

my first adventurous meal was in jp. here i discovered yakitori! basicaly it is grilled chicken (any part your heart may fancy), served with beer, usually in some sort of beer hall.... it is also a favorite past time of japanese men, especially after a long day at work. sounds good to me!!! so masa and i started with asahi super dry. next masa took the intiative and ordered the yakitori; chicken skin, chicken heart, chicken cartilage, and bits and pieces of the whole bird with raw egg on top. it was all excellent --- oishii!!! yakitori compliments the cold, crisp beer perfectly. the chicken cartilage had a nice crunch. unfortunately, the skin was a little greasy for my palate but maybe the cook got carried away with the fryer. on my return trip to japan i made sure to stop at a yakitori restaurant!

next on to cambodia...
now the real adventure starts. love snake, half-hatched duck eggs, bugs & spiders, and anything else that may provide protein and nutrients. to get the "cambodian" experience i decided to eat meals at a few local restaurants where tourist do not venture. lucky for me i had many local friends willing to show me the ropes.


one of the more memorable experiences was eating at the local bbq!
loak kean and friends were very excited to treat me to a "special" dinner featuring different cuts of beef --- i never did find out what animal --cow, water buffalo, yak-- i was eating. in siem reap restaurants that serve beef are found clustered together on the outskirts of town. usually found on dark, dusty roads that gradually widen to allow the seats from the popular restaurants to overflow on the streets. due to lack of good refrigeration, the pungent smell of these streets hits you a mile away -- no kidding--the scent is something else. once we sit down the beef arrives quickly, unfortunately before one is sensitized to the smell. it is served on separate plastic plates, pretty much raw, with a side of lemon (lime), chili sauce, fish paste (yuk), and veggies on ice (forget about sticking with bottled water). i dig in. all the locals anxiously awaiting how the "white girl" will react.... interesting, smoky, not too chewy but very gamy .... not like the steak you get at peter lugers. after i sample a few of the plates, kean states "oh i am surprised you are eating that, aren't you afraid of getting sick?!" thanks kean! and thank you very much, i did not get sick. that night i tried beef flank and tongue and who knows what other parts of the cow or whatever it was. i also got to try some fresh water snails cause "grandpa" does not eat meat!... not so good -- ought ch'ngun.

another favorite past time of mine, was late night rice porridge.. so GOOD! and just the cure for a long night with an early morning wake up. it is a soupy rice broth. you can order a pork, fish, or quail version. I was addicted to the fish and never needed a reason to change. aarat tried quail and said it was like eating bone soup! you could add hot sauce, lemon (actually it is lime but they call it lemon), and sugar. i know rice porridge isn't too exciting but don't miss it if you are in cambodia.

my most adventurous and surprisingly good taste treat was found on the way to battambang. loak thy was tired of driving and getting hungry. so we stopped at a roadside market for some goodies ... dried bananas with sugar, crawl laan, mango with chilis and fried sparrow. well, baby sparrow is not dog or cat so i after a quick pic, i popped it in my mouth... crunchy... something sharp -- was that the beak?.... actually quite good ... next time i get mommy sparrow!

other cambodian treats i tasted and loved were fish eggs (not like roe), fresh water eel, and half hatched egg. on my list for next time is snake and spider.



next on to laos.
on my first day, i met jack. a nice laotian fellow who invited me to experience the real laos. he picked me up at 7.30 and after a long 15 minute motor bike ride out of town we arrived at a restaurant comprised of one large thatched hut perched over a river. we walked across a bridge and entered the hut. so many stares, i swear time stopped. after the initial shock of seeing a blond arriving locals began toasting, the guide book says proper etiquette is to concur. we finally sit down and order fish --great! laos is land locked with poor refrigeration, not another bbq experience-- and fried crickets! OMG... the crickets were delicious!! they just were so light and popped open in your mouth. i couldn't spoon them up fast enough ... i looked like a glutton! they were really GOOD!!


thailand was tame compared to other countries. all in all, i was disappointed by the food. in the north the operative word was FRIED. in the south it was bland. i did get to taste silk worms in the north and yes they were fried... very greasy. sort of like a bad cheetoh without the cheese.

next, back to jp where they have perfected the art of cooking! in the week i was there, i tried whatever my japanese friends ordered and it all tasted awesome.


more food blogging to come... including ganja soup and eating at the cambodian market.