Tag Archives: local food
Saved from myself in Sapa
The difference in less than twenty-four hours was utterly astounding. As I walked, all I could hear was the rushing of water in the river beside me heading towards the crashing waterfall, heavy from the rains. I plodded, one foot in front of the other, in no hurry, savouring the sound of the rain hitting […]
Kayaks and chaos on Halong Bay
For the duration of my time on Halong Bay, I only drank a can of Coke. Ice cold, full sugar, and I didn’t even finish it. I felt nearly every bubble creep down my throat as I drank, absorbing the sugar but avoiding the very thought of anything else while my kayak partner dripped ice […]
Great stuff about Dubai
It’s coming to that time of the year when living in Dubai will start to get much, much harder. Things are heating up quickly as we head towards the summer months, school (and exams and reports) will wrap up for the year in just ten weeks (already!?!) and we see another year gone by being […]
Lunch with the local nuns
I peered into the rice soup, looking past the scattering of coriander to its thick texture. I spied sweet corn among the grains and spooned through, glancing at what I thought were the egg threads so commonly used to bind Asian soups. I waved-slash-flapped to my guide, calling him in for the fifty-billionth time to […]
Monday Moment: Spot the Accent
Coming from Australia, I have heard many an Australian-Vietnamese accent. A good number of Vietnamese citizens settle in Australia looking for a different, new and possibly better life, and so it was not unusual to hear that familiar twang. Even as our guide introduced himself, I had a feeling that much of his language development, […]
Sticky rice and happy photos
The woman started signalling wildly at me soon after I’d passed by her table, where I’d been briefly gawping at the massive mound of purple sticky rice that graced her serving dish. There are not a lot of foods out there that are purple. There is cabbage, purple carrots (surprisingly fun to eat) and you […]
Eating Local
You may have noticed from my last post on eating my way around South East Asia that I quite enjoyed the food. Most wonderful delicacies and delicious things graced my palate and I ate and drank to my heart’s content, but I couldn’t help but notice a few curious things that began to happen as […]
But I just wanted some falafel…
There’s an infamous song in Dubai by my good friend Kris Fade where he opines in musical tones of what one can buy with a dirham in your pocket… “A Falafel with a Dirham.. A Falafel with a Dirham in your pocket” repeats the chorus. Up until recently, one could actually buy a falafel with […]
Monday Moment: Barbecue with a Twist
The air around us appeared to be heavy with smoke, and yet, it didn’t actually feel as heavy in my lungs as I had expected. Industrial fans mounted to the edges of the Warehouse-esque, pseudo-outdoor, semi-shaded building spewed forth their breeze along with a continuous spray of mist lit up by the glaring fluorescent bars […]
Eat your heart out
I make no excuses: I travel to eat. I love the flavours of Asian cuisine, the unique blending of salty, sweet and sour, and the way that new ingredients all seem to come together in a way that somehow seems cleaner and leaner than anything we might encounter in Europe, even when it’s deep fried. […]
Awesome and not-awesome things about my travels
So, after seven weeks traversing the landscapes of South East Asia, I am back in the sandpit of Dubai. As you may have noticed, I got about five posts into my Cambodia leg before internet went haywire. There are controls from the government in Vietnam that restrict access to some personal blogs, and generally I […]
The way to see the true Cambodia
When you first meet Channa, she will tell you that she is not a good Cambodian woman. She says that she talks too much, is too noisy, and she walks too fast. Indeed, not a good, traditional woman at all; one who is expected to be reserved, demure and compliant at all times. Women in […]
