Monserrate

I gasped for air and kept peddling, my head down so the spinning instructor wouldn’t see me laughing.

“Is it just me, or is he doing a sexy dance on top of the bike?” my friend Kari said on the bicycle next to me.

13 Dec

It’s winter. I get it. I should be posting pumpkin soup recipes and ideas for upcoming cookie exchanges. But fresh Vietnamese spring rolls sound so much better to me right now.

Lately I’ve had an overwhelming desire to travel. And I’m not talking about a week in the Caribbean or even two weeks in Europe. That’s not gonna cut it. I long for my backpacking days and fantasize about future expeditions: Hiking Machu Picchu, spending a month in an ashram in India, riding a camel through the Sahara. The list goes on.

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Everyone's eaten at Thai restaurants. There are Vietnamese places popping up all over. My old DC neighborhood even had a Malaysian eatery on the corner.

But what the heck is Laotian food?

I wondered the same thing before I visited Laos, the small country bordered by Thailand and Cambodia. And obviously this was the first question I asked once I got there.

Durian, durian, the magical fruit People say you smell like a toot. Spiky, pointy, hanging from trees, The sight of you brings me to my knees. People crack you open with a knife, The first taste nearly changed my life. A custard-like inside is a surprising treat, Every day I want to...

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The moment I returned to America I started receiving invites to parties and reunion requests. I responded by sending a mass email: “Let me sleep for five days, then the planning can commence.”

Exactly six days later, I had two of my best girlfriends over for dinner. And even though I wanted nothing to do with rice, noodles, or any other kind of Asian fare, I thought it’d be nice to cook some recipes I learned in Thailand.

01 Jun

I knew my last meal in Korea had to be good; but what? Barbecue? One of the many soups I'd savored over my year-and-a-half stay? A rice dish? Seafood? I couldn't decide. But lucky for me, I didn't have to.

As a going away present, my friend Yong Kyu made reservations at a Korean royal cuisine restaurant so I could check off one of the last items from my Korean food bucket list: sinseollo. Sinseollo is a special type of hot pot once reserved only for royalty. It's basically a mild broth with beef, egg, radish, mushrooms, walnuts, ginkgo nuts and a few other vegetables served in a fancy silver pot.

21 Apr

Writing this from an Internet cafe in Saigon, Vietnam, my hands are still shaking, my neck tense from fear.

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my obsession with Anthony Bourdain. I've memorized every episode of No Reservations, feverishly flipped through each of his books, and am anxiously waiting for the day he discovers my blog and insists for me to be his younger, equally-as-charming co-host.

aw

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since I set forth on this amazing journey. I've seen sights that have shocked me, things that have humbled me, and have done things that I will remember for the rest of my life. Southeast Asia is incredible.

I know what you're thinking...ok, ok, Southeast Asia is great. Jennifer's seen temples, ridden elephants, motorbiked through rice fields. But what about the food? Well, here's a snippet of what I've been putting in my belly:

Before you freak and and think I'm a monster for eating 산낙지 (Sannakji), otherwise known as live octopus, let me tell you something: it's not really alive. Well, it's alive when it gets to the table, but then the server chops it up into bite-sized pieces....

egg sac

Yes, you read that correctly. Fish guts. And egg sacs. Together. In a bowl. It's called Altang, and it's apparently a pretty popular soup in Korea; although I hadn't heard of it until last weekend.
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