Category Archives: Cuisine

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Dinner at the Emerson Spice Teahouse Rooftop Restaurant

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Well this is it. Our final activity. The Emerson Spice Hotel has a tasting menu on the rooftop, one seating per night, 5 set courses, and cocktails for sundown. The way it works is the fisherman go out each morning and bring back various seafoods, and on the way to the hotel they pick up produce from the market. The chef selects from these and designs the menu accordingly. The hotel has 10 breeding pairs of Norwegian goats, and there is also a farm at a nearby Catholic convent. At 99% Muslim Zanzibar is not exactly ripe for missionary work, so the nuns have devoted their time to farming. All the food was organic. Each plate had 3 or 4 individual items. My favorites were the crispy goat and all of the deserts. The kingfish was also yummy.

Sigh, it’s over. This is the end. I type this as we wait for our flight to Nairobi, then on to Amsterdam, and then on to New York. It’s been an incredible few years on these trips. Thanks to Alex, Layla, Sarah, and Gilda for a wild ride. Great friends, great trips.

Lady Boy Time, signing off. Continue reading →

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Lunch at Maramboi Lodge

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We almost stayed at this lodge, but it booked up. Our awesome guide was nice enough to call them and arrange for us to have lunch there. The food was excellent. Really good meatballs and some unidentifiable Continue reading →

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Lunch at Pim’s Restaurant

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Pim’s is an old restaurant on the side of Panecillo with a spectacular view of the city and surrounding volcanoes. Included with our tour bus tickets was a coupon for the house cocktail, which none of us could identify. It was blended. There was maybe cinnamon in it? Google was no help. Then the table started to shake, and we realized it was an earthquake. Unbeknownst to us at the time, people were killed/injured in a landslide. You can actually see some dust clouds in these photos, though I don’t think that landslide was near us. The food was good and cheap. Also, Layla finally got her fries, and they were $1.65.

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Dinner at Zazu, Quito

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Eating a fancy meal towards the end of the big trip has sort of become a tradition. I take the opportunity to drop all the food rules and eat whatever I want, which typically means raw salad greens. The LUXURY of it all. The stone crab claw ceviche was amazing; there were huge chunks of crab. Also, really delicious crispy calamari. Exiting around 1130pm we naively thought we could find a bar. Yep, no. Everything in Quito closes super early on Mondays. Or every day? Anyway, there was a cab waiting, so we skedaddled.

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Organic Farm Lunch

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Leading up to the trip we were super excited about hiking the world’s second largest volcano. Early on the trip we were warned by other travelers that if people in your group don’t want to go to the volcano, you might not be able to. Well as we got closer to that day, we heard more and more dire warnings. “It’s muddy and uphill for hours.” “We’re not really supposed to dissuade the guests, but…none of the guides thinks this is a worthwhile activity.” “If there are any clouds, which there usually are, you can’t see anything.” So on and so forth. Instead, we slummed it on the beach (see previous post) and enjoyed ourselves this totally random [and free] lunch on an organic farm. We were dropped off by a pickup truck and collected again by it. The hotel staff wouldn’t let us ride in the back of the truck, but on the way back the driver smiled and gestured for LB and AO to jump in the back. Truck selfie! Oh, and that’s a chicken feeding a mouse to her children. I was like, “I just ate your grandfather!” Like the farm owner, the chickens  didn’t speak English.

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Yong Kang Road, The French Concession, Shanghai

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On our last day in Asia we took it a little, ahem, easy. With Hazel’s advice from the night before, we made it finally to the French Concession, which not so surprisingly is the former home of French influence in Shanghai. Yong Kang Road has recently been taken over (re-taken over?) by westerners. It wants to remind you of Paris or London or perhaps New York, but really it’s China. It’s very cute. The man roasting unidentified food stuffs over on active fire in his push cart would be one signal it’s China, though. Another signal would be the Chinese woman leering out her second floor apartment just waiting until 10pm when all shops must be closed and everyone quiet, lest she dump water on you. Seriously, that last part was not made up.

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Layla turns 30, The Park Hyatt, Shanghai

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Of course what 30th birthday trip with friends would be complete without a 30th birthday party? We had long thought about staying at the Park Hyatt because of its amazing amenities and views (it’s the world’s tallest hotel) but had eventually looked elsewhere for space and location concerns. So obviously we had to still go!

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Dim Sum

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Finally! This was certainly a touristy spot, but I was OK with that for two reasons:

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Last Hours in Bangkok

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Nahm for dinner, drinks on the rooftop, and morning massage. Goodbye, Bangkok.

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New Year’s Night, Phuket

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We said farewell to Sirey Beach and Phuket in general with a dinner at an unnamed random family-owned restaurant walkable from our villa. They definitely brought us things CLOSE to what we ordered (basically, whatever Mamma was cooking), and they seemed to charge us Pharang (foreigner) rates, but it was lovely and much needed. Sure we were chased by wild dogs and had to dodge crabs on the beach, but that’s just part of staying in the jungle. You be you, Phuket. Until next time…

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Phuket Day/Night 2, Patong

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It’s been 6 days, but we finally had a full 24 hours without a plane, train, taxi, boat, helicopter, or jetpack required for some kind of transfer. But seriously there were jetpacks at the beach.

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Phuket Night 1, Patong

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At last, we arrived in Phuket. The flight was shorter than the taxi. The Kee Resort in Patong is exactly what we wanted and expected: nice, easy, and most importantly near the action and the beach. The rooftop bar is sadly not as cool as it looks, but it’s nice to have.

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