Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

A Day at the Market


As I mentioned before, Ricky and I recently visited one of the largest markets in the world.  Now, we love to visit markets. There’s always so much to see that sometimes it can get pretty overwhelming.  This was our first market to visit in Thailand and it was a great first indeed.

Shops featuring handmade soaps and herbal balms offered fresh fruity and floral scents, while the pet section (puppies, kittens, birds, turtles, sugar gliders, and other exotic creatures) offered a scent not quite as fresh.  Clothing shops, purse shops, shops for toys and towels and amazing art filled the place. I was dizzy with the sights and sounds and smells of the market, loving every minute of it.

When I got hungry I snacked on a banana roti, glazed with sweetened condensed milk, and had a honey/lemon drink when I got a little parched.

We saw artists, hippies, lady-boys, beggars, and everything in between as we wandered the aisles.

I could go on and on about the wonders of the market, but instead, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…




A monster iguana. Monsterguana?

Pipe fish.

An albino turtle, stretching out its neck.

Coconut phone charms

Predator, hanging out with the towels. And a scale.

This kid was having a blast playing that thing and dancing around, watching the coins clink into his basket.

A scorpion made from spare parts.

How did they get that tuk-tuk in there?

Handmade soaps, using lots of Thai scents like lemongrass, plumeria, and ginger.

The 10 Weirdest Creatures We've Eaten (So Far)






Traveling opens the door to so many new experiences. Meeting new people, getting to know new cultures and seeing amazing new places are among the wonders of traveling. One of my favorites, however, is tasting new foods. I love trying strange foods and will hardly ever shy away from new dishes. Ricky, too, is beginning to be a more adventurous eater. Here is a list of 10 of the strangest things we’ve eaten so far. Now just to clarify, we list 10 different creatures, not parts of them. We’ve had cow stomach and duck intestines, but duck and cow aren’t that strange. The following list contains 10 animals that the majority of you probably haven’t tried.

Bugs:

Yes, they taste the way they look.
10. Silkworm

I’ll start with the creepy-crawlies, because, well, they're the worst.. First is silkworm, a popular dish in China. I tried them twice. The first time was disgusting and I couldn’t actually swallow it. The outside of the worm was a sort of chewy/crunchy texture, and when I bit down on it, the goo from the inside flooded my mouth. It was absolutely vile. The flavor was rancid, the texture even worse. I spit it up into a napkin.
The second time was much better. The inside was cooked  better, so it had the texture of a firm tofu. The outside was
chewable, so I could actually swallow it. The flavor was much better than the first time as well. Still, though, silkworm is not a great food, at least for my tastes.

9. Scorpion  
Who decided eating this thing was a good idea?
The scorpions I had were tiny little things, with not much to them. They were cooked on skewers that were almost as big around as they were.  And that’s pretty much it. There wasn’t much flavor, or actual edible stuff. Just a crunchy little tid-bit.










8. Wasp
All I remember thinking as I was about to pop this crunchy morsel into my mouth was this: “It’s looking at me. It can see into my soul.”
I will devour your first born child, with all your hopes and dreams on the side.


And then I ate it, and it popped a little.

7. Grasshopper


By far the worst insect I’ve eaten. First, they were huge. Second, they still had legs.  It took me about 5 minutes to eat one because everything kept getting stuck everywhere. There were legs in my teeth and exoskeleton bits stuck to the back of my throat. It was probably one of the most disgusting eating experiences ever.
10 months later and I'm still finding bits in my teeth.

***Just to sum up my bug-eating: never again. I thought before I started traveling that I would be an insect-eater. The thought didn’t really gross me out, so I figured I’d be ok with it. But it’s one of those things that is cool once for the novelty, but after that it’s just gross.  Bugs are definitely not something I could make a meal out of. But maybe I just haven’t met the right one…***



6. Ostrich
So tall and regal...and tasty.
This is one of my favorites on this list. We were given it raw, and then we cooked it ourselves on a barbecue. Raw, it was red and looked a lot like beef. Cooked, it still retained that beef-like appearance. 
The flavor and texture were delicious. It was tender, and the taste was rich. The Japanese must have eaten this when they discovered umami. 










5. Yak
So, this may not be way out there, because it’s pretty much just a cow dressed as Tina Turner, but we're still guessing that not many of you have had the pleasure—nay! The privilege!—of eating yak.  It is the most divine meat I have ever eaten.

Wear it, eat it. It's multipurpose!

 I had a yak steak and a yak burger in China and I could almost hear a choir of angels singing aloud as I chewed each bite. It was oh-so tender, full of flavor, and seemed to melt in my mouth. Each mouthful was a taste of heaven, and I was close to tears when it was all gone.

4. Dog 
Shame on me for using this picture. 
Not one of my favorite meats, but Ricky will eat it any time he gets a chance, mostly because it means that we’re in a North Korean restaurant, and he has a fascination with North Korea.
We’ve had dog twice, and the second time was my favorite. The first time, it was sliced up, and looked like roast beef. It came with a tasty brown sauce and was served cold. The meat was tender and flavorful, but for me there was a strange sort of after-taste…a very doggy sort of after-taste.
The second time we had dog it was in a sort of stew with onions and peppers, served over rice. I really liked it this time.  It was so tender and flavorful, with less of the wet-dog after taste.
Fresh puppy stew.













3. Snake
Ever since I saw Crocodile Dundee, I have wanted to try snake.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom changed my mind for a while, but I decided if the snake was dead, I’d have no qualms.
So when Ricky and I went to a barbecue joint, we decided  to get a little snake to throw on there. Honestly, it was quite good. I think it was pretty fatty, because it shrunk up a lot on the barbecue, and it was fairly chewy.  But with a dip in the right sauce it was quite enjoyable.

2. Frog Legs
Now, I’m from Texas, so I had tried frogs legs before, nice deep fried ones.  This was Ricky’s first time though, and enjoyed it well enough. The meat was a bit bland, but the texture was nice. It was sort of a mix between fish and chicken. I liked it very much and could definitely make a meal out of it.





1. Crocodile
Tasty tasty meat. Really. The flavor of the meat was delicious. It was a little chewy for my taste, but the flavor was just right. Ricky and I ate this right up.  As a bonus, the day before, we had visited the local crocodile farm, so we got to take a look at this succulent creature before it ended up on our plate.
The many inhabitants of the local croc farm.
To the right of the bowl, frog legs. At the 11 o'clock, crocodile.

The 4 Best Things About Driving a Motorbike in Laos, Part 1

Well, we weren't eaten by tigers. We survived the motorbike trip from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, without a hitch.
Here's the video of the departure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voUvlHNYjwo&feature=youtu.be

And here are the best things about the trip. Be jealous.

4. The scenery
China doesn't have anything on Laos. We put up a couple of posts on Chinese scenery here and here. Now, China is beautiful, but dang. I mean daaaaang! We saw some of the most beautiful things either of us had ever seen. We drove up into the mountains, I mean straight up into them. And there we were at the top, staring straight at the tops of the other green mountains around us. Lush green jungle surrounded us, and on the hills around us were fields of rice and banana trees. Tiny villages dotted the hills and cloudy blue skies were over the whole world.

3. The road
Now, as some of you may know, I (Talia) am not an expert motorbike rider/driver/pilot or whatever it is you do with a motorbike. Ricky, on the other hand, is. So he sped along, taking the tight curves at high speeds while I tried to get the hang of leaning into the turns instead of braking and inching along. I'll have you know I am improving. Often, Ricky made me go in front so he wouldn't unintentionally leave me behind, because he is the tenderest morsel of them all.  So there I was, struggling around tight mountain curves, dodging potholes, in too high a gear going uphill...
and I freaking loved it. It was the most exhilerating and frightening thing I've ever done, and I can't wait to do it again! Remember all that stuff I said about the scenery? Picture driving through that. Picture the jungle around you, the wind rushing through your...er...helmet. For safety. The twisting roads and the downhill speeds, everything. Everything was perfect.

And here's a video of a little break in the trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_UkBggue_s&feature=youtu.be

2. The local fauna
No, we didn't see tigers or monkeys or elephants. But here's what we did see.
1 lizard, which Ricky almost destroyed.
1 small brown tortoise, which Ricky did destroy (accidentally).
A million butterflies, 7 of which destroyed themselves upon our chests, helmets, and goggles.
2 dogs gettin' it on in the middle of the road. Don't worry, all the traffic drove around them so as not to sour the moment of passion.
Several cows, which I shot with my finger gun. (pyew pyew!)
A family of sprinting pigs.
4 fat ducks waddling slowly across the road.
Chickens.

1. The people
Oh man. The people. This is where Laos has China beat again. The people are so nice and friendly. Many a time we drove through a mountain village and small children waved at us. When we waved back, they let out a cheerful "wooohooo!" At one point, after we stopped to fill up the bikes, I started to pull away. A girl waved to me, and when I waved back, she ran after me, waving and shouting.
Later in the afternoon, we passed a whole horde of kids going home from school, some walking, most on bikes. They waved, we waved, smiles all around.
Not just the kids were friendly. Many adults waved and smiled at us, including truck drivers, other motorbikers, and villagers. There was no way we could be unhappy.

Well there it is. The 4 reasons we had more fun than you'll ever have, ever. No. I mean, 4 reasons we loved driving for 8 hours despite potholes and humping dogs.

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