Category Archives: Food

Eating An Alien Lung At Santiago’s Mercado Centrale

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I love a food market, especially a fish market. Fun fact: After 8 surgeries on my ears as a child, my auditory orifices are shot so I can’t go diving. Even if I could, being from Ohio and Kentucky, every time I go snorkeling far from the shore I hear the “Jaws” theme pumping in my head. So, yeah. No scuba masks for me. Instead,  I go diving by visiting fish markets. Which suits me just fine – that way I can actually touch the fish and check them out without having them swim away or, you know, bite me. Added bonus: Dry Diving means I also don’t have to worry about a bikini wedgie or that weird rash you get from a wet suit.

Yummy. I swear.

I haven’t been to my dream fish market in Tokyo yet, but the one in Sydney Fish Market was pretty insane – with almost everything in the ocean available to poke, prod and squeeze.

So I was pretty stoked to find the fish market in the Mercado Central in Santiago, Chile. My guide, Fanor (velascofanor@hotmail.com), even introduced me to a new sea specimen I hadn’t even heard of: Piure.

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The Only Hangover Cure That Has Ever Worked: The Vietnamese Alka Seltzer. You’re Welcome.

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No, it's not a condom. It's the best damn hangover cure in the universe.

No, it’s not a condom. It’s the best damn hangover cure in the universe.

In my past life I went out for a living – as in out. Every night. All night. While it was fun and all, the mornings were not. Thus, about ten years ago, I started the quest to find the ultimate hangover cure. I worked at a company with many Australians who naturally suggested Berocca. Which, frankly, sucked. As in – didn’t work. Here’s a list of what else I’ve tried over the years which didn’t work:

  • A variety of “organic” hangover cure pills which vitamin companies tried to shill every year.
  • Alka Seltzer before going to bed and in the morning (okay, fine… it made me feel marginally better).
  • The hair of the dog (not to be done if you have to be at work the next day).
  • Greasy ham and egg sandwich followed by a V-8 and half a bottle of Visine (in the eyes, not the mouth).
  • Drinking a gallon of water before going to bed (which results in five trips to the bathroom that night, thus ensuring a fully interrupted sleep).

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The Most Important Difference Between North And South Vietnam

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Dinner. Photo courtesy of Martin Brandt.

Dinner, Hanoi. Photo courtesy of Martin Brandt.

Fun fact: the Vietnamese are practically American in their view of one another above or below the 17th parallel – their Mason Dixon Line. It’s the typical grudge match between the Vanquished and the Victor. “People in the South are lazy. They just want to party,” Northerners will say. “People in the North are too uptight and strict,” the Southerners will say.

There are also more subtle differences.

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World Traveler and Now… Chef!

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Dinner for two!

Dinner for two!

IMG_4310

A close up of my masterpiece

Fun Fact: I grew up in Ohio and Kentucky – a landlocked area. Okay, fine, there was the Ohio River but nobody’s eaten anything out of there for at least 100 years. Hell, I don’t think anything has actually lived in there for 75.

The point being, I’ve always been a meat and potatoes kind of girl, especially as I grew up in a time when there was no such thing as “flash freezing” and fish in Cincinnati grocery stores were just… nasty. But. 2014 is a year for trying new things  and broadening my horizons (in between flying off to amazing places) so I faced my biggest kitchen fear and decided to cook some damn fish.

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