WTF is going on here?! A brief explanation

Perhaps I drink a little too much whiskey when I go on my culinary adventures.  That may have been the case that one dark and rainy night in Cambodia when I purchased my sack (yes sack) of “whiskey” from a roadside stand that serves primarily as a gasoline stand for the throngs of motorbikes clogging the streets.  Oddly enough, the gasoline came out of reused liquor bottles, and the whiskey was ladled out of a 55 gallon drum.  Khmer food will never be the same without that sack of whiskey.  That sack of whiskey may also be the reason why neither my companion nor I could figure out why he was kicked in the balls by a 10 year old boy who wasn’t wearing any shoes.  I just hope our friendly tuk tuk driver was alright after his share of the sack.

Whether it’s snake blood/bile shots with my 7 course snake dinner in Hanoi, bottles of soju with my spicy bulgogi in Seoul, dangerously smooth Flor de Caña rum with my arroz con pollo in Nicaragua, or endless saké shots and fresh sushi in Japan, I tend to treat my culinary exploration as an adventure.

As a boy growing up in a military family, I got used to moving to a new place every so often.  This set me on a path for a life of travel and bred a nomadic spirit that lives on to this day.  I loved seeing new interesting places and trying new and unfamiliar foods.  I”ll never forget the first time I bit into a juicy, fresh Hawaiian pineapple when we lived on Oahu.  The sweet juices running down my face were like a gift from the Hawaiian gods themselves.  Moments such as this became a regular occurrence in my life.  So it continued, and 30 or so countries later I still find the wanderlust overwhelming, and my desire to try new foods is as strong as ever.

Now my home is in Philadelphia, but my wanderlust (and thirst) persist.  I now seek out exotic foreign foods that are available right here in Philly.  This town is about more than just typical cheesesteaks (do try the Ethiopian cheesesteak at Gojjo)  and there are a plethora of restaurants in this city offering culinary delights from around the globe just waiting to be discovered.

I want the smell of basil and fish sauce to take me back to “the land of smiles.”  I will let the berbere in my kifto grab me by the nostrils and transport me to unfamiliar locales in east Africa.  Whisked away to the Ukraine with vodka and varenyky on Tuesday, then off to sunny Costa Rica on Thursday with empanadas and rum on Thursday.  There is no good reason to remain static in this town.

With enough strong booze and a taste bud-driven sense of wanderlust I will continue to travel to far away lands through culinary exploration.  So grab a drink and join me as I adventure around the world without ever leaving city limits!