i really did eat almost everything, berkeley ed.

I've started this entry a million times in my head--I've been dreading it, really, because like so many other recent indicators, it marks an end. I can even be so dramatic as to say the end of my Asia life, a chapter firmly, decidedly closed by the ever-wide streets and the (relatively) tiny population of American suburbia. I have been enjoying it by doing all the things rendered impossible by living in Asia, but something deep inside me tells me that baking up a furious storm of key lime pies will not, cannot patch this gaping hole only able to be filled by the sweet sounds and smells and people of the East.

This weekend I did, however, manage to patch the gaping Berkeley hole that developed last year. Another place I love, filled with sweet sounds and smells and people. Oh my goodness. And I ate enough to...well, I'll let you read the list and decide for yourself.

Eating through Berkeley (& Oakland), September 17-20:

• Yogurt Park
• Rick and Ann's
• Yogurtland
• Strada kind of way too many times to count
• Gregoire
• Love at First Bite
• Fellini
• Cheeseboard my beloved
• Pizzaiolo
• Bakesale Betty (and got free cookies!)
• Naan 'n Curry (and I saw my dreamy curry guy)

So yeah. It was an amazing, heart-friendly weekend (Note: I did not say heart-healthy. Heart-friendly is a completely different concept...) and I miss it already. All of it.

PS. Safari has gone off the deep end and won't let me post pictures on Blogger? I swear the internet, as well as all technology are generally conspiring to kill me one of these days.

the hundred

I just found Very Good Taste's top 100 foods. (Bolded means I've done it before.) How many have you eaten?

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (but I looked it up and it looks AWESOME)
60. Carob chips (sick)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (if rose gelato from Naia counts)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I really want to try poutine! Who wants to hike it up to Canada with me in September?! I've still got tons on this list to conquer.

home sweet east asia

7 hotels/hostels, 1 night on a sleeper bus, 1 night in an airport, 2 nights in a sleeper train, and 72 showerless hours later, we're home!!! 3 countries in 3 weeks. More, as always, to come.

(credit to Aubrey for the stats)