At approximately 5:50 pm EST, I bought a Flip cam.  This isn’t even the good part.  I finish my MBA in June (hurrah!) and will be leaving Boston.  I don’t actually start work until August, which means I am without permanent home for a little while.

Which means:

It’s a perfect opportunity to take a cross-country road trip!

Starting in June, my friend Emily and I will be embarking on a cross-country road trip.  Now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with food and/or video.  Emily, also being a fellow food-o-phile, and I will hunting for some great places to chow down.  I hope to document the process with my Flip cam!  It will be much easier to just show you what we’re eating than continuously write about it! Plus, you’ll get to see real-time reactions.

We’re (tentatively) planning to stop in these cities, let me know if you have any recommendations on things to see and places to eat!

• Charlottesville
• Nashville
• Memphis
• Dallas
• Austin
• Grand Canyon

Oh yea, I just finished making a batch of risotto, recipe to come soon.

Ah January.  It came and went so quickly, I’m not quite sure it ever existed.  Actually, it must have existed because I have hundreds of pictures.  I was fortunate enough to have taken a class at Sloan called G-Lab.  All during the fall semester I worked with a Company in Kuala Lumpur called JobStreet.com.  Then during January, I spent three weeks on-site working with JobStreet.  Yes, in Kuala Lumpur.  I also managed to spend a weekend in Singapore and five days in Bali.  Rough, I know.
The food in KL is amazing.  I’m pretty sure I spent three straight weeks eating.  Anything you desire is there; Malay, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Western.  Usually the best food is from  hawker stands, it’s super cheap (easily under US$5 to eat) and delicious.  Also, hopefully I have mastered chopstick eating!

Beverages

Any fruit juice.  They are all amazing; watermelon, lychee and soursop were the top ones for me.  I’m not quite sure how to describe soursop, it’s sweet and sour and delicious, even if it does sound like something out of the Willy Wonka movie.

Teh Tarik.  Pulled tea with condensed milk.  It’s refreshing served hot or cold.

Honey lime. I was not a fan.  It was a cold beverage that tastes sweet at first but has a bitter after-taste.

Main Meals

Yong Tow Foo. Essentially Yong Tow Foo is vegetables with a large amount of fish paste in them.  There were peppers, eggplant, tofu and others that had the similar paste in them.  There was also something called, ‘lady fingers,” which I am almost certain is okra (again, stuffed with fish paste).

Rojak. One of my favorite dishes in Malaysia.  It is a mixture of fruits, vegetables and spicy, sweet peanut sauce.  I wasn’t entirely certain what I was eating all the time, but it was good

Chicken in a paper bag. Not the catchiest of names, but quite good dark meat chicken still on the bone.

Nasi Lemak.  The ultimate traditional Malay food. Malaysians will frequently eat this chicken dish soaked in coconut for breakfast from roadside stalls (we had it for dinner).

Kuey Teow.  A hawker stall favorite made from stir fried flat noodles, soy sauce and prawns.  Also one of my favorite dishes in Malaysia.

Thai. We ate a ton of Thai food includes curries, noodles and spicy Tom Yom seafood soup, a personal favorite.

Korean BBQ.  So good.  One of my teammates was Korean, so was all made an effort to get Korean food one evening.  This was also one of my absolute favorite meals.  We had traditional BBQ as well as hot pot.  It was amazing and when your Korean teammate approves, you know it’s good!

Starbucks.  Errr, how did that get in there? Ok, ok.  I’m guilty.  A girls gotta get her coffee somehow!

Japanese.  Another one of my teammates was Japanese, so we also made sure to get Japanese for dinner.  We stuffed ourselves with fresh sushi, mango salad and soba noodles.

Bah kut teh.  Oh the bah kut teh.  Like many of the meals in Malaysia, I said “What the hell!” and ate away.  The name means meat bone tea.  I was informed it was pork ribs in broth.  It was tasty, so I continued to eat. There are also other ingredients such as mushrooms and tofu.  What I was not told is bah kut teh frequently (read: almost always) contains offal.  I’m positive I ate stomach lining.  I am not positive about what else I ate.  I am also positive that is the only day I took Pepto-Bismol while in Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore Road Trip.  The food and beverages in Singapore should not be ignored.  They were also wonderful.

Fresh coconut juice.  Nothing like drinking juice from coconuts opened in front of you with an extremely large knife.

Singapore Sling.  I came. I ordered. I drank.  No trip to Singapore is complete without a trip to the Raffles Hotel for the original Singapore Sling.  While not exactly my favorite beverage, the experience alone was worth the $20 drink.  They also have very good Tom Collins.

Fish Porridge.  After waiting in line for 25 minutes, the lovely woman in front of me helped me order.  She said this porridge from the hawker stand was infamous and she has waited up to an hour for it.  They made each dish individually.  Even more delicious was the raw fish salad. Win.

Chili and Red Pepper Crab.  At the advice of our professor, we sought out these crabs while in Singapore.  They did not disappoint.  They were messy (I got a crab bib!), huge and flavorful.

And then there was:

DURIAN

Oh man.  One of the best parts of being home again is not smelling durian everyday.  This fruit, native to Malaysia has an extremely foul odor and an even fouler taste.  It was awful.  The scent is actually so strong and terrible many hotels do not allow the fruit on premises and they are also banned on the Singapore subway system!

That’s it.  As I sit here eating the chicken I roasted for dinner (a bit too soon to return to Asian food), I realized I will now have to find equally delicious Asian foods in the US; preferably in Boston, New York or San Francisco.

No, I’m not going to end my post there (although I could).  They are relatively simple to make and are great to eat on their own or with a beverage.  The first time I made them, I dunked them in my coffee.  They are after all the perfect dunking cookie; long enough to put in the mug and durable enough they won’t fall apart in your coffee.  This of course, made my mom a bit nostalgic because her father used to do the same thing.  I never met my grandfather, I’ve been told we would have gotten along like two peas in a pod.

During the semester, I actually had to answer the question, “who would you choose to have lunch with, dead or alive” during my communication class.  I knew immediately the answer was my grandfather, after 24 years of hearing stories, there really wasn’t anyone else I could think of (although as I write this, I can hear my grandmother totally yelling at me for not picking her, partially because she loved to lunch).

I never really thought of where we would go to lunch since the question really focused on the “who,” not there “where.”  A couple of weeks ago while in my old NYC neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen, I made a pit stop at Bis. Co. Latte.  I didn’t discover this little nook until just before I moved (regrettably so because I love it) but I’ve visited it almost every time I’ve been back.  There are tons of biscotti and great Illy coffee (my Italian grandfather would most definitely approve).  Holly (the owner) even created some fun seasonal biscotti with candy canes baked in (I’m bummed I’ve eaten all the ones I bought).  The summer months are also welcomed with gelato, how can one go wrong?  The place is cozy and a great place to spend a lazy Sunday (see tweet circa October)

Most definitely the perfect place to enjoy a late afternoon coffee and biscotti with my grandfather.

It’s also a time for traditions, specifically those of the family kind.  Of course my family (as I’m sure many others do) pretty much spend the time eating and passing out on the couch.  Although one of our biggest traditions is our Christmas breakfast.  My mom’s side of the family all come over (usually 13, this year we have 12) to enjoy a feast.

We all crowd around the table (which is much harder now that we’re all grown up and take up more space mind you) and dive into arguably the best meal of the year (it’s a toss up with Thanksgiving).  On the table we have: eggs, bacon, bagels, lox, croissants, crumb cake (the absolute best in the world from Front Street Bakery), herring, scones, donuts, pastries, rolls and of course coffee, oj, tomato juice and eggnog.  I’m sure I’m missing something…I have no idea how my parents manage all of this each year.  Additionally, my mom makes it all look amazing.  She decorates to perfection for the holidays, with each little detail taken care of.

While I neglected to take pictures of the table w/ all of the food on it (dumb, I know), I did get a shot of the settings and due to a Christmas miracle, I also found a cord and was able to upload some pictures!

And then when finished, everyone goes home, passes out for a couple of hours then goes to my Aunt’s house for dinner where we eat again.

Happy Holidays to everyone and I hope you love your traditions as my family enjoys ours.