1st January 2020
First meal of 2020, in Sicily!
After starving for the last few days because of too much work, the 2 pizzas & roasted veggie plate + bottle of Nero D’avola completely killed us. It’s now 20:22, and we’re already in bed (?!?!?!)
Looking forward for a glorious tomorrow, as we continue to eat the rest of Sicily away 😘
Naked beach
My dear friend snapped these when we played in the waters of a hidden beach on the west side of Koh Pha-gnan. One could never have guessed that there was a tiny trail into the jungle behind some bushes next to the road, leading out to this little paradise... off with your clothes!
Porky's BBQ challenge
So, visited London for a bit and after walking around in Camden we drunkely decided to pop into Porky's BBQ for their meat feast food challenge. Rules: 1 huge burger with pulled pork and bacon, 3 BBQ ribs and 6 hot wings to be devoured within
30 minutes to get the t-shirt. I normally barely eat meat at all, so I wasn't too sure about this first.... but somehow, I killed it on 20 min 50 sec.
)
And then we went for more beer to celebrate, of course. :)
One side of the narrow mind of scandies
It might just be me, but I noticed a pretty big social difference while in Sweden. The meeting of people, especially strangers, seems to be more focused on dating and/or sex, there's more backthought between each planned encounter than it seems to be in the Mediterranean. Down here, a bigger percentage of people meet up without reason really, guy plus girl does not automatically mean date, which of course doesn't include all of the cases in Sweden, but from my experiences.... the general. I don't know. I might be wrong. Just random thoughts on the airplane.
Monkey business
Today has been a perfectly 'lagom' day. Woke up at 7:30 for the breakfast buffet which consisted of a spicy thai herb stew with chicken, fried pumpkin, sunny side up eggs and endless amounts of pineapples (!!!!). Rather filling for being a breakfast, but in my eyes waaaay better than toast and jam (They never got cheese here in Thailand... what's the point of toast then...). As usual, I got greedy and ate for both bfast and lunch, then downed two cups of black coffee and spent the next 4 hours in my hotel room, in pain. How come I never learn......
Anyway, agony past, we went on with our hired mopeds. I've never thought about visiting this area before, I just tagged along now to have a look at my mum's property. Prachuap Kiri Khan. It's pretty! And very tourist-free. I mean, there is some tourism going on, but at least now, not really. The area consists of three bay's, and in the middle one there a looong pier that goes out right in the middle.... Spectacular to be there at night with all the lights forming artwork far away. Found a hidden gem, really.
One of the few things there is to do here is apparently feeding monkeys. You see, there is a tiny mountain in the middle of the town where you can walk up some looong stairs to a small temple. Yep. That's where them monkeys live. And they are thousands, everywhere, snatching anything close to food you might carry. I tried to stay as far away from them as I could, but got peed on anyway..... dang
Boom festival 2016
Boom was beautiful. I'm so happy that I didn't skip it as firstly planned.
The Portuguese weather was quite bipolar. Felt like 50+ degrees during the day, and -10 at night. I didn't bring a tent, but decided to sleep a bit of everywhere, which was one of he best festival decisions I've ever made. Sleeping around strangers on a soft floor. So much more time to connect with people. Oh, what connections.
So much emotions. My soul was swimming in a sea of intense feelings from beginning to end. I met best friends, lovers, and everything in between. The borders between them all blurred out, and all there was left was pure emotions. I don't even care to label them. Who cares anyway? I don't need labels right now. Love is love, and 'what kind' shouldn't matter.
The only thing that matters is the memories of the slowly fading feelings. They will all turn into something else for the time being. Until we all meet again. Then they'll bloom back, like a flower garden in spring <3
Harakiri sausage challenge
Spontaneously booked a ticket to Sweden while sunbathing on the beach in Malta. Went from 35+ degrees to rain and grey clouds. I don't really know how I was thinking really.
In any case, I'm here in Stockholm for a little while before I go down to Gothenburg to hug people. So while here, it was time to try out the infamous harakiri challenge.
The challenge consist of a spicy sausage with bread (said to be the spiciest in the world, but I doubt very much they've been to Mexico). You're not allowed to put ketchup or any other topping except for the super hot chili sauce that comes with it. Then you have 5 minutes to chug and keep it down. Most people apparently experience stomach cramps at this stage. He other guy trying it after me vomited. Did I mention that you need to wear latex gloves?
If you are a pale Swedish type that's never left the country, I understand this thing of evil would kill you. But as a world-traveling food freak with Thai blood, this wasn't even giving me the sweats. I ate the whole thing in 3 min, had no stomach pains or problems with the toilet after. You goddamn swedish pussies
Froggylicious
Alright. Let's talk about the frog and the stingray I ate last week in Malaysia. I've been too busy with work, so this update is a bit late I know..
Anyway. Got my eyes on a skewer-stand in KL, bukit bintang area. They had big-ass frogs and stingrays and of course I was interested. You pretty much pick whatever skewered you feel like and they grill/deep fry them for you.
I ate frog twice in Malaysia, and I have to say that the meat doesn't really taste.... Anything. It's just texture. It's a little bit gummy-ish, and maybe not the star in Malay cuisine really. It was fun to try though!
The stingray was actually very nice. I had it first grilled, then slightly deep fried. Imagine a big fish, for example swordfish... That's the texture. Not flakey and white like most fishes, but you could feel that it was a sea creature. If they cut it like any other fish you could easily put it in a bouillabaisse. The skin and bones was a little bit of a hassle, but I could eat this again for sure (later had a stingray ginger-stir fry, gorgeous).
Also had a little quail. Not bad, but chicken is way better
Real food abroad
There's lots of good foods to eat here in KL. You have a wonderful mix between Malay, Chinese, Indian, and all sorts of street food (most of them deep fried). I usually try to stick with the local food whenever I travel to a country, but since it's so mixed here.. I love the Indian and Chinese as much as I like the Malay food. It's still authentic thanks to the closeness and race mix. 'Western Chinese food' is for example not anywhere close to the real stuff. Usually brown, very sweet and sticky-saucy. And that's what people grow up to believe is 'real Chinese food'. Of course there are similar dishes maybe, but this is just something else than the many many many dishes of a huge country.
Ehrm. Too much China. My point is that even if I eat Indian and Chinese here in KL, it's still kind of the real deal. The fact that I'm residing in Chinatown helps a lot. Today we'll visit the town's 'little India' and sample foods to eat with our hands. Just need to hunt down a good, spicy hellbroth laksa first to sweat the demons inside out. Did I mention my habit of always eating spicy noodle soups for breakfast?
Malay curry and pork belly (both soy-stewed and deep fried)
Saturday night market
Stumbled into a very long evening market last night. Wonderfully crowded with people and aromas from the different street food stalls. I managed to sample a lot of things I hadn't tried yet (as the cow' lung and liver... Tough shit). Can't really remember everything, but here's some pictures;
Started the day with a spicy laksa (noodles in a rich curry broth, topped with clams, deep fried tofu and chicken). It's nice to sweat the demons out.
Shared lunch with a new friend, consisting of takoyaki, curry puff pastry, nasi lemak, mee rebus noodle soup and nasi goreng. A nice mix between Singaporean and Malay foods (well, takoyaki is japanese but whatever).
Started the day with a spicy laksa (noodles in a rich curry broth, topped with clams, deep fried tofu and chicken). It's nice to sweat the demons out.
Shared lunch with a new friend, consisting of takoyaki, curry puff pastry, nasi lemak, mee rebus noodle soup and nasi goreng. A nice mix between Singaporean and Malay foods (well, takoyaki is japanese but whatever).
Biggest pans ever filled with delicious fried noodles!!!!!! Just €1,3 for a nice portion. Heaven
Weird ice cream cone and deep fried prawns on a skewer. They seem to love their deep fried foods over here (one thing I've also noticed is that Malay women seem to have a quite average body type, not really as small and petite as for example Japanese people). Nothing wrong with that!
Bulalo
Read about Smoke risto's award-winning Bulalo soup while researching about filipino cuisine, so there I went to try it out.
It came piping hot, so I removed the meat and cabbage and put it nicely over the rice. Also got a bit of chili oil on the side which I obviously dumped right down in the soup.
I also got a little friend laying under the table, probably smelling the glorious
For you who doesn't know, bulalo is a beef shank soup with the broth made from boiling the meat on the bones. Usually contains chinese cabbage aswell if I understood it right.
So I went to this very small local restaurant located on the outskirts of the tourist bubble. Ordered one with rice on the side;
It came piping hot, so I removed the meat and cabbage and put it nicely over the rice. Also got a bit of chili oil on the side which I obviously dumped right down in the soup.
Ate the meat and other beautiful beef tissue while the soup took its time to cool down. Tried to spoon up some soup in between each bite to fuse the different elements together. Jelly-like beef tissue/fat, soft, ultra slow cooked beef so tender you're ready to die. Broth just as salty as it should be, and also the extra sting of the chili oil. Oh my god... Extremely divine.
At the later part of the meal when the temperatures went to a good level, I just put everything on the plate and dumped it into the soup bowl (correction; what was left). All the flavors and textures came together to be ridiculously good.
I also got a little friend laying under the table, probably smelling the glorious
aroma better than I do. At that moment, there was nowhere I'd rather be.
New start starts with Roma
At the moment, I'm sitting in Beijing airport. Facebook is banned here in China, and the security check was one of the harshest I've been through (full body search, they took my three lighters and basically unpacked my whole bag).
I've just spent about 9-10h in the air between Roma and Beijing. Before that just 1,5h leaving malta to Roma. Very tearful flight I must say, I got sickly emotional and must have looked like a idiot there beside people (luckily I was at the window, so I could cry while watching the sky and Malta from above).
Met a couchsurfer in Roma. Oh he gave me such a good time. We firstly had a beer at the airport, then took the car in to central Roma, parked a bit outside and just had a long promenade past colosseum and other big constructions I don't know the name of. Then I ate the first Italian pizza in Italy!!! Cappricciosa. Also tasted some bruschetta and carbonara. It is a certain difference, it is. And I hadn't eaten in about 15h, so it was surely good.
On the way back to the airport we got stuck in a traffic jam, and I almost missed the flight (eheheheheh surprised?). Like, really on the limit. It would suck if I got stuck so early on a long trip, but here I am in Beijing. Phew
Chinese people are weird. And rude. Or just very straight-forward. I was thinking to spend my 7h here, sitting at the bar and maybe catch a conversation with someone, but it doesn't seem like that's doable really. It's not even so much foreigners here goddamnit. And the Chinese people around isn't very friendly, loud, angry, and the cashier looks at you with a face of bother. Maybe this is just a very boring airport to work in. I hope that's the case at least.
The restaurants serve mostly Korean food as bibimbap and different noodle soups, so I'm happy. Korean food is awesome, and I would like to try more of it! Just sucks that my appetite isn't existing at all. Feels so stupid to buy food for €8 if you're not even hungry. So here I am in the smoking room with my three Tsingtao beer I bought from the convienience shop. I should get hungry at some point. My beer is finished soon anyway, I can't use Facebook and I have 4.5h left to wait (y)
I must say though, the dinner I got at air China was the best tasting I've ever had on a plane. Chicken in white sauce and pasta with tomato sauce, prawn, crispy potato and olive oil on the side. Tastyy
Boom festival, idanha-a-nova, Portugal
Boom was amazing. We'll yes, it was 45+ degrees, no clouds, toil and sweat, dehydration, 30min queues for all food, struggles with the atm and above all, D U S T.
Every day I would blow my nose to discover mud. Utterly disgusting, and by far the worst thing with the festival. Shortly after that pain comes the Sahara-heat with no clouds. Destruction. But it was worth it, in a weird way I just don't understand.
The festival was combining elements of the soul so nice. Dance your body away at the 2 main stages, dazzle your brain with the most incredible art I've seen at the visual art museum (which, on top of that, was designed like walking into a dragons mouth), enjoy and smile at the pretty and very smart decorations put out here and there. Like the jellyfish lanterns they put on each street light. Made by plastic cups, they spread amazingly friendly discoball-like patterns on the ground.
I danced like never before. The highest level of dance-trance was when Emok, Ticon and James Monro played a 5h set together, taking turns. I've never danced so furiously, so constant for that long time. The energy of the dance usually goes in waves you know, but this one was constant bodybeating all through the entire set. I was all shaky when they finished, and we got to go backstage to thank the dj's (a bit flirting with the security guards ;). We later ended up partying with them, drinking beer and sharing pizza. James Monro and his wife even showed us pictures of heir house and horses in Brazil! The last night was by far the best one ever.
Anyways, I'm here now, a few years older spiritually and a few friends richer. I've also seen videos of Malta now, and I'm so proud of what a beautiful country I live in, and all the beautiful places I get to see. I miss Jakob, I do. But for the gift to realize everyday beauty, I'm so incredibly grateful.
Viva Madrid
We've been in Madrid for 1,5 days, managed to find our hotel at Alonso Martinez which is about 15 min walk from the city center. It's okay since I like walking.
Yesterday was a loong one. Staying up at night to catch the plane at 6am, arriving in Madrid to find the hotel, search for the typical tapas (oh we tried a few different places throughout he evening). I even got to ride with a cs friend around town, utterly amazing experience.
It's nice to schedule meetings with locals. You get to dig a bit deeper rather than scratching the surface of a town. We did things all day this day, so we slept like babies when we came back home after midnight haha..
I like the way of eating here, here's no need to order a full meal at a specific restaurant. Order a few tapas plates with some drinks, snack a bit, wander on to next place, repeat.. Oh my god how perfectly it suits my way of constantly nabbing on something. P e r f e c t
Today, we'll try to find some shorts, and do some other shopping aswell. Just walk around, mostly in puerto del sol. Eat, drink. Load up ourselves before dancing away in the Portuguese nature for the comig week.
Father father insect times
As you know, I met my father for the first time in adult age some days ago. His English wasn't there and my Thai skills is poor, so communication was slightly difficult. However, I had my mum around to translate thank god. To be clear, I have no intentions of building any relationship with him, and this is also not really a sensitive topic since he's like a total stranger to me anyway. More important, genetics are fun and I was amused by our similar features :)
We went to some temple market, he bought me some street snacks and had me trying fried insects!! Taste was alright, but the feeling of a insect between your teeth... Well it got better the more I had, but I doubt it'll be something I'll yearn more for. We later had beer.
Next day, he cooked with me. Apparently he's a good cook, but from what I could see just an amateur (well, village life here isn't quite the place for star-restaurants. They're living in wooden bungalows in the middle of nowhere, the equipment is from the Stone Age). Anyways, he showed me that magic nigro chicken I wrote about a couple of days ago. New experiences!
At the moment, I'm doing nothing else than eating, sweating, eating, melting, eating, reading, eating. I've surely put on about 4kg, some shorts feels tighter. Not sure if my belly is so big cuz the ridiculously huge amount of water I binge or if I'm actually is getting a proper beer belly. I drink like 5l a day, at least <_<
Magic nigro chicken
It's been a lot of absence here lately. Maybe it's too hot, I'm doing nothing else than eating chilli-bursting spicy food and melting here. I arrived to Chiang Mai two days ago, and is just here for my mothers sake to be honest. Meeting my grandparents which I've never really spoken too, and also got to meet my biological father! More bout that another time.
North of Thailand means family business anyway, the sky is always grey (pollution) and I don't really like it here as I like the south. Sad sad grey skies, reminder of how we destroy our beautiful earth.
Oh well. My father brought some new stuff to cook with me today. I dropped my jaw when he pulled out a black chicken from he bag. Everything was black, the meat, the skin, the beak, the bones. WTF? I never even thought about its existence before. He made a soup by boiling it with herbs, garlic, other random thai stuff, we cooked together! The nigro chicken tasted exactly like normal though, but I must say it did look slightly scary when black even inside :P
Sad one. You wouldn't be too happy
'bout getting boiled either would'ya :(
Future music festival
Future was fucking amazing. We started drinking our beers and vodka at 11am, and the whole day was like walking around in a cloud. A base-dunking one, oh heavenly. The sun stood strong and burned skin, the sweat and dance was all around and the artists was great. My main act was Knife party, but I also managed to see Macklemore, Paul kalkbrenner, Porter Robinson, deadmau5, Tinie tempah and a few names I don't remember. Missed Paul van dyk and Dubfire, but the lineup was too good to manage everything in one day. They should've just put it on a two day festival instead goddamnit
Anyway. Stood in front row on Knife party, my head was jumping and my heart was beating like never before. Fuck you Knife party, your beats are too good for my health. Dance til you drop must be the line of my life
Lazy
I'm very sorry but I've felt so lazy lately. I do have stuff to write about, but for some reason I just feel too lazy to put it down. I also want to save the pictures for when I properly explain that day aswell, so atm I'll just give you these selfies fom the morning visit to Balmore beach 8am.
Manly nigiri Manly nigiri
Went driving around Manly and areas around yesterday. The weather was quite shitty as it has been rainy for last week, but I got to see some spots at least. The natures wet face is another kind of beauty I'm incredible grateful for aswell, it is amazing to feel the earth drink the heavens to sprout new life.
Stopped at the local sushi shop and tried out some glazed scallop and king crab nigiri.
Oh god, I've forgotten how good scallop tastes when slightly burnt on top <3
Kindergarten cooking class
Held a cooking class for Lennox kindergarten today (Lennox is my sis's kid). Mum started with making masaman curry and chicken fried rice, and I showed them how to make coconut chocolate balls (of course I get to do the chocolate stuff :P). The kids are obviously too young to actually learn how to cook but the teachers described what was happening in a very good educational way so hopefully they learnt something small :)
When we came back home both mum and sis fell asleep in the living room while I was busy making gyoza dumplings haha!
