indonesian in wellington

went to an awesome southeast asia night market and had some great food.. noodles, meat, and chili..

WHITEBAIT FRITTER, NZ

whitebait is a seasonal local favorite on the west coast in the north island of new zealand.. i splurged on this lunch because i was told by a reliable source that i had to try whitebait fritters while here.. whitebait are comprised of 5 species of freshwater fish that are caught while swimming upstream to breed much like salmon.. mmmmm good stuff and worth the price

BOIL UP PIOPIO, NZ

some killer 'boil up', quickly pronounced 'balip', in piopio, nz courtesy of anna.. she is so awesome and let me sleep next to her hotel here in town.. this meal gave me more than enough strength for my 140km ride the next day.. it is a bunch of root veg like potato carrot and some squash and watercress with some amazing smoky pork ribs..

coming down out of the mountains i saw a sign for a mysterious brewery that turned out to be really good, they gave me a free tasting and i bought a beer to have with my lunch.. which was rice, beans and chicken sausage that i made earlier in the week from a plastic bag

fiji sticky balls

had some strange sticky made of some kind of starch root vegetable and some sort of greens, fried and coated with a spicy sweet glaze out of a paper bag.. along side some 'mandarin' juice which, here, is a fruit that looks like a lime and has orange juice that tastes like passionfruit.. a great snack for US$0.20!!

lunch in l.a.

my cousin lionel took his girlfriend maggie and i out to lunch for my last day in the us.. we went to a restaurant on the beach, that had incredible seafood.. great stuff

roy's choc mousse...

stopped in santa barbara for some dessert at roy's restaurant there..

raviolis from scratch..

i made dinner for chels' bday and did some vegetarian raviolis.. made the dough with egg yolks, the filling was chick pea, fava, onion, swiss chard, and the 'sauce' was just carmelized onions and tomato.. came out good

jamaican beef

stopped in palo alto en route to l.a. with my new friend gary for some great jamaican beef pattys with super spicy west indies hot sauce

SMELTS!!

smelts are my new favorite food with a beer.. right up there with hard boiled eggs and pickled pigs skin.. we picked up a pound at the farmers market for under $2 and left the head on, bones and guts intact.. really didnt do anything other than dredge them in corn meal, fry them and sprinkle with a little salt, fresh blk pepper, and lime.. amazingly satisfying

street vendors in portland...

all over downtown portland are these parking lots filled with street vendors selling ethnic food from every corner of earth.. great stuff.. my spicy chicken for $6 was the perfect cure for a hangover...