Food

Mike eats to live and I live to eat. Being Chinese, who are famous to have "eaten anything with four legs except tables" (quote from my roommate Priya from Grad school). Even though I do not really eat anything and everything, I always have the good spirit to try it at least once. How else would you know, right? Things I do not eat and will not even try though are: cats, rats, scorpions, monkey brain, and pork fat.

photo above: Jemma el Fna at night

My favorite food is of course Chinese, especially spicy Sichuan food or Cantonese food that is very flavorful and cooked mostly with white sauce. My second favorite food is Italian (Mike’s absolute favorite).

When traveling, searching for restaurants recommended by the guidebooks up and down the streets often fill a big part of our day. This gives us a good opportunity to explore the cities and towns above and beyond just the sightseeing areas. My most savored memories of the taste and smell of travel consist of moments when the non-English speaking owner proudly brings out his steamy homemade pasta from the kitchen three feet away from our table in Siena, when I see the grin from Mike’s face after the first bite into the lasagna in Rome, when we stand around the rustic bar of Sagardi in Barcelona the third time in two days, waiting for the next hot plate of tapas - the freshly baked pigs-in-the-blanket only with the Spanish chorizo, when we dip our churros in the melted chocolate in Chocolatería San Ginés in Madrid, when the hint of citrus floats out from the chicken tajine at Riad Mabrouka, Fez...

Chicken Tajine with Preserved Lemon, Fez