Japan 2005-Kyoto (food)

Kyoto

Kyoto is famous for making very pretty food as well as a wide assortment of pickled veggies.

A master at the grill! He prepared two dishes for us below.  Okonomiaki! and a stir fried noodle dish!

 A display of pickled veggies and the sampling process.

A beautiful assortment of sweets.  They have an interesting, almost gritty texture. 

Shabu Shabu

Yes, that is a tofu in the shape of a cherry blossom!

More noodles!

A dish composed of mashed up radish, and some tuna, egg, and seaweed.  

Sort of like congee? But cold.

Onigiri

These are the best to go asian snacks.  Toasted seaweed on the outside with white rice and different stuffings (bonito flakes, salmon, plain) inside. Super handy.

Japan 2005-Tokyo (food)

Oh Japan! Land of fresh fish, delicate flavorings, and the prettiest food! My only regret was not coming here when my palate was more developed and my wallet more stuffed. Next time!

Tokyo

Tsukiji Fish market

We woke up at the crack of dawn to come here and witness this spectacle. A must see for seafood and sushi lovers. To reward yourself you get to eat sushi that will probably be the freshest you ever get. 

Yes, that is the famous blow fish! Cute little guy.

We missed the tuna auction but did get to see the results.  These specimens are huge!

 

This was the earliest we've ever had sushi (around 8am) -some salmon, tuna, and roe to start the day off right!  Kai loved it but I have to admit I wasn't quite ready for raw that early.

Noodles

It's amazing how something so seemingly simple and unadorned can be so GOOD.

A noodle stall-tons of these around.   Below a bowl of soba with dipping sauce and soba with tempura and scallions.

  

Oh yummy SUSHI . . .

Ground up tuna with a raw egg with fried scallions, peppers, wasabi and seaweed.  How simple and amazing!

More sushi

The cutest chocolates ever . . .who could bring themselves to eat this!

 

Some fish collar and the always available curry!!

Ecuador 2005-Quito, Amazon, Otavalo (Sights)

Quito

We spent a few days in Quito and rambled along the old town visiting la Igelsia de la Merced and the Museco National de Arte Colonial.  The square, pictured above, always had something going on. 

 On another day, the square was the site of a protest.

I hadn't brought appropriate clothes for the trip and bought a pair of shorts from this lady.

And I also forgot shampoo-here's what a local store looks like!

Some locals adopted us one of our nights out and took us to karaoke in the new town.  The night life in Quito was actually way funner than anything we expected. Lot of places with an easy bohemian vibe.

We stayed at La Casa Sol . . .super cute.

Sights Around Quito

Otavalo

We took a bus here which was a bit of an adventure was we completely went past it!  There were a ton of textiles here and we got a pair of traveling pants and a light weight blanket.

La Mitad del Mundo!  The Equator!

Yes! Kai is standing on the middle of the world.

Cotopaxi

This was awesome.  You could literally hike up from the parking lot all the way to the bottom of where the snow line was!  This is one of the highest active volcano's in the world.  Not for those that can't handle high altitudes though-a group of 10 year olds ran up and down before I made it 50 steps.

Lagunas de Mojanda

 and finally . . . pictures of the Amazon!

Okay-so this area isn't officially the Amazon as the Amazon river doesn't flow through it but the river, the Rio Napo, is a tributary of it and the area is known as the Amazonian jungle.  We stayed at Yachana eco Lodge which we picked since the owner is super interested in community building and working with the locals to try to develop the resources of the Amazon sustainably.   

Our guide had grown up in the rainforest and his father had been a village shaman.  He had the best vision EVER-he could spot a needle in a haystack I bet.

 

Ecuador 2005-Quito, Otavalo, Amazon RainForest (food)

We were only in Ecuador for 9 days so only saw a very small part of the country. The food we tried in Quito and surrounding areas, as well as the Amazon (off the Rio Napo) was full of carbs and super filling!   Below is a sampling . . . and yes, many of the plates do look very similar!

Quito

We saw this in the old town  section and had just eaten breakfast so didn't try anything here unfortunately.

Alumerzo Del Dia

These were our main meals of the day.  Look at the pictures and you can see why!  You usually get a refreshment (sometimes freshly squeezed juice), sometimes a soup, and than a heaping platter of FILLINGNESS! 

Plaintains, fries, beans, rice, a hunk of meat, avocado and some salad.  And if you were lucky, you get a fried egg on top.  And for about $2!

 

  

We decided to have a more fancy meal in Quito and went to La Choza.  We picked it because we wanted more "comida tipica" but wanted to try the more upmarket version.  It was great . . . but also eerily familiar.

Starters: We got cerviche, local corn, and fried corn kernels.

I got a fish dish and Kai got meat . . . look! There are the rice and potatoes. :) 

Now it's snack time.   The stand had some great fried plantains that tasted at least a bit healthier than Lays!

Some more almerzo del dia . . .this was where the guide brought us after visiting Cotopaxi. 

The Amazon! And Yachana Lodge 

Here is a variety of foods we had.  A yummy salsa concoction was great!  And those animals below? Those are guinea pigs (big ones!) that are being raised by the locals as a sustainable source of meat.  They produce rapidly and don't require the cutting down of huge swathes of rainforest!