Tag Archives: ice cream

Feb15

Ten cups: island cuisine

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Ten cups: island cuisine
Ten cups: island cuisine

originally published September 21, 2022

Returning to the mini-series covering January to March 2022…

After our Valentine’s Day photo session in Boma, we drove to a bed-and-restaurant overlooking the coast. Dining delights awaited.

A student amused me once by reporting that most people visited Japan for the food. Though I suspect the survey results may have misled by allowing respondents to select multiple answers, I would have to admit that my name would have added to their number. Friends persuaded me to risk another overseas move in part by singing the praises of Japanese food.

This restaurant did not disappoint. “That’s a lot of raw,” one of the other JETs remarked as I gleefully welcomed plates of local sashimi and wild boar carpaccio. Japan’s stringent hygiene standards have indulged my weakness for undercooked things (as my brother calls it): not only sushi, but raw eggs and red meat abound. In Amami I tasted horse sashimi, and at the local grocery store I picked up a prospect that had fascinated me ever since I first heard of it from a friend — chicken sashimi.

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Jul25

Site-seeing

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Site-seeing

Ecuador HighwayEcuadorean highways combine the etiquette of the U.S. east coast with the switchbacks of West Virginian mountains.  The road winds through the peaks as if a bored student had scribbled it there.  Speed limits and caution signs litter the roadsides, and a single fluorescent line separates two lanes.  Kevin referred to the signage as “sugerencias” — i.e., suggestions.  Traffic swerves freely across both lanes, around trucks, buses, and the occasional car.  When nobody approached from the opposite direction, we straddled the center line.  On tight curves, Kevin slid over into the other lane.  I watched every twist and turn to stave off carsickness — hardly a sacrifice, considering the view. Read the rest of this entry →