Emadatse recipe - Bhutanese national dish

I recently went on a trip that took me through the Omani desert decked out in a complete winter outfit - fluffy pink winter jacket and everything. Sounds mad fun right? Between the flip-flop wearing, pungently aromatic tourists and the oudh scented and elegantly dressed Omanis in full length dishdashas and abayas, I stuck out like pink shrimp in a dry desert. For those of you thinking I must have terrible foresight for not having chosen to wear more suitable clothing upon leaving the mild British winter in the middle of February, well, I was on my way to see the recently snow covered peaks of the Himalayas. I needed my pink fluffy jacket. It is also because of this pink fluffy jacket that I made friends on that leg of the journey. I now have a number to call if I ever need to organize fireworks for a wedding or a place to stay in Jordan.

The journey itself was long but uneventful. After flying the London-Muscat-Bangkok-Paro-Bangkok-Muscat-London route however, I am beginning to realize that I like the whole process of travelling less and less despite enjoying the exploration of various countries, cultures, languages and foods more and more. I sense that if teleportation is not invented soon I might have to resort to some other means of travel. Kayak for example. Now that sounds like an adventure.

Anyway, despite the horrors of flying and being groped at security checks, I did arrive in Bhutan in one piece and made it safely back to London to tell the story. I will be updating those interested about my adventures in Bhutan, but at a later time. For now, I will ease you into the Bhutanese frame of mind by leaving you with a deliciously spicy recipe for emadatse, the Bhutanese national dish of cheese and chilies. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 thinly sliced onion
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 5 cloves crushed garlic
• 500g soft fresh cheese*
• 1-2 tomatoes - thinly sliced
• 500g green or jalapeno chilies
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbsp butter

Optional spices:

• 1/4 Tsp turmeric
• 1 Tsp sichuan pepper
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• 1 inch of fresh grated ginger
• Salt

Method:

- Prepare chilies by slicing length wise into quarters and de-seeding if deemed necessary. (Beware of chili juices on fingers when touching other sensitive areas e.g. nose and eyes). (I did remove the seeds this time and the resulting dish is pleasantly spicy and full of flavour. Judging by the look of fear and horror on my flatmates' faces when presented with a bowl full,  this might not be everyone's opinion, so proceed as you best see fit). Set chilies aside and slice other veg. 

- On a low heat, fry thinly sliced onions in oil with optional seasoning until soft and fragrant. Add crushed garlic and thinly sliced tomatoes. 

- After one minute, add sliced chilies and stir fry until bright green (1-2 min). Add 1 cup of water and allow to boil.

- Add 2 tbsp of butter, salt and soft cheese, stir well, cover and simmer until chilies are thoroughly cooked and tender.

- Serve!

This dish is traditionally served with red rice and yak meat, but it can also be combined with eggs and rice for breakfast, on buttered toast as a snack, with spinach and pasta for lunch or boiled potatoes for dinner. The options are endless...

* Ideally, you would use a type of fresh yak's cheese for this dish. Since yak cheese is not readily available anywhere outside of the Himalayas however, I went for a combination of ricotta and turkish peynir. It's up to you what kind of cheese you go for, but you're looking for something with a mild flavour that melts nicely and makes a smooth paste which does not harden when cooled. Cream cheese with bits of feta also works.

30 hours

For the first time EVER, my travel bag is packed a whole day in advance. I don't know if it's the fact that I love my new rucksack, the fact that I'm really quite excited about this trip to El Salvador, general boredom, or a combination of those things. I started selecting and laying out my clothes yesterday. A systematic folding process followed and little piles of carefully selected and counted outfits emerged, all of which were eagerly rolled and stuffed into a 60L orange rucksack.

I think it's a good time to go. I'm blogging about packing of all things and the cats and I have a reached a new level of understanding with each other which means they are quite happy to use me and any part of me (including my face) as a bed, pillow, washbasin, strategic vantage point, fort and full on war-zone. In case you are not familiar with the Dohle cat situation, not that you should be, the two cats hate each other but currently love me. Thus they very often engage in 'en garde' situations with me blissfully slumbering in between completely ignorant of imminent danger. Lots of hissing, growling, scratching and yelling later one is banished to the outer confines of my room while the other is allowed to stay. But enough about cats.

In 30 hours I will start my journey.  

Joys of travelling

After a totally groovy and beautifully relaxing - as relaxing as it can be while you're writing your MA thesis - month travelling around London's backwaters on a boat, I started missing nomadic life again. Travelling from place to place, discovering and observing the curious behavior of resident natives, meeting people, drawing and listening to new music. Boat life brought on a wave of mixed feelings toward my already uncertain future, but these were cast aside to enjoy the present. I found myself singing again like I haven't since I was a child, and felt like writing again. All because I was on the move once more. I decided the life for me must be the life of a traveler.

Sure the toilet and shower situation was not ideal, but I quickly discovered ways around this. A flicker of doubt stirred when I was confronted by an enormous mound of possessions I had left at a friend's house, but these were resolved by purchasing a cheap transportable suitcase. It was annoying having to transport my life on foot the weekend that London decided it had had enough of summer and opened up the heavens to welcome torrential rains. It also wasn't terribly comfortable sleeping on friend's floors and couches, but wasn't until a the mother of all dilemmas that I finally remembered: I hate travelling. I had missed my flight.

The two hours prior to a flight are the most intensely stressful regardless of whether you make the flight or not. This is particularly the case if you have fallen out of touch with stress of flying. Neverthelless, everything happens for a reason and I have emerged if just a tiny bit wiser.

Things I learned in the process:

• It is VERY important to check your flight details a day in advance.
• You can pay for as many bags as you like on an easyjet flight, but the sum weight of all bags must not go over 20kg (21kg if you're extra simpática).
• If you have excess baggage it is cheaper  to get it shipped rather than paying the airline for the administrative manpower to process said baggage. These admin positions must be the best paid jobs ever. Furthermore, all airports have such shipping areas, you just have to ask for them. 
• Old ladies at check-in desks will say and agree to virtually anything to get over-inquisitive young whippersnappers away from their counters. "Can I get a refund for my unused baggage allowance?" "Of course!" "Can I get it after the flight?" "Most definitely!" Do I have to do this online?" "Yup!" "Is your website the most deceiving, uninformative, useless website ever?" "Uhu!" thanks. Harassed men at ticket sales desks are much more honest.
• The security metal detectors select people at random regardless of the amount of metal or sharp objects they have on them. You might as well wear whatever you want.
• Lady Gaga's first scent smells exactly like Britney's.

Things I already knew:

• Airport food is ridiculously overpriced and bland
• WHSmith books are ridiculously overpriced
• Perfumes are ridiculously overpriced
• Airport travel is the most annoying and stressful activity ever, yet this is the preferred medium of travel?!
• Departure screens are shameless liars.

So the decision I came to after all of these important life lessons? I am going to buy a boat.

Home for the Holidays

Home. Family time. Abuelos. Tios. Primos. Speeding. Curves. Jungles. Volcanoes. Black velvet sand. Atitlan. Maya. Photo shoots. Languages. Snorkeling. Sting rays. Squid. Baby turtles. Roaring currents. Sun. Fresh air. Shit music.

If my appreciation of Christmas were based on food alone, this would not be my favorite holiday. Formal family gatherings and extended holiday celebrations have become considerably more complicated since becoming a vegetarian. Nevertheless a bit of home time surrounded by my crazy family is always refreshing. Needless to say there is never a dull moment. The parties and gatherings which are supposed to be a blast - literally with all the fireworks set off - never are, and the impromptu visits evolve into full fledged adventures becoming ingrained into your memory forever.

It's a bit of family tradition I suppose to cram as many activities in as many different places, in this case as many different places in Central America, when we're together. The traveling gene is very much ingrained whether it's by plane, boat, bicycle, car, or bus - sadly there are no trains here. One day you're stepping off the airplane just to pack a different bag which will accompany you for the next 2 weeks. The adventure begins with the sun rising over a misty Guatemala City as it falls away from you and you dive into the clouds. Next thing you know, you're zooming across turquoise waters, diving with squid and stingrays, surfing with dolphins and observing missionaries and narcos interacting. San Pedro is a small island in Belize which I'm told used to be a little haven away from home. Its two block commercial area has turned into a full fledged centro comercial, but at the end of the day it's still an island small enough to traverse various beaches in the hunt to find your father who's on the hunt for windsurf equipment but big enough to cycle an entire day and not get all the way around. Time slows down and the sun is warm. From here, it's back for a day and on to the next destination.

El Salvador is an amazing country even when compared to the cultural giant which is Guatemala. Of course, I'm biased. There's no questioning that streak of patriotism which invokes hyperactivity on arrival and "blows dust in my eyes" on departure, but where else can you physically feel the power of the earth and its roaring oceans, see rocks come to life, and hear the twitter of diversity? You can scale the face of a volcano to find yourself in a field of hummingbirds, flowers and butterflies. You jump in the ocean to get tossed around like a rag doll as you throw yourself against 1.5 meter high frothy waves and emerge laughing covered in black sand. You burn your feet on the sand and cool them off in the ocean. At sunset, you can hear the clicking of canegues (hermit crabs) clambering over black silky rocks as they scavenge for food. The people are friendly and genuine, laughing, smiling and open. The food is heavy and filling. Cheese lovers, you'll never find a cheesier and more satisfying dish than pupusas. I don't care if the name is funny, once you try them you love them. The politics are exciting and despite the high rates of internal corruption, there are many good people within the system.

Another early morning start, three hours later we're back in Guatemala City for a couple hours before getting back on the road this time to the Mexican border. There's an archaeological site called Tikalik Abaj which for all the hassle, the bad roads, potholes, and pitch black darkness, I didn't even get to see much of, but from what I did see, I would go back again. The Tikalik Maya Lodge was one of the coolest hotels I've ever been to, especially for being an eco-hotel. The rooms are large and spacious, completely environmentally friendly (no electricity yes) but plenty of hot water and amazing views from your roof top balcony.You wake up with birds singing and the rainforest at your doorstep. I'm not particularly fascinated by birds but you can't help but be amazed at the sheer variety of bird calls, and bird sightings of all different colours and shapes. Another three hour race for your life past sugar cane trucks, across the agricultural basin of Guatemala and down death provoking curves and you're in Lago Atitlan appreciating the deep turquoise waters and the view of seven volcanoes. Temperatures are mild at this time of year but it's the only time you can really swim in the lake. Panajachel is one of the few places in Guatemala where both men and women walk in the streets wearing their traditional outfits.

That basically sums up two weeks of being home, a flurry of activities, nearly four countries and it all culminates here on the brink of the New Year surrounded by notebooks, journal articles, yellow notepad paper and a very clingy cat preparing to pounce on the last slice of semita. 

Californiaaa 18.04.2011

Sitting at the airport for 8 hours, finishing postcards which won't get sent till the end of the month, watching Glee and chatting to randomly friendly men.

“So where are you from?”

Right in the middle of an episode here, “uh, El Salvador”
“Oh wow, me too!”

Which isn't so surprising in the States since roughly half our population are currently living here. Six hours and a greasy panini later, at the gate still watching Glee another man starts...

“Where are you headed?”

Sigh. “Guatemala”
“Oh, yo tambien. Sos Guatemalteca?”
“No, Salvadoreña”

“Pero vives en Guatemala? Donde?”
“En la ciudad”

“Ah vives con tu esposo?” - This question always makes me laugh, but I should really start lying in response.

“Jaja, no”

“Pues yo vivo en la costa pero de vez en cuando voy a la ciudad, que tal si te doy una llamadita?”-

Eew, how old are you man? “No tengo telefono. Ademas me voy a El Salvador a vivir con mis abuelos.”

“Entonces tales nos vemos alli!”

!!!

Thailand

Sunburn and mosquito bites, the holiday has started! Actually it started about a week ago as I soared over the Nepalese mountains catching my first and last glimpse of Everest, now I'm sitting here in lovely Chinatown, Bangkok surrounded by hanging orchids, eucalyptus and bamboo bushes, and trickling fountains stressing about the fact that my Australian visa won't go through. My flight is tomorrow. Stress.

Other than that, nothing much to report. Chiang Mai was ok, not exactly the cultural capital of Thailand it claims to be but maybe I'm a bit spoiled for culture after living in Kathmandu. Nevertheless, hung out with lions, tigers and elephants, took a tour to the Golden Triangle - something which I keep saying I will never ever do again, and this time I mean it, "I will never ever EVER go on another guided tour" -  and stood on the point where Laos, Burma and Thailand meet but unfortunately did not get to step into any of these other exciting countries. Saw the long-eared ethnic tribe - a very culturally diluted and depressing sight, won't say more on that,  and explored countless wats and stuppas. Oh and did I mention we went shopping? Sunday market, night market, fruit market, flower market, air conditioned shopping centres offering relief from the sweltering heat. Yes, we certainly went shopping and certainly added another 2kg to the already overstuffed luggage.

Then Bangkok came along.

Bangkok is an interesting city. Every time I come here I form a different opinion of it. You either love it or hate it. It's dirty, smelly, loud and kind of ugly, but ancient and powerful, wonderfully resilient and self sustainable. Not vegetarian friendly, but neither is the rest of Thailand. Public transportation is fantastic, reliable, clean, efficient, excellent city coverage - German influence of course - and cheap! Spent all day touring the city via river ferry, canal boats, bus, metro and on foot and spent around 50 baht. Just over a euro.   It's nice to be back in a big city, even if it is a little too big, 6.3 million.

Onward travels. Sydney and LA next.