Hello friends!  Hope everyone is well!  Koye here and I thought I would share some of the different foods that we had the pleasure / experience of eating.  We made it a point to dive into the local eateries, while still being mindful of what we ate.  The theory of, “find the smallest joint with the most people packed into it,” worked very well for us.  A brief (haha) summary of what we saw and experienced is outlined like this.

• Japan – We started our adventure with a local Ramen shop in Tokyo.  The place could have sat probably 12 people total, but at that moment I fell in love with Japanese food (my favorite).  From there some notable meals would include the Sushi at the Tokyo fish market, that you heard a little about already and was absolutely incredible.  I am not sure what steals the flavor, but there is just something about eating fish that was caught within 12 hours of eating it, that just makes it so much better.  We ate Omuraisu at a small restaurant in Kyoto that was a Japanese meal fit for a king, which was uncommon (one slight discredit to Japanese food is that the portions are not as sizable as I have grown accustomed to).   It is hard to describe (mostly because I have no idea what it was) but it is like an omelette with some ”stuff” inside of it and rice.  I must give a shout out to Davina and Adrian from Australia that introduced us to this place.  Lastly, we had some fried food with Minami called Yakitori and it was great we had a fried cheese roll that I would swim the ocean just to taste again.  Oh yeah and don’t tell anyone but we ate Denny’s once in a rush (yeah Denny’s in Japan? I know!) ha, they didn’t have pancakes it was actually a fun experience.  All in all, not a single thing I ate in Japan was not good, including street side Squid, Japanese Noodles, Fried Chicken Skin, and lots of fish.   
• China - The first day while walking the Beijing market revealed that you can eat almost anything in China, mostly on a stick.  This includes Scorpion, Grasshopper, Grub, Locust, Centipede, Starfish, and many other exotic looking creatures.  I know what your thinking, what all did we try?  Well with a fear of disappointing, I must tell you the truth, all we tried was the Lamb on a stick.  You must know my heart wanted to try more, but it is so hard when they stab the stick through the scorpion in a way that merely holds it alive while its legs flutter violently.  I am usually not to bad with the weebie jeebies but everyone has their breaking point.  We found a very good local joint just doors away from our place in Beijing and ate all the common authentic Chinese food multiple times. In Xian Jamie and I, while using the patented “if there are a lot of people there it is good a good place” theory, found what I think was just a big house turned into a restaurant.  We basically walked through the kitchen to a bedroom that had several tables in it and ate.  The interesting thing about it was that there was zero English on the menu and the staff spoke zero English.  Finally, one of the waitresses recognized the word chicken and we were able to point to some tea on the table next to ours, and then we just prayed.  Luckily, it turned out to be very good and cheap like $3 USD for 2.  Lastly, but not least (memorable) was the hot pot experience.  I am sure that hot pot is very good when done properly however we did not do anything proper when we did hot pot.  Hot pot is essentially a large pot of boiling broth of which a variety of foods is placed inside and cooked at the table (its like Fondu).  Well when ordering the variety of foods be very careful or you may end up with what I still believe to be some sort of pigeon or crow.  Not good food, but lasting experience.  A little note on this situation is that when you do not understand Chinese refrain from speaking it unless necessary, because when you speak to someone in their language they will assume you understand and they begin speaking to you, and then you are faced with either admitting you do not understand or shaking your head yes and hoping it was a question that was just asked.  Ha someday Ryan, Jamie, or I can divulge more. 

Check out the pictures, I will post again soon!  I have much more soup to talk about from Veitnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand.  As well as some other interesting travel stories you may enjoy.

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