I grew up on crossover foods in the US; that means the American version of only the most famous dishes from each region. That’s well and fine for a sample and an “exotic” dinner when my taste-buds are bored back home, but the real thing is so very, very different once I ventured out on my travels. I have found this is the case with Thai food, as well as the Middle Eastern vegetarian foods I sampled throughout Jordan. The problem with this food pattern though, is that I was …

I like to fancy myself a citizen of the planet…I go places, I see, I do, I eat and I learn. And on the eating front, I take cooking classes in new places with the forever hope that someone eventually imparts in me the skills it takes to cook anything beyond a truly awesome American salad (now those I am good at!).
You see, my humble beginnings set me up for the woeful failure of a cooking experience I will soon share. My mother, for all that she did give us kids, …

If you’re heading to Chiang Mai, Thailand and want a handful of the best things to do in town – well, you’ve come to the right place! I offer up a selection of my favorite vegetarian eats around town. The sights you shouldn’t miss, places to stay and even some of the more popular (and ethical) of the day-trips around Chiang Mai.

I’m going to miss my home-away-from-home and this wonderful city is well-worth of a visit when you’re traveling through Thailand.

As a vegetarian traveling to a new country, I face a few extra challenges and considerations. While I wouldn’t out-right skip a destination because of food, the pecking order does change if I know I can eat well once I’m there. So when I read the invitation from the Jordan Tourism Board about a sponsored trip to the country, my initial thoughts circled like vultures around every tidbit of Middle Eastern foodie information stored in my brain.

A few quick keyword searches online and bam! I had my answer—all systems were a go on the foodie front, Jordan offers dozens of dishes consistently cooked vegetarian and the country is touristy enough to easily communicate the concept of vegetarianism.

I hated mushrooms as a child…and calling them fungi didn’t help much, the texture was odd, they come in funny colors, and they’re relatively tasteless. The mushrooms were just the beginning though, add to those a long litany of other fresh fruits and vegetables that found a home on my “does-not-pass-my-lips” list.

Fast forward to my college years, and suddenly the “veggie option” when dinning with friends was a huge seasoned mushroom plopped onto my plate like the limp slab of fungus it was. And I ate it, especially if someone else had just cooked it for me. And at some point, it just wasn’t that bad anymore.

As an American I get the best of many worlds in terms of food – we have a diverse immigrant culture in the United States and nearly every small town has its token ethnic restaurants: Thai/Indian/Mexian/Middle Eastern/Italian/Cuban. But flip side to those restaurants are the huge national chains perched alongside the mom-and-pop shops and often serving up run-of-the-mill generic dishes only barely seasoned to appeal to the masses.

For years I considered food a mere accessory to my day, a pretty little add-on, often just a mere necessity and rarely the focus. Then I left the US and tasted food.

We all but shoved these moist mounds of joy into our mouths. I couldn’t help but think, “Where have these fat round dumplings been all of my life? How have I not had this concoction of vegetable greens, onions, and seasoning exploding over my taste buds until this very moment?”

That was a good day. My best foodie day in China, actually. Sadly, it didn’t go well from there.

There’s only one other country in the world where I was as hungry and frustrated as China, and that was Bosnia back in 2009 when I lived off of spinach and cheese bureks and my twice-daily shiny green apple from the supermarket.

Travel Memories:
Posing with Ronald at Indian McDonald’s

Is it wrong to admit I’ve developed a strange fascination with McDonald’s restaurants around the world? This one is in India and, as you’d expect, there was no beef on the menu. Stateside, I eat McDonalds maybe once a decade…and I even find myself  apologizing to other travelers about America’s stellar contribution to the global food industry.
So color me surprised when the Indian McDonald’s boasted an intriguingly diverse menu; my traveling companion ordered a paneer tika wrap…and it was actually decent! Echoing the diversities of …