Munching in Myanmar (Burma)

As a Nutritionist Aid Worker I spent a lot of time living and working overseas in some fairly interesting environments. Lets just say that eating local foods can always be a bit of an adventure! My backpack predominantly consists of emergency foods (dried fruit, almonds, dehydrated vegetables) to cope with just these situtations. Last year in Laos I had the ‘pleasure’ of spending my days hunting/gathering forest foods with the minority ethnic groups and then preparing such delicacies as snail and cricket soup with wild leafy greens and bamboo, fried frogs legs and barbequed skewered forest rat. Healthy and locally available? Yes. Tasty? No, I won’t be trying this recipe at home or adding it to the blog site here. As a vegetarian I’m not quite used to my food having eyes!

Fresh and local frogs from the forest

The cupboard cleanout

In preparation for the Tassievore challenge, I have begun using up all the non-Tassie food in my cupboard. As I go I’m doing a stocktake to find out how far my food has travelled to arrive at my pantry in SoHo… Here’s what I’ve found so far.

The refried beans and diced tomatoes (from Spain and Italy respectively) have taken a leisurely detour on their way to my larder, going via New Zealand. I have no idea why, but I’m sure it was a nice trip. There’s stock powder from Vietnam, fish sauce from Thailand, tea from China and jam from France.