One of my favorite things about traveling is exploring the food markets of the region and discovering new fruits and vegetables. It’s nice to know that in our U.S. land of plenty, where we import just about anything, there are still foods that you can only find locally. Now I’m not saying you can’t find sweet passion fruit anywhere in the U.S., but it’s not super prevalent. Even when we do import exotic fruits they always taste so much better when you eat them where they are native, fresh and in season. I guess that means I’ll just need to keep traveling!

At the San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru the produce was plentiful…rows and rows of brightly colored fruits, vegetables and herbs tempting you with every step. One of the fruits we decided to try out was the sweet passion fruit…I was sure I had eaten one before, but as soon as the local stall vendor began showing us how to eat it I knew I was wrong.

This, was an amazing day.  We were nearing the end of our two week trip to Cambodia and Thailand, at our last Thai beach destination before heading to Bangkok and then home.  We had spent the previous 3 hours on a boat getting ferried from Koh Pi Pi island to Railay Beach in Krabi.  The ferry ride alone was spectacular...the turquoise blue sea streched out as far as the eye reached, dotted with craggily formations and clusters of islands.  This is what you see in the movies...and I sat like a child for 3 straight hours soaking it all in.  Legs hanging off the side of the top deck, face resting on the railing, and a huge grin plastered to my face.

It felt as if we had the city of Nice, France to ourselves.  It was late January and the coldest winter in recent history throughout all of Europe, but here we were wandering the streets of Nice on this brilliantly sunny day and enjoying every cold yet satisfyingly intimate moment of it.  We had heard horror stories about the harassing street performers and bustling crowds, but that’s not our Nice…not the Nice we experienced.  Of course, we also didn’t experience the legendary beach scene…but our quiet, locally sourced picnic on the desolate rocky beach left a lasting impression of it’s own.  As did this charming little spice store we wandered into as we lost ourselves in the cobblestone alleys.

This, my friends, is why we live in California.  I mean really does it get more serene and beautiful than this?  The day of this photo was an interesting one...near the start of a true life experience.  It was Day Two of the Brita California Climate Ride, a ~350 mile ride from Eureka to San Francisco. Since Brita was the title sponsor and I worked at our headquarters out here in the Bay Area, a co-worker and I came up with the idea of forming a team and doing it.  The twist? Christian and I didn't even own bikes at the time of this brilliant idea.

 

The time: 9am.

The place: Siam Rice Thai Cookery School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The temperature: a sweaty 90°.

The mood: hungover, hungry and excited for this part of the trip we've been looking forward to but sad it's our last day in Chiang Mai.

Hence Christian getting a bit randy with the cleaver he is handed by our instructor.  There were a lot of emotions swirling around that morning.  We had been out a bit late with some new friends the night before and the Tuk Tuk for class arrived at our hotel bright and early at 7:30am.  Of course we were the first people to be picked up so we had the joy of jostling around the back of the oppressively hot Tuk Tuk for the next 45 minutes while slowly meeting those who would be our fellow classmates for the next 4 hours.

Ah, the French Riviera and countryside...in January. Not exactly high tourist season, but Christian's sister and husband were living in Juan-les-Pins, France for 6 months so we took the opportunity to head over while we had a free place to stay and local-like tour guides.  The whole French Riviera was sleepy and quiet, which made for perfect exploration and minimal crowds which was idyllic.  The weather, not so idyllic.  This was 2009...you know, that record breaking winter in Europe where people were actually freezing to death, yeah, it was cold.

The cold, however, didn't slow us down...we wanted to see as much of the French Riviera as we could, and that included a snowy day-hike into the mountains and then lunch in the mountain city of Vence.  Vence is a medieval walled city that dates back to the 3rd century.  It's one of those cities that has you walking around in awe, tripping over ancient upturned cobblestones as you gawk at the beauty and architecture.  It was as we were doing this, right around sunset, that we stumbled upon this incredibly old but magical feeling cemetery right outside of the walled city.

What first attracted me to the cemetery, was actually the image that you see below. Light of the rapidly setting sun casting a shadow of the tombstones on a nearby wall.  It was ethereal and moving, so I worked rapidly to capture a shot.  Then, when I turned around I was surprised to see an equally beautiful view...the one that you see above.  To be clear, I'm not a religious person at all.  So the beauty didn't come from the religious meaning of the moment, but more the haunting and silent beauty surrounding us all.  We were alone in the cemetery with the noise of the nearby town completely blocked by the wall and streams of smoke billowing up from the homes in the valley below...a moment where you don't have to be religious to connect spiritually. That, to me, is my postcard from Vence.

This is the first post in my new SavoryGirl series, Postcards, which is described a bit here.  Let me know what you think?  Good addition to the site?  Interesting?  Hate it?  Feedback encouraged!

Photo from airliner.net

I've been struggling a bit with SavoryGirl these days...the passion and excitement that led me to start it 16 months ago has seemed to dissipate some making updating it feel more like a chore than an engaging form of self-expression.  The menu posts are easy since I do that for our family anyway, but the quantity (and probably quality) of the other posts have decreased some of late.  So I've come up with a new segment that I think will reinvigorate SavoryGirl that I'm excited to share.

Hi there!  It’s been a while, but I am officially back in the US, over my severe jet lag, and able to update the site!  I can’t begin to explain how amazing Thailand and Cambodia were, but I will have a few dedicated posts to that very topic over the next week.  Stay tuned for a video of me exploring Cambodian exotic fruits and another of me enjoying my very first cricket in Thailand!  I’ll also post all of our food-related pictures from the trip and share some of the recipes we got after our Thai cooking class (which produced very authentic and delicious Thai food!).