Anybody out there?

It’s been over a year since my last post so you’d all be forgiven for thinking I was never coming back. I wasn’t sure that I would either, but here I am so I’m going to give it a go. With that in mind, it’s going to be a slow start to ease myself back into the process. When I stopped writing my blog it was for a combination of reasons but mostly because it had stopped being fun and had started to feel like an obligation. My blog was supposed to be my creative outlet and instead it was draining. At the time I was working long hours at the restaurant as we were coming into the busy season and that didn’t leave much time for cooking at home, let alone photographing, writing and blogging about what I made. One day I just stopped blogging and to my surprise, instead of feeling guilty about it, I felt like a weight had been lifted. I continued to enjoy reading other blogs, though I admit, it was with less frequency and my commenting nearly stopped altogether. I should have put up some sort of farewell post but I’ve never liked goodbyes so I simply made a clean break and quit the blog altogether. For a while afterwards I would still think about blogging meals that I made but it didn’t happen and in time I felt less of an urge to do so. But I never stopped making new things, (or writing) and my love of food has become stronger if anything.

Since I stopped blogging, there have been a number of changes in my life. For one thing, I now live on the other side of the world, in New Zealand. I quit my job and 9 months ago I decided to embark on a whirlwind adventure that has largely been unplanned and has taken me to 8 different countries. Along the way I’ve eaten a lot of amazing food but haven‘t been in one place for long enough to have my own kitchen or do very much cooking. Until now. I have just moved into a new apartment where I’ll be for at least the next few months. To get back into the swing of blogging and to give myself a little extra time to get my kitchen stocked I decided to post some of the food photos I’ve taken throughout my recent travels.


To kick things off are a few shots of some Malaysian street food I got from the Chinatown district of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur was my introduction to South East Asia and it was certainly different than anywhere I’d been before. As I wandered through the city I felt enshrouded in a combination of humidity, smog, noise, lights and new smells. It was almost overwhelming. As food is one of the best ways to get to know a new place, I dove in head first, (with total disregard to my Westernized stomach) and pulled up a plastic chair to a street vendor selling noodles. Few words and lots of pointing were exchanged. I learned very quickly that it was much easier to order what I saw other people eating than to try and figure out if there was a menu and whether or not I could read it. I had mostly success with this method and rarely came across something I didn’t care for. I took to eating all my meals from street vendors, from fruit in the morning, (sometimes with a sweet, like the sesame ball pictured above) to rice and noodles throughout the day. Whenever I was at a loss for what to do in the city, a new culinary adventure awaited. And so it continues with my return to blogging and many more culinary capers to come...