I love Thailand: crazy, hectic, electric, and full of weird food. I have too many great images to share all at once, so we’ll have to keep going back.
In Thailand, there is a direct correlation between earning money and eating. Wherever there exists a patch of sidewalk, you’ll find someone who has something to sell you. These pictures were taken in Chinatown at night.
I am sorry Mamoun, but you’ve got nothing on these guys in Egypt, selling their falafel from a cart on the side of the road. Sharm el Sheik is a diving resort town in the Red Sea.
These were some of the most delicious falafel I’ve ever tasted. These are pics from the prep zone, I think the yellow substance in the bottom right is eggplant sitting in an egg bath.
Mmmmm….batter.
Male, pronounced ma-li, is the capital of the Maldives, an island chain smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean. the highest point in the island chain is roughly three feet above sea level, so global climate change and it’s impact will not be a friend to the Maldivians.
Contrary to what I expected, I was able to provision quite handsomely there, as Male is in the middle of a great shipping channel. Turkeys from Brazil, Oreos from America, and cheddar from New Zealand were readily available. The fresh fish market is the most amazing place I have ever been, but those pics come another day.
The local diet is mostly fish, rice and vegetables/fruit. Local Coca-cola is the only in the world made from desalinated water.
The fruit market:
This is a well earned snack after a drizzly day of touring on foot. Although they don’t look great, each of these fritters has something to do with tuna, and they were delicious.
Horta is an island in the Azores, belonging to Portugal. We made landfall there after 8 grueling days in a spontaneous tropical storm in the North Atlantic. Still a few days South and West of mainland Europe, the Azores are another week’s sail from Gibraltar, the entrance of the Mediterranean. The best cheese I have ever tasted came from the local agricultural co-op.
Although not from a farmers market, I love this image. MMMmmmmmmmmm, canned pig bits…
Port Said is a small city at the north western tip of Egypt, it is the Northern entrance to the Suez Canal. While out provisioning in November 2007, we were literally pulled into this pita shop (they are ubiquitous in town) by very polite, eager employees. They spoke no English but were so happy to show us around.
Fresh and hot out of the oven!
Notice the size of the mound of dough, the first machine pieces the dough, the second rolls it out.
I love the kid’s t-shirt, but have to wonder how much (bleached, enriched) flour is in his lungs.
I think we purchased 12 pitas for less than one US dollar. Suffice to say, not all 12 made it back to the boat, and they were the best pitas I have ever eaten.
Fiji, an island country in the Southern Pacific Ocean, is best known for its pearl and water exports. We had the fortune of spending over a month in Nadi (prounounced Nan-di), before heading off for a quick jaunt to the Yasawas, a Fijian island chain geared towards inexpensive tropical travel. My favorite Fijian food is kokoda (pronounced Ko-kon-da), an uncooked fish dish with lime juice and coconut milk. These pictures are from the Market in Nadi–I am pretty sure we lived on tomato salads…
October 2007
Ken and I had about 90 minutes to provision the boat for the next leg. We had no Euros and neither of us spoke Italian (shameful). Carloforte is a beautiful town, on a beautiful island just south of Sardinia (also a beautiful island, but much larger, off of the western coast of Italy). Our first stop was a bakery to fill our pie-holes with fresh hot tomato bread and onion bread while briskly walking in search of food. We found this fish monger parked on a side street. The fish was something crazy like 35 Euros a kilo.
Luckily we didn’t have to walk to far to find this small market, the fish was weighing us down. Those are the most gorgeous artichokes I have ever seen, they sacrificed their brazen purpleness for a floral display.
Malta is a small island nation between the southern tip of Italy and the northern tip of Egypt in North East Africa. Some of the best toast bread I have ever tasted came from the bakeries of Malta. While I didn’t find a bevy of street markets there, Paulo would drive his truck around town according to schedule and park conveniently for his customers to purchase fresh produce, eggs, and local beer; the grocery stores carried very little fresh produce . His first stop of the morning was in the marina, astern of where we were tied up on the dock. Paulo loves wearing sweatpants.
