(Semi-) Bizarre foods

Have you ever watched an episode of "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern?"
You really must if you haven't.

Is was a family favorite.
Aili would frequently say "Wow, can we eat (insert whatever the show had that day- grasshoppers, squid, octopus, bugs) sometime Mommy?"

My response was usually always, "Maybe you and Daddy can try that sometime."

Well, that sometime has definitely arrived!
If you have never watched, here is our version from different places we've been :)
(You will see western influence in some of these photos thanks to our visit to the former British colony blogged about previously)

First off, fish balls and fish shaped red bean paste bread.
The fish balls taste like a fish bread, just a little mushier and a lot more dense than bread (great description for food, right?).
Red bean paste - we eat this often in another type of bread, but usually not fish shaped.

 Hello Kitty waffle - yummy right?
Not so bizarre, but it isn't everyday we can buy waffles for less than a dollar.
Especially not Hello Kitty ones. :) Our little-bit is holding half a kitty... it didn't last long. (No, it wasn't kitty filled, but that would be bizarre...other daddy comment removed for the sake of our cat loving friends...redirecting back to better thoughts...)
Just look how happy she is...

Mango filled sticky rice - Ian said it was delish!
So proud of my little guy for stepping out and trying things.
He has always been our picky eater.
He continues to amaze me at what he is trying these days. :)
It is such a blessing to see how the Lord is transforming him.

Nothing bizarre about Coke.
Now, sharing it with "Gag."
Yep, no idea. (And that is a real circle K)

In this picture, it appears our big girl is eating deep fried squid. 

It is truly hard to tell some days...

Some foods are a little more "bizarre" than others.  

Apparently, almost anything can be heated and eaten and often on a stick! :) 

 Had to get a little closer to this... care for a scorpion or perhaps a beetle?

 My girlie was super excited to try some of these things.

The squid, she loves.  She seriously asks for it almost every eve for a snack, loving the spice too!
She is my spicy girl in more ways than one. :) She and daddy also had a bag of dry spicy crawdads, but you could only eat them shell and all. That was not as pleasing as they had hoped. The squid made up for it.

 And THE most bizarre one for us so far...

 Yep, scorpion.  They said the poison had been removed..

 Daddy tried it first.
He lived, so big sister tried it, and yes - I did take a bite. :)
What was it like?
Hmm, it was like a crispy, light "skin" with lots of spice.
More like spice that was on an exoskeleton..
There was nothing on the inside - completely hollow.
Daddy said it tasted like spicy bitter charcoal ash.
Bizarre and appealing, right?

 McDonalds ice cream.  It is normally white (right?), but for some reason a shade of grey today, with matching grey cone. Come to find it is some derivation of black sesame, but tasty none-the-less.

On Easter, we experienced a Tibetan restaurant.
Yak Butter tea anyone?

It was like no tea I've ever had before.
In our opinion - we'd call it, "Warm watered down semi-salty buttered milk" or maybe, "Adult formula." (not in the intoxicating sense, but like baby formula that it seems only adults around here drink... yet, we digress...)

 The rest of the meal though - YUMMY!!
The pie/corn bread looking dish is like a shepherd's pie only it only has ground meat in it without veggies- absolutely delish!
The thin sliced potatoes (pasta looking dish below) and green beans were oh-so-good as well.
My fave (sorry no picture) were like a fried dumpling, shaped like a ball, with mashed potatoes inside.
This is my new favorite restaurant here. :)
Good thing it is only about $2 per person to eat!

Ok, so this is not truly bizarre, but was bizarre to me to find this taste here. This dish was found at a local restaurant catering more to the spiciness of our region. But no spice found on this plate:

French fries.  

With ketchup AND condensed milk.

One of my favorite treats back home is eating fries dipped in a frosty.  

Something about the salt and the sweet - YUM!!

Dipping the fries into condensed milk  - very similar taste.

Then the flood of lovely memories,... fries dipped in frosty with my sweet friends. :)

ahhh... 

We have so much for which to be thankful. 

Maybe you could come try some bizarre foods with us someday?

FuHuoJie Kuaile!

Happy Easter!!
He is risen!!

We had a great weekend with sweet friends who are becoming like family here.
They even shared their egg dying kits and candy from the states with us. :)
Now that is true love right?
The kids had so much fun with this tradition and with their friends doing it together.

This year our kiddos got an Easter bag as Easter baskets don't exist here. :)
There is nothing Easter here - not even the commercial version of things - no baskets, bunnies, Peeps, caramel eggs, Reese's eggs....

However, we did find a few egg shaped yummies while in Hong Kong. :)
We also found small boxes of Cheez-its.  The kids were soooo excited to have these again. :)

This morning we were so priviledged to worship with a couple hundred other foreigners in this city.
Koreans, Africans, Americans, Europeans, Australians, Kiwis...

I didn't realize how much I have missed corporate worship.
There is just something about singing praises with many people.
Worshipping with people from so many nations...
A glimpse of Heaven.  :)

We sang many wonderful songs.
But when we sang  "He Reigns"
tears rolled down my face as we sang together.
Surrounded by almost all nationalities aside from the nationals where we live (this was only for those with a foreign passport).

Can you just picture yourself sitting here with us singing...

It's the song of the redeemed,

Rising from the African plain.
It's the song of the forgiven,
Drowning out the Amazon Rain

The Song of Asian Believers
Filled with God's Holy Fire 
It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation 
A love song born of a grateful choir...

You can sing along here.

Let praises echo from the tower of cathedrals
to the faithful gathered underground...

Here, where Easter is not celebrated.

No Easter dresses, sunrise services, or images of the cross. 

Today, on Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate our Risen Lord.

The day we celebrate the only sacrifice needed, the only one that provides redemption. 

Today, on this side of the world is tomb sweeping day.

It is said to be the most important day to offer sacrifices or offerings to dead ancestors. 

Yes, pretty much the complete opposite of what today represents for us.

Instead of celebrating new life, instead of joy in knowing truth and believing in the one who grants life everlasting, meeting all our needs, drying all tears, providing unspeakable joy... 

Instead, here, this is a day set aside to clean tombs - sweep off the dust, and offer sacrifices through burning either tangible items or paper versions of tangible items for their deceased loved ones.

While in Hong Kong we saw a vendor selling items we heard existed but hadn't seen.

These are all items for burning so that the deceased can have them in the underworld (if you didn't read the funeral post, there is more info regarding this on there). 

We heard there were big houses you can buy.
They meant seriously big!
I haven't seen any houses in real life here that look like this.
It appears to even come with a maid and security guard. ???

 A massage chair.

 A boat

Fans and Air conditioners - now that seems useful.

 Flat screen TV

 Silk Pajamas

 Telephones and Ipads

 There were multiple self care items- toothbrushes/toothpaste, shaving sets, lotions/shampoo...

 This one was most interesting, all "Hades" products - cigarretes, coke, beer, alcohol, tea...

When we first saw it we were truly surprised all this stuff actually existed.  

It is one thing to hear about it, but to see it. 

To see people buying it and picking out what to get...

And for it to this year fall on the weekend we celebrate life instead of death, 

knowing the truth,

believing,

trusting Him, 

and being filled with hope of life everlasting in Heaven...

Makes my heart ache more, 

longing for more messengers,

for more ability to speak clearly, boldly,

for more hearts and minds to be opened to receive...

for the search for truth to end in truth.

Makes me want to sing out the end of the song, "He reigns"

And all the powers of darkness

Tremble at what they've just heard

Cause all the powers of darkness

Can't drown out a single word

He has won!!

It is finished!!!

Don't you just want to shout it from the rooftops?  

Does it excite you?  

FuHuoJie Kuaile!

Translates directly to "Happy Come back to life festival"

:)  Well said, right?  

Now to share that life with others. :)

Be salt and light friends.  

Be salt and light. 

Disney - Hong Kong style. ;)

Yeah!!
If you are following from the last post - you likely guessed it!
We went to Disney!!!

We had visited this park two years ago when we were bringing Meisi home,
but this was a different experience in so many ways.

We didn't ride the train there last time.
It adds such anticipation. :)

Arriving at the station near the main entrance gate.

We are here!!
It took us about 2 hours from the time we walked out the door to getting here.

Very similar to Magic Kingdom (only a smaller version).

As you can see, it is being refurbished, so Main Street and the Castle looks a little funny.
But it is similar right??

This is my favorite part of the park. :)
Quite likely because we don't have "Toy Story Land" in Orlando
AND I just love Woody, Buzz and the gang. :)

Sooo cool right??

Last time I didn't ride this as we weren't sure Meisi would ever trust us if we put her on this - haha.
Ummm...still not sure she is gonna trust us after this, but she didn't cry.
My eyes did leak a little.
I am terribly afraid of heights and this went MUCH higher than it looked from the ground.

Aren't they cute?
Look at those amazing blue skies too!!
We didn't wait more than 10 minutes for any ride.
Amazing right??

These were little holes you could look through and it caused "mystic" changes (aka - optical illusions).

Lunch at Disney HK looks significantly different than it does at WDW.
We had a taste of Indonesia with Nasi Goreng, Chicken Satay and then some Japanese cuisine with a bento box.
It was pretty tasty.

Our little cutie is missing her nap time.
Thankfully her Daddy doesn't mind carrying her. :)

Jungle Cruise - it was even in English!
Nearly the same, just not as strong of punch lines as some of the skippers we've had in the states.

You pick your line based on what language you'd like your cruise to be in. :)
We believe the options were English, Mandarin and Cantonese but aren't completely certain as we haven't gotten to the point to be able to read the other two.

Look who was here!!  They even had them outside for pictures!!
We didn't wait in the line for pics but it was fun to be this close.
Aili still says they look nothing like the "Real" Princesses, but I think these are closer than the ones we saw in a parade in Florida.

These are the moments I cherish when we go to Disney - the look on our kids' faces. :)
This was the afternoon parade and she was watching Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Donald. :)

REAL ice cream!!

Yep, it is messy, but it is still tasty. :)

We didn't see the characters last time, so felt we must this time.
Besides there was no line for Pluto and Goofy!

Isn't his outfit cool??

Brian took the big kids to see a couple more things while Meisi and I waited to see Mickey.
While waiting, we saw what we'd never see in the states...
Mickey and Minnie had a break/switched people..
When they returned they came out and started kissing each other, over and over,

Then they did there little giggle covering their mouth.
I wasn't quite sure what to think but a little surprised that the nationals around me kept saying, "Oh how sweet!"
"Sweet" wasn't exactly what was crossing my mind.
When I told Brian he said there was a t-shirt there that said, "Disney after dark" and had different pics of them kissing and things.  :(

So, I was already a little creeped out by the kissing episode and more uncomfy as we got closer because Mickey was repeatedly kissing every child and every adult that came through.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a touchy feely type, it was just strange for a character interaction.
Nonetheless, seeing Mickey brought joy to my little Mei, whose smile melts my heart.
I've never been more thankful for a short character interaction though. :)

I really like "It's a Small World" here too...
They have the Disney characters in each of their countries/continents, along with all the things we know and love in the Orlando version of this ride.

After this we got to watch the light parade.  

I think it is my favorite electrical light parade.  

It was great to hear the music in English but completely added to the experience when the characters spoke Chinese. 

All the Princesses spoke English but the other characters did not.  :)

We had dinner there too - isn't the rice Mickey cool??

Even cooler - While we were eating the fireworks began!
It was a great spot to watch them as it wasn't too loud (Ian has a serious dislike for the noise fireworks create).

The park here has much shorter hours (10-8:30), but we were ready to go.  

It had been a long, fun filled day.  

Oh, Mickey and friends, so so good to see you again... looking forward to next time. :)