Antoine's village

Breakfast at Antoines. Noodles and egg!

p.s He made the bowl from a coconut!

Steamed rice cakes with coconut and sort of molasses type sauce.. oh so good and oh so simple!

Let me take you on my 5 day motorbike adventure on the island of Lombok (east of Bali)

Destination: Lombok

Boat from Gili T to Lombok

The adventurers, Andrew and I

Motorbiking path to the Gangga Waterfalls

The man we met by the waterfall, Antoine, who treated us like kings, gave us his hut to sleep in and his wife fed us like there was no tomorrow... despite how little they had!

The hidden waterfall Antoine showed us that no one knows about!

Antoines porch, local kids and I!

Lombok is just beautiful . . . 

crossing crazy waterfalls

temple on the ocean

men wear your ties before entering the temple!

Ah... and so much more!

Look out for this gem in your Asian grocery store

This pack + water = fantastic peanut sauce

So I was told. . .

I still have yet to find it in Montreal!

If you are feeling adventurous, I asked an Indonesian man what ingredients make a classic peanut sauce and he told me as follows:

tamarind paste

Small chili

Sambal

Garlic

Terasi fish paste

home roasted peanuts

palm sugar

salt

More egg... more tempeh... no complaints

Most cheap food stalls include just a huge variety of pans filled with food (mostly vegetarian), and you pay 1$ for a plate of rice + as much of whatever you want from the window.

I was a bit hesitant to get meats at night considering nothing is refrigerated, and sits in the heat all day on display shelves.

Which is why you hit the popular spots for high turn over!

Cut up caramelized tempeh, deep fried egg, deep fried tofu, and veg salads. 

You can't get more grease then that!

Best tempeh I have ever had in my life

What is Tempeh?

Another tofu-like product that is also made of soy beans, originated from Indonesia...so no wonder its so darn good! 

This dish includes caramelized tempeh steaks, which gives a firm and bit of crunch (due to chunks inside) texture, and just so amazing. A nice salad and rice to go with. 

Read more on Tempeh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh

You think you know where to find the best peanut sauce? WRONG! This woman on Gili-T island can destroy it!!

I don't even know where to begin... maybe that the plate is a deep fried rice chip / absorbs the leftover scrumptiousness, so you can miss one drop??

This dish is includes the following: Cut up chunks of steamed sticky rice in banana leaf, raw bean sprouts, sweet soya sauce, chili sauce, fried garlic, and...

 the best peanut sauce I have ever tasted in my life.

The lady grinds the sauce by hand and I don't know what's in it, but it was a pale tahini cream color.

Oh yeah, and it cost 1$

I gave a nice tip...

On arrival to the Gilies and endless searching for cheaper guesthouse options in the back alleys, we met these guys who suggested one across this ladies stall.. and clearly I could only focus on what was in their hands...

 6 or 8$ a night, and amazing food across the street... couldn't ask for more!

Where is it?

Up the alley from road from the green cafe (market square area), across Desi Guesthouse, a great place!

My first meal in Indonesia

After endless searching for cheap "street food" in tourist land of Kuta, a surfer instructor approached me with his pitch as I sat reading on the nice cosy sand, and ended up leading to his friends food stall on the beach. I am pretty sure its instant noodles with veggies and egg for only 1$

Indonesian's love their eggs, its in everything!

Pretty tasty, but the best part is that your toes are in the warm sand and the beach is all you can see. 

Kuta beach/surfing land.

Kuta, Bali

Kuta is a nightmare. Basically a construction site with a massive McDonalds, all Aussie loved brand name pretty stores, and people just drinking their hearts away from morning to till... morning. 

No culture, nothing new. 

Thankfully the wifi at the seven eleven allowed me to meet Andrew, and we set off to improve our situation with some fruit picnic action. 

Now backtracking, to Indonesia

Market place on Lombok island

The day we changed-January 25

having shisha and mint tea in an alleyway cafe.

Miss those times.

BLOG INTERRUPTION! due to Food network!

I just saw this on the food network and it looks amazing!
Save the recipe and try it one day:

Spice Goddess

Recipe: Fish Paneer cakes with apple fig chutney

Eating with the Dahab Hostel gang

I think all our food cost maybe.. 10$ together?

Need I say more?

The Egyptian pita that just comes with everything

Sooo.. this does not look as appetizing as I thought! but its moussaka and its AMAZING! Roasted eggplant goodness. I could dive into that stuff right now...

Kushari - the poor man's food

Everyone you ask has their own "the best place in town".

This dish is called Kushari, which is vegetarian, but surprisingly quite filling. 

They stuff the bowl with what looks like left over spaghetti noodles and macaroni (very much so coated with butter and salt), on top of that, rice with lentils, then a ton of caramelized delish onions, tomato sauce, and chick peas. 

They also gave me 2 side baggies with lemon juice and spicy sauce. 

4 EPS = not even a dollar

No wonder my dad has proper taste buds for quality mango

For only 2 egyptian pounds (less than 50 cents), you get, in a beer mug, this amazing sweet, pulpy, fresh juice...I can't even describe how satisfying.

I went for mango with apple and banana chunks, yogurt and strawberry.

As good as dessert, but uber healthy and delish.

Super packed by locals.

Pay this man at the desk, get your chip, and bring it to the counter

This was a definite point and eat situation!

Egypt. My half homeland

I only went to Cairo for 4 days, not knowing if the riots situation was deadly or not. I had to go because its where my dad is from!

And, turned out my hostel selection was 1 block away from the rioting square!

Dahab Hostel, was the best place ever, only 5$ a night for my own room, shared ghetto bathrooms. Met amazing people, had too much shisha, and want to go back for much longer.

I will remember 3 things in my 2 days in Jordan, Petra... aside from their dates.

# 1 The amazing view's of the lost city, Petra

# 2 Going into a random cave in the dessert with wine, beer, candles, my gals, and Jordanians. 

# 3 Men with Eyeliner / Jack sparrow's twin

Concluding Israel...

Bethlehem

Old City, wailing wall and dome of the rock. 

I miss saturday nights on Benny Yuda already!

Good times I will miss!

nice stand... bad coffee..

I had to bargain like crazy, since I don't look, yet AM half arab haha.
but I chose the touristy, later found out, least approved by locals stand outside Jaffa gate in Jerusalem.

I had amazing turkish coffee later on to make up for it!

Best burger I ever had in my life...

  It really was the best thing I ever ate.

Meat cooked to perfection.

Veal and lamb burger, medium well done. 

Forget ketchup and mustard and go for the selection of 2 amazing homemade sauces to accompany your burger... which are in unlimited sqeezy bottle-ness.

1st: sweet chili sauce, orange color

2nd: smoky spicy BBQ sauce. 

My only complaint being a toppings lover, is to add more then just lettuce and pickle... and pretty pricy for a burger. But it was so damn good, it did not really matter...

Moses Station restaurant, Tel Aviv.
http://www.mosesrest.co.il/

It was jam packed, so thank God I was with Israelis to hunt the servers down

Bethlehem.. our cabbie turned out to own a shawarma place?

After being swarmed by cab drivers as soon as we exited the bus, the bargaining hatred turned into making a good local friend who took us around Bethlehem and to his own shawarma place (there was no getting out of it anyways!). The falafel was if not the best I've had, they threw in free salad and vine leaves. 

group from calvary bible college and myself