Burning ring of fire.....

Well some of you may know what I am about to say. Some of you may need to turn away, and not want to read this due to the fact that you cannot stand the talk of disturbing bodily functions. Well, if you know me, and know me well, you know my digestive system is not...lets say...up to par.  I eat and it goes right through me. not fun for anyone. Especially me!!! I cannot eat dairy, and I just found out I am not supposed to eat wheat products. I'm not a celiac not allergic to gluten, just wheat. But, well as most of you know I am a chef, I love food, and I love, more than cooking food, I LOVE TO EAT IT!! I feel like a dancer that has lost a leg, or maybe a big toe.

I was crossing my fingers that the yak milk in Nepal would overcome the lactose intolerance, hoping with all my heart that maybe it was only our gross over stimulated, over hormoned cows milk. But no, I feel it, I feel it deep inside my large intestine, kicking the crap outta the lactose, without enough of a build up pf the lactase enzyme to eat up the pain. Well, dammit anyhow. I like my milk tea, I love my frothy Nepalese Masala in the morning, and if you could only taste the simple Paneer Chili!! They call it that here... It's paneer ( unripened indian cheese, from yak milk) mixed with garlic and ginger tomato, and green chili, but they make it so delicately with their little nepalese hands and it tastes sooo damn good. OHHH I LOVE FOOD!!

Anyway, that was the easy part. The hard part is having to look out for a toilet on every street, every nick and cranny, maybe there will be a place we go, hoping I have remembered to bring toilet paper with me in my pocket or in my backpack that day. But, well I should confess.... I get the need to go, even if there is no cheese involved, it might be the awesome spices, and herbs they use in the cooking.
The feeling....oh.....DAMN.....The FEELING.....

Sweat pours from the pores, I feel like puking like I might even faint. What a terrible feeling. I'm never going to make it, I start looking for alleys small places maybe no one will see!!! But...alas....Thank GAWD I have Mark who also knows what I am like. When I have to go, I have to go NOW!! I feel like I am the only one out there that feels this but I know that I am not. I might be the only one crazy enough to be travelling the world with a digestive system like mine, or eating how I want to eat, not how my intestine wants me to eat. But the passion I have for eating, is the same passion you have for your favorite thing, and you know I'm not fat, I'm not a greedy eater, I just love to eat GOOD FREAKIN' FOOD! I feel like my passion for life revolves around food and where and how it comes to be the way it is, that's always unknown..

The flavors and smells of the food on your first date, the smells on Christmas with your family, the thing you were eating when you found out almost anything important in your life, (the birth of your child, the time the oilers won the cup, the day you lost someone important etc). There was always the smells, tastes, sounds of food. They always bring you back to grandmas house in the country when she was baking buns, when mom was pickling cucumbers to make pickles, when you peel so much garlic at cooking school, the only people that want to hang out with you are the people that go to culinary!! Food is my interest, my love, my life. This is why I travel. I find it is worth to eat what I want, then feel like complete crap! Especially when I get to eat the meal of a lifetime!

P.S. I was not feeling well before we ate the live octopus, I threw up just before in the local fish market toilet, but the live octopus HOLY SHIT was worth eating...for the taste, the experience....the memory!
P.S.S. I ate soo much when we were in Montreal I was (to say it easy) excavating out of both ends, not cause I was sick, but because, well, my body can't handle certain foods and onforth, I was on a gluten and lactose free diet for a couple months before I went.


Food is my life, I know my body is teaching me a lesson, but I also look at everyone I know in Kung Fu how many bones and sprains they go through, as well as yoga how many hurting body parts you go through to know your body is talking to you;  I feel these are my brakes and sprains. This is how I learn, and well learning sometimes hurts.