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一人份的蟹肉燕窩 -- 滿滿的燕窩，感覺好幸福呀！Crab meat bird's nest for one person - full of bird's nest, fulfill Happiness !!! #birdsnest , #birdsnestsoup , #soup , #soupseason , #souprecipe , #soupweather , #crabmeat , #crabmeatsoup , #crabmeats , #燕窩 , #燕窩膠原蛋白 , #燕窩湯 , #happiness , #happinessfeeling , #蟹肉燕窩羹 , #蟹肉燕窩湯（在 大倉久和大飯店【桃花林中華料理 Toh-Ka-Lin Chinese Restaurant】） https://www.instagram.com/p/CF66UqYgfZ1hLxCN-vM5fl7x3p-UE3tB2oFbX80/?igshid=1h4ulw7hriy0x
22 October 2019, Tuesday - Day 2 of Our #GenderSensitivitySeminar at #TheManilaHotel: For #Lunch I started with #BirdsNestSoup or #NidoSoup, #BreadWithButter, #Ceviche or #TanigueKinilaw & #FreshGreenSalad. For #MainDish, I have #OrangePrawn #ChickenTeriyaki & #CantonNoodles. For #Dessert, I savored #JapaneseCheesecake & #FreshFruits. Yummy! Glad I barely gained weight from eating all the delicious food for the past days due to my habit of eating ice cream or yoghurt every night. Cheers! ♀️😂♂️ #GenderSensitivityTraining #CulinaryJourney #FoodTrip #FitFood #FoodConnoiseur #64DaysBeforeChristmas #JourneyOfLife #Travel #Backpacking #YOLO (at The Manila Hotel) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4B1keAh1pp/?igshid=1kutgjc17ga7k
22 October 2019, Tuesday - Day 2 of Our #GenderSensitivitySeminar at #TheManilaHotel: For #Lunch I started with #BirdsNestSoup or #NidoSoup, #BreadWithButter, #Ceviche or #TanigueKinilaw & #FreshGreenSalad. For #MainDish, I have #OrangePrawn #ChickenTeriyaki & #CantonNoodles. For #Dessert, I savored #JapaneseCheesecake & #FreshFruits. Yummy. ♀️😂♂️ #GenderSensitivityTraining #CulinaryJourney #FoodTrip #FitFood #FoodConnoiseur #64DaysBeforeChristmas #JourneyOfLife #Travel #Backpacking #YOLO (at The Manila Hotel) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4B1NbVBB2S/?igshid=rf6snezm1fb
Dinnertime With JM 🤗🤗🤗 #pancithabhab, #birdsnestsoup, #dinnertime (at Harbor City, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpv9cyQB4s6W4_SM_5Bctr6fZBMwmKFolauEHA0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jq6f02ay0jah
Vietnam, Nepal & the silk- route
My last blog was about the fact that I had returned to work as a tourleader in my beloved South America. This started in September from Colombia and we finished up in Rio de Janeiro in February, the day before the carnaval kicked off. I travelled on to Salvador de Bahia, where the biggest carnaval in the world is held and after that I continued on down the coast to a wonderfully beautiful, chilled out place called Itacare. I was only supposed to stay there for three days but I loved it so much I kept adding on more time and ended up staying three weeks. Gone were the plans of visiting Jericoacoara in the North of Brazil, but that doesn’t matter, minds are for changing and travel plans are open to be adjusted as pleased! My friend Jono with whom I had worked during the tour in South America (the driver) had convinced me to say yes to the next tour as well; this is supposed to kick off from Kathmandu on the 12th of June, driving to Bejijng via Tibet in 25 days, immediately followed by another tour from Beijing to Istanbul on the 10th of July until October. The Kathmandu tour was not a given yet, this all depended on how many people would be signing up for it. It was decided very late that this would be sold an expedition: the truck was already in Nepal and needs to be transited to Beijing so why not try sell it as a tour. In March I went back to the Netherlands to visit my family and friends, and to help celebrate my niece’s 15th birthday - the first time I could actually be there with her on that day! I have friends from New Zealand that have moved to Vietnam last year and they had invited me to come spend some time with them a few times already. “Why not”, I thought, as I will be “in the neighbourhood” anyway and will just make my way from Vietnam to either China or Nepal. My sister turned out to have plenty of work for me to do while I was in the Netherlands so I could save up a bit of cash which was very necessary, Brazil had not been cheap! I got to celebrate my own birthday in my home country as well for the first time since 2001 so that was extra nice, I threw a big party at my sister Edith’s house (she has a built in pub in the house, how cool is that!) and I was there for my other niece’s birthday too, she turned 13 and this was also the first time I was there to celebrate it with her. It was very nice to be back in Holland in the spring, everything was blooming brightly and breeding&brooding beautifully. The Kathmandu trip was confirmed which meant a starting date on the 1st of June in Kathmandu to start preparing for the trip, so I set off for Hoi An, Vietnam on the 15th of May. Hoi An is a lovely city, it is very old, quiant and cozy and there are so many nice clothes shops, tailors, knick knacks and what not for sale, it was hard not to spend everything at once. The town lights up at night with hundreds of lanterns displayed in the streets everywhere, and little candles are lit up and set adrift in the river at night as well. What a beautiful city, I think I could see myself live there too, some day! You know, for a year or so, nothing too crazy...
One day Barry and I rented some scooters and that was a bit of an eye opener. He had already warned me of the Vietnamese “traffic rules.” Pedestrian crossings and traffic lights are for decoration only. Pedestrians have no rights, cyclists only have right of way over pedestrians, scooters and motorcycles have right of way over pedestrians and cyclists, and cars, vans, buses and trucks are king of the road and have right of way over everything. But wait, there was more. Nobody tends to look before they join in with the traffic. They just blatantly, blindly barge into the traffic at high speed, usually coming from an alleyway, exit or other obscure side entrance which means you constantly, CON-STANT-LY have to beep your horn (or ring your bell) everywhere you think someone might potentially be coming out of the woodworks.You are practically their eyes because they do not check their mirrors or shoulders, they just go! It was stressful at times though I did get the hang of it after a while.
There was a house in Hoi An from where speakers in the loft were aiming outside, and they were constantly putting out the twittering sounds of swallows. Barry explained to me that they do this from several houses in an attempt to lure the swallows into the lofts, in the hope that they will build their nests there because they make (you won’t believe this) birdsnest soup from the swallows’ nests. Apparently their saliva that they use to build the nests is considered a delicacy. Other culinary highlights I have spotted in some restaurants were jellyfish salad, silkworm salad, duck embryos, pig ear soup, frog salad and fortunately I did not see dog on a menu anywhere.
There was a nice beach too where we went a few times, we saw some caves with Buddhas and temples and I finished my time in Vietnam in Halong Bay, a very pretty (and rather famous) bay with almost 2000 limestone islands where you can cruise, kayak and climb rocks or just swim and chill out. I flew to Kathmandu a few days ago, where I will spend time until we depart on the 12th of June. Out of only three passengers, one Chinese guide, a driver and me as the tourleader, two passengers have had to cancel their part from Kathmandu to Beijing so that means it is three staff and one passenger! It will be a good way for me to get back into the motions of working again, after almost four months off but it does seem a bit over the top. Let’s just look at June as a month to practise! More about Kathmandu in the next blog, loads of new destinations coming up so I most probably wont leave it for eight months this time...
Apologies for the lack of pictures, for some reason Tumblr won’t let me upload and save any pictures today.
Those towers are built specifically to harvest the nests of swallows to make bird nest soup. Apparently good money for the locals. You see lots of these towers around the villages. You can hear the birds chirping in the clip. #swallows #birdsnestsoup #indonesia #borneo #kalimantan #swallowtower
The most famous use of edible birds nest is bird's nest soup, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. When dissolved in water, the birds' nests have a gelatinous texture used for soup or sweet soup [tàhng suay]. It is mostly referred to as 燕窝 [yàn wō] unless references are made to the savoury or sweet soup in Chinese cuisine. According to the Qing Dynasty manual of gastronomy, the Suiyuan shidan, bird nest was a delicate ingredient that must not be flavoured or cooked with anything strong tasting or oily. As well, while it is incredibly precious, it must also be served in relatively large quantities otherwise its texture cannot be fully experienced and enjoyed. #BirdsNestSoup #HQisRigged
The concrete buildings are swallow farms for the harvesting of #birdsnest for #birdsnestsoup (at Ly Nhon Can Gio Tp HCM)
