I read the recent news about two young girls being attacked by acid while on the island of Zanzibar off Tanzania and I am really saddened. It's a horrible act of ignorance and hatred, and it scares people. The article I read said the two were in Tanzania volunteering for a nonprofit and were walking in Stone Town on the main island of Zanzibar when acid was thrown on them. I have beautiful memories of strolling with my best friend through the stone roads of Stone Town, an old part of the island and maze of shops with hand-carved wooden doors, open air restaurants, friendly people, and the best fruit salad with rose water and pistachios. Now, people will think of the white sand seafood market strewn with menacing hatred and threatening acts of ignorance.
One of the friendly, wonderful Zanzibaris I met there was a cook who gave evening lessons in cooking with spices. My friend and I made a lovely dish of Zanzibari curry and rice and vegetable soup with the island's mix of cinnamon, cardamon, clove, and ginger. He also showed us his personal mix of chai and spiced coffee.
The trick to the coffee is letting the spices settle into the coffee and waiting....living on island time for a while until the aroma jumps from the jar when you open it. This will take several months, so I found it helpful to hide it in the back of my cabinet. Every couple of months, I happened upon it and enjoyed a cup of strongly brewed coffee with hints of ginger and clove, cinnamon and cardamon. I used a bold, Tanzanian coffee but a lighter coffee would work well too.
While this was frying, I boiled half a bag of frozen black eyed peas and half a bag of frozen spinach. I added salt and pepper to taste, and let the peas boil down to a nice consistency.
I had to keep myself from eating the whole pan! Of course, I ate all of the plantain. There was a reason I only got one! I cut up a sweet potato into cubes and fried it to go along with the peas for lunch later in the week. It worked well but nothing beats fried plantain!
I can't remember the first time I ever had hummus. I must have been in my teens, and I'm guessing my sister introduced me. I'm still amazed at the amount she managed to expand my world while growing up. I still haven't figured out how she grasped such information, but I'm thankful she passed it on.
I think I ate hummus every single day in Egypt. Our fallucca (boat) captain made it for us on a 3-day trip down the Nile, I had it on pita from street vendors, at lunch-time cafes. I really enjoy hummus - it's super easy and simple, and a great protein source for us veggie-lovin' peeps. It's so easy that it's pretty much instant gratification...did I mention I'm still a kid at heart? 
There is a lot of meat in Chinese cuisine, but also tofu, so as a pescetarian I didn't have any real difficulties...except in actually communicating "no meat please." The Lonely Planet food section was very helpful as I pointed to the Chinese characters for "I am a vegetarian" and "spicy tofu." Many Buddhist temples had vegetarian restaurants attached with lots of scruptious mock meat dishes and bean pastries. Some restaurants had menus in English although the descriptions themselves were sometimes confusing or vague. A lot of dishes simply said "meat," since the Chinese word for pork can also be used for meat in general. In addition, there was "fish like squirrell," in which the fishtail curled upwards to the ceiling (quite tasty).
I also loved the roasted chestnusts sold on every street corner. And the milk tea! And the little steamed baotze balls filled with cabbage or a darker, kale-like veggie! 
In Beijing, my sister and I found a night market with an entire street of food vendors lined up with fried noodles, fried ice cream, fried scorpion, fried beetles, fried centipede, fried starfish, fried dough, fried dumplings, fried rice, fried honeybees, and the list goes on. Yep, no oil spared here my friends. I partook of the fried ice cream and fried banana balls (which btw, contained absolutely no banana) while my more adventurous (and carnivore) sister nibbled on crunchy centipede and scorpion. Yes, many pictures were taken. 
Things I want to try:
