Kati, Mali

What did you eat?
June 26 - July 1, 2008

Layover in Paris on our way to Kati. I hadn't slept on the plane and I was exhausted. We went to a joint at the airport. I got classic bread and cafe au lait.

Don't eat salad in Africa. I knew that cause if you can't drink the water there and they WASH the lettuce with their water... you have a problem. But alas, I did eat salad twice. After the second time I asked Claire if I was in essence 'asking for it' and she said, Yes. I am happy to report though that I did not get sick.

This was what they were serving. I will no longer be surprised by the 'no menu' restaurant. Anyway, I was not stoked but I saw the french fries as a good sign. Unfortunately, though....

They served me the french fries with the chicken sauce. That is when depression set in... perfectly good french fries ruined! But I ate it anyway. This was my first day in Mali.

Mango! Everywhere and every day. I tried so hard to like mango, especially because it was the freshest fruit ever. But I simply don't like mango - I think it's the aftertaste.

Claire on the other hand bought 5 mangos and ate them for breakfast each day.

Dinner at the hotel: puree vegetable soup. It tasted horrible. I added salt - then it became a salty version of horrible.

Yay! Cheese!

The second time I ate salad. This restaurant had a straw roof. This was my second day in Mali.

Oh god, oh sweet god this was bad. Bad bad bad. I ate it though. Not a lot but I HAD to eat. I did a round robin of bread and water and soda to wash it down.

Couscous. Not good. And that little shot glass is hot Malian tea. That will rob your mouth of any and all taste and only leave behind its own taste of what I assume car battery fluid tastes like.

And for dessert... mango and pinneapple. Ugh. At this point I would have killed someone for a dish of macaroni and cheese. Killed. Someone.

Traditional Malian dish. Better than the day before. I don't like onions but I ate them up along with the cucumbers and the rice/grain stuff. This was my third day in Mali. I was so hungry... sooooo hungry.


This was a great moment. One our second night at the hotel the waiter offered spaghetti (which was not on the menu). I ate it every dinner for the rest of my 5 dinners while there. It wasn't great, but damn if I didn't care. Dinner was my only safe haven for food.

Cartagena, Colombia

Food in Colombia
June 8-13, 2008

This is the food during my trip in Colombia. I took pictures of my food.

Do I have to eat this...

Bean soup, it's only bean soup... there are no indistinguishable finger tips in this bean soup...

There was no menu at this vegetarian restaurant. You sit and they put this in front of you. I found it to be a fun game of, "Eat it, then realize you don't like it." Rather than the traditional ,"Oh, that's what it is? I'm not eating that."

This is the beer they drink in Colombia. My travel partner Aura holds the bottle as if she has modeled for beer companies before. Being a beer model is probably fun.... at least then alcoholism would just be "part of the job" rather than "part of the reason I can't remember most of the year 2000."

Aura is brilliantly displaying how I felt about the 'oat water' that I was given as part of the "we cooked it, you eat it" menu. I actually tried this bottom of the river water... er oat water... and I have to admit, it tasted like really sweet oat water... that you find at the bottom of a river.

This little guy was on the wall at the seafood restaurant we went to. I don't eat seafood.
So I ate this. And no that is not rice. I almost had a big mouthful before I was told that it was coconut. Nope, don't like coconut. Oh man, that turtle is still staring at me.

A burrito! For some reason I didn't eat Mexican food until my last night in Cartagena... that's the last time I go to Colombia expecting Mexican restaurants on every corner.
That's right, I'm an idiot.

Ah Ha! We finally went to a restaurant called Crepes & Waffles. This was lunch for me. This was a happy moment.

This was a cesaer salad I got in Bogota, Colombia. Nothing special here. Just a salad. And a weird orange drink. The salad was good for a joint connected to a gas station.
I think it was Roastbeef Charlie's.

Oh god... did that turtle move it's head... I think I saw it moves its head...