Thing's I've Eaten, Places I've Been

It all started with a trip I took to Paris, back when American's could afford to leave the country. Not speaking French, I ordered food by pointing. I ate whatever was brought out, however it was cooked, and it was good. This opened my mind, and my stomach. Mayonnaise on pommes frites? Royale with cheese? Why not! Raw herring wrapped around a pickle? Sure!

It was around the time that I got back from Paris that Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations premiered on The Travel Channel. His first trip was to Paris, and instead of going to museums, or shopping, or historical landmarks, all he did was eat and drink. This was my kind of show.

Ever since then I take every opportunity I can to travel. My friend got married in the Philippines, so I went. I ate Balut, and Day Old Chicks. My video of eating Day Old Chicks was featured on Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmerman.

My girlfriend/fiancée is from Hong Kong, which is good for me because it means she'll eat anything with four legs and it's back facing the sky. Together we've been to Las Vegas, Hong Kong (3 times), Macau, Beijing, Singapore, Malaysia, and Montreal.

Bourdain had already been to many of the places first, and I enjoyed retracing his steps, and finding some new places of my own.

I had followed him to Au Pied De Cochon in Montreal, Bo Innovation in Hong Kong (where I got to meet the chef Alvin Leung), and the Noodle Loft in Beijing. The only time I got a head start on him was in Singapore, at Arum.

Here is the incomplete list, in no particular order, of things I've eaten that have appeared on either No Reservations, Bizarre Foods, or are just considered weird.

I like to start off with Chicken: testicles, day old chicks, knee bone, gizzard, "guts", and fertilized duck eggs (technically not a chicken, but does it really matter when it's still in the egg?). I also really like chicken fried steak, which again is not really chicken.

Moving on to Durian, Octopus Balls, a noodle 7 meters long, pigs blood, foie gras, poutine.