Culinary Preferences you Pick Up Living Abroad

[MrMan]

I have lived overseas in Indonesia and Korea, and I've spent time in Hawaii as well. My wife is a talented cook, and our travels and exposure to foreign cuisine have affected our diet.

Since I had lived in Korea, when my wife and I were dating, I'd take her out once a month or so, maybe, for Korean food. There used to be a good place down in Blok M in Jakarta that I'd discovered when I was single. I'd go eat there with a Singaporean buddy of mine from time to time. He moved back home, and I took the woman I dated there and to other Korean restaurants. So that became our type of food to eat when we went out for a nice meal. Since then, she's come to really like Thai food, so we did that for a while. With kids, we often go out for fast food and pizza nowadays. It's hard to find good Korean food close enough to make the trip, but she makes Korean spinach and sometimes she makes some pechu kimchi (from bokchoy or something like that.) She makes bulgogi and a few other dishes. We've had the egg-battered zuccini they cook. That's good, too.

We haven't lived in the middle east, but there are some decent kebab restaurants that probably aren't that authentic in Jakarta. Some of them use fajitas. But she's learned to make kebabs, so we have that.

And then there is Indonesian food. Kangkung with tauco (fermented soy) is a favorite with nasi uduk (coconut milk rice) and fried chicken. Her beef rendang is really, really good, and so is her chicken gulai. Chicken gulai is similar to some varieties of authentic Thai yellow curry, but not the type served in most restaurants. Maybe the Indonesian-resembling style is served closer to Malaysia.

My kids eat little seaweed squares. My kids had them and were eating them in the yard of a campus apartment where I saw some neighbors,a very blonde mother with a very blonde little boy. I told her kids love these seaweed squares, and asked her to try on her little boy. He was about 2. He gobbled that little Korean seaweed square right up.

My kids like Spam musubi, which is basically a Hawaiian Spam sushi. I think that's the only thing from Hawaii that really influenced what we eat at home. I probably had a few of them in Hawaii, but my kids ask for that stuff. We got a mold for it when we were in Hawaii last, so we can make them.

[nomadphilippines]

throwing a random fried egg on top of everything

[MrMan]

I learned to make ramen noodles in Asia. When I had them in the US, I just put in the bullion and MSG powder, or whatever it is. But in Korea, I learned to throw in an egg and mix it up with a fork, and whatever green vegetables or kimchi I had. A former GI showed me to put in a can of tuna fish. It doesn't taste weird and fishy. It just absorbs the flavor of the soup.

I ate that from a few times a week, probably, as a bachelor. Now, I may eat ramen once ever two months.

[E Irizarry R&B Singer]

I learned to make ramen noodles in Asia. When I had them in the US, I just put in the bullion and MSG powder, or whatever it is. But in Korea, I learned to throw in an egg and mix it up with a fork, and whatever green vegetables or kimchi I had. A former GI showed me to put in a can of tuna fish. It doesn't taste weird and fishy. It just absorbs the flavor of the soup.

I ate that from a few times a week, probably, as a bachelor. Now, I may eat ramen once ever two months.

Hypertension highway, much? See you at the crossroads, bud. Psych. I'm glad you stopped eating that crappola so much.

[JohnDoeBigBaller]

i started eating more of a rice based diet, with asian or thai soups and other foods. I find it much lighter than western food like pizza or hamburgers.

[MrMan]

I probably eat rice 12 to 14 meals a week.

Meals with palm oil or coconut milk in them can be kind of 'heavy', especially with meat.