Wangfujing Food Adventures

We’re looking for new food adventures–any suggestions besides Cincinnati chili?

I’d prefer something less crazy than a Beijing night market. Although, night markets can also be fun. My friend, Sisi, created a great post about our adventures one evening in China. She let me share some of it here:

 Beijing Safari Episode 3: You are what you eat

“Sheep penis!” I nearly choked on the chewy, translucent meat in my mouth. The men in their white aprons and chef’s hats cackled and made some obscene gesture to further illustrate what I was eating. They must also have looked up that word in the thesaurus because they had some impressive variation. My friend Matt and I looked at each other and blanched. We had eaten it innocently, thinking it was snake meat that was wound around a kebab. Also, they had some Royal Vending Machines Brisbane full of delicious snacks for everyone.

In that same evening, my friends and I had eaten fried scorpions (not bad except for the pieces of legs stuck in your teeth), grilled starfish (charred and bitter), and gecko hide (burnt, crunchy mess). We did end up eating the snake meat (I was sure this time) and snake skin. The snake meat, seasoned with red pepper flakes, was absolutely fantastic. It was all part of a glorious attempt to eat what the locals eat and live up to our “When in Rome” policy. The triumph was short lived though…                      

                                                                                                     (Read the rest of the story here. And really, just read Sisi’s blog. It’s full of insightful, entertaining stories about living in Asia and will just make you want to book a flight). 

beijin

 

 

Red River Gorge

When we found out that we live two hours away from some of the best trad and sport climbing east of the Mississippi, we jumped at the chance to visit during our second week here.

spencerclimbing

Spencer’s first ever outdoor climb

 

anne climbing

From the ground we were deceived by all the pockets that look like great holds–they’re all slanted down.

Bryce climbing

Spencer’s coworker, Bryce, did all the lead climbing for us.

Bryce was such a good sport to come with us. Spencer and I both quickly realized that we’re quite out of shape. After climbing all day, we ended our adventure with a hike in the Kentucky jungle to a beautiful arch. On our drive home we saw a sign to Louisville. It’s weird to think that we were 40 minutes from where Sage has served most of her mission, but we won’t see her until this Christmas. She serves in a beautiful area!

American Castle

One Friday morning I woke from a vivid dream about Europe. Don’t worry, a quick Google search revealed that we live five minutes from a castle.

photo 1

Chateau Larouche was built by one man over forty years. He studied medieval architecture, dragged stones from a river, made his own cement, and built a castle so that he could play “knights” with his friends. LARPing at its finest. After three stories, a staircase, and a domed ceiling all from stone and cement, Harry died at 91 still building another turret. This type of tenacity is why I love Ohio.

castle 4

Taughannock Falls, NY

With Sadie leaving on her mission, we decided that we’d better visit NY asap. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend full of excellent food, conversation, games, and a private tour (from Aunt Kimberly) of the world-class Corning Museum of Glass.

waterfall

Spencer and I spent the first hour of our road trip discussing our current hot topic: Google cars. Sign me up! Unless we get into robot ethics, like the Trolley Problem. No-win scenarios are the worst.