5 Things

The least interesting thing about this blog is me. Which is why I've been hemming and hawing every since Bee at Rasa Malaysia tagged me for '5 Things You Don't Know About Me' - the latest meme to circulate in the flogger-sphere.

Navel gazing makes me cringe. But Bee's been a huge supporter of EatingAsia from early days (even if she logs on only for the photos - gotcha Bee!) so I'll give it a go.

1. One of my favorite foods in the world is lima beans. A big bowlful, with lots of butter, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper, please. Dates back to the frozen Bird's Eye lima beans of my childhood, though I prefer fresh these days. Enjoyed a mighty fine bowlful last week, in Manila of all places.

2. I speak Turkish. A bit rusty (last lesson 5 years ago), but still .... My former teacher is a cookbook author. I think you can imagine how we passed much of the 'conversation' portion of my tutorials.

3. I bite my nails. Everyone's allowed a bad habit or two.

4. In a past life I was an academic, with two Master's degrees, a couple years of fieldwork, and a never-finished (and never-TO-be-finished) dissertation to my name. Neither of my fields have a whit to do with food, but it's food (and the encouragement of my Turkish teacher) that diverted me from the path to professor-dom.

5. Dave and I have been chowing together for - get this - almost twenty-three years. (Awwwwww....isn't that sweet?)

Rather than tag five other bloggers, I'm issuing an open invitation to any who also wish to engage in a bit of self-focused nattering. Consider yourself tagged.

Back to proper posting, with photos, tomorrow. I promise.

Comments

[Hande]

Türkiye'yi gezdiginizi biliyordum ama Türkce konustugunuzu bilmiyordum simdiye kadar. Aferin!

[Robyn]

Hande - Turk musunuz? Bilmiyordum. Evet, 1998'de Turkiye de yolculuk ettigimiz sonra Turkce yi ogrendigim i karar verdim. Cunku Turk yemegini cok sevdigim i buldum! Aralik aya da bir daha Istanbul a gidecegimiz. Cok sabirsizlikla bekliyoruz ....
Ack! That took me 10 minutes to write and is no doubt full of grammatical errors, plus I have no Turkish software .. but you get the picture: love of Turkish food led to desire to learn Turkish. It's kind of a pattern with me, actually.
Thanks for stopping by EatingAsia!

[Bee@Rasa Malaysia]

Robyn, I do read your posts...not just looking at pictures. The truth is with so many blogs out there and so little time, it's impossible to read everything nowadays, so I scan through the text sometimes and read the whole article thoroughly when I have time to indulge in blogosphere.

Thanks for being a sport for doing this meme; Turkish, wow, very impressive.

By the way, I hope you guys have had a wonderful time in PH...looking forward to the new posts + new pictures. Hehe. ;)

[Vinnie]

Got to say this is my first time writing in your blog but I've been coming here for months now. Your photographic skills are amazing. Top notch material. The food...Good god ,can die man when I see them. Please keep up the great work. You are in my internet favourites. :)

[RST]

Congratulations for that wonderful article (and the beautiful photos!) on Northern Thai cuisine in the front cover of the Chicago Tribune food section this morning. You should put up a post about that article including a link to it (since the piece is available through the Chicago Tribune website) so that your readers from elsewhere can also enjoy it!!! Hope to see more of your work in US newspapers and food magazines in the near future!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-0702130663feb14,1,7856083.story?coll=chi-leisuregoodeating-hed

Richard
[email protected]

[Robyn]

Thanks, Vinnie, for the copious compliments! Dave is the photographer so can take credit for your patronage. We're glad you're a 'regular'. :-)

RST - thanks, and done. We like the layout --- lots of exposure for Dave's lovely shots!