So, here's what you've missed (Part 1)

I neglected this for so long that forgot I had a cooking blog altogether - so I really ought to thank my global readership of two for encouraging me to update this again...

It's been two years, what happened? 

Well. For starters. I graduated. 

True Story.

I left China 
– which by the way,is kind of a "duh" reason to stop blogging here. I mean "Cooking Journal of A Vegetarian in Beijing" doesn't really work if you're anywhere else - or so I thought. 

And then.
I pretty much went all over the place. 

A post-graduation self discovery adventure, if you will.

I went home to KL for a few months. Watched my brother get married, gained a sister-in-law.
Did a PR agency stint. 

Weddings are hard work.

During this time, I became single. Became more melodramatic than usual. Kept a contemplative philosophical blog for some time.  

Then, I went off to live in Bogota, Colombia for ten months, learning Spanish, teaching Chinese and English, figuring out life....

2500 meters closer to the stars...but I was mainly in it for the clouds.

I traveled around the country and to its neighbors - Peru, Bolivia up to Mexico. 

A boat tequila and dining experience in Xochimilco

I did Machu Picchu and the Inca Valley, the Amazon, the Caribbean, Teotihuacan.

Trekking more than I would normally choose to....

I had the time of my life - but looking back, my eating habits really went down the toilet. 

Crappy choice of food while traveling – rice, beans, patacon and a nasty salad were the baseline- made me, on more occasions that I would like to admit, accept carbs.

Traveling in male-dominant groups opened up my tolerance for all kinds of crappy food – cheese melted over fried potato sticks,  cheese melted over arepas…and other things I shudder to think back about now. (*shudders)

I still cannot believe I ate these

I drank more than I ate -- Chapinero Porter from the Bogota Beer Company, aguardiente from the streets, guaya from that one bar where there’s always someone passed out at the table, tequila, mescal and wine that came out of juice boxes. 

I learned that one can drink virtually anything out of a juice box.

There is no party like a Colombian party.

Food-wise, I was in fruit heaven but vegetable hell.

Their selection of fruit – my favorite being granadillas, lulo – were incredible enough to impress a girl from the tropics.

I learned that the more mucus-like the fruit looked, the more awesome it was gonna taste.

Vegetable-wise…well, they had good avocados, I’ll give them that.

Weekend brunches at a popular restaurant chain called Crepes and Waffles with a Belgian girl housing an insatiable sweet tooth and brownie cravings finally brought me to reconciliation with my long hated enemy – Chocolate.

These new sugar cravings will be the death of me....

Needless to say….despite the late night salsa and merengue dancing-weight gain was inevitable.

Eventually it dawned on me that as quickly as my conversational Spanish progressed, I was a long way off from reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish or from working a “Real Job” as they say.

I was quite fortunate to be offered a consulting job back in Beijing without really looking.

And back I flew.

Back to KL.

Back to Beijing.

Back to where I started.

And then Life began a new chapter.