Philly Phoods

A Phake Philly Cheesteak (suitable for vegetarians, this is made with soy chicken and the closest I got to the real thing)

Philadelphians are intensely proud of their native foods, and there are two snacks in particular that are their absolute pride and joy. The first is the Philly Cheesesteak, which is a portion of a shredded up cow grilled and dumped on a bun along with some onions and a good dollop of Cheez Whiz. It’s the kind of thing best enjoyed at around 2:30 in the morning after all the bars in Pennsylvania close (for some strange reason, all the bars in Pennsylvania close at 2).

The second thing they love in Philadelphia is the bizarrely named ‘Water Ice’ Water ice is not really water; it’s not quite ice. It’s something in-between (but it’s not gelato or sorbet or a slurpee). Whatever it is, it’s loaded up with noxious levels of colours and flavours and served with a spoon and is fantastic in the sun.

A face-sized breakfast burrito for brunch at Sabrina's (a favourite of Philadelphia). It came with a side of half a dozen chopped and fried potatoes.

Angie destroys a Phillies hotdog

Philllies ice-cream, which is cream and chocolate suspended in a bath of cool sugar.

Mancora- Part 3

After the Colca Canyon adventure, we decided to burn up to Colombia as fast as we could. One pitstop had to be made to celebrate Angie's birthday. We spent a couple of relaxing days in Mancora, on the North Coast, our third time in the dusty little strip with perfect weather.

Mancora transport

While we were waiting for our bus to pull up (it never actually did), this truck pulled up and demonstrated another good reason to be a vegetarian in these parts. The sun was beating down at 8 in the morning, and this guy was selling chickens from crates in the back of his ute. They actually looked just like those bright yellow rubber chickens they sell in joke shops, but apparently these ones were going to be cooked and served to restaurant goers.

Puerto Lopez- Chicken is a Vegetable

Jean Claude welcomes you to the Puerto Lopez video library

Another little blip set inside a broad bay on the coast of Ecuador, Puerto Lopez is a fishing village that also deals in whale-watching and selling juice against along the dilapidated beachfront boardwalk. We avoided seeing the whales, and spent a couple of days lounging around this chilled out, homely cousin of Monañita's. Being less of a tourist resort town, the place had fewer in-your-face money grabbing opportunists, but also less in the way of food and lodging. We went to a restaurant that advertised a variety of vegetarian dishes on its sign, but when we began to order, the waiter quickly interrupted me to say that none of the vegetarian dishes, or dishes containing vegetables, were actually served here. We told him that we didn´t eat meat, and without skipping a beat, he triumphantly exclaimed 'chicken!'. Angie went flexitarian and ate some fish, while I contented myself with chips and more beer than usual.

The next night was more of a success, we found a place that served wonderful vegie stir-fries with real Chinese flavour, and it even came with chopsticks- a first on this continent. Also interesting were some lax hygiene standards in place at the local bakery. While the bread sat safely in the open air, the glass cabinet housing the sweeter treats also housed a colony of bees and wasps, living it up amongst the oodles of sugar people here love. It didn't faze anyone, not the woman who thrust her hands inside the buzzing throng to retrieve the goodies, nor the customers who enthusiastically wolfed down the sweetsweet merchandise.

This is how the fishermen teach the dogs to swim

Dining Vegetarian in Cafayate

One bitter evening, Angie and I decided to brave the local restaurant circuit to see what we could consume that wasn't pizza and didn't have a previous life as a creature. The restauranteurs sit outside their establishments spruiking for business, spouting profusely about the quality of the local specialty (baby goat) and giving each other sly, 'haha' glances when they score a gringo or two. One such character barely skipped a beat when we told him 'no podemos comer carne', so we decided to let ourselves be led inside.

I took the safest path on the menu, vegetable pasta. Angie was reckless, and took the eggplant milenesa (like a schnitzel) road, but backed up that with another 'I don't eat meat' affirmation. Just to be sure she added a vehement 'sin jamon' (without ham). (Ham isn't really considered meat here, more of a condiment, like tomato sauce. It materialises in the most unlikely places). The confused look on the now double-warned waiter should have been all the warning we needed to cut our losses and get out of there. But for some reason, we stayed, even after our waiter returned, once again to really make sure Angie didn't want anything slain on her plate.

The food arrived. The pasta was fine. The 'eggplant' was a pounded slab of veal around 60cm square. Angie ate a couple of pieces just to be sure, called over the waiter an he informed us that they didn't have eggplant milenesas. Chips and salad provided yet another 'meal'.

As a nice coda to that unpleasantness, Angie spent the next day in bed with a suspected case of bad-veal-induced-food-poisoning.

Montevideo-...

Montevideo is an uninspiring city with a fun-to-pronounce name. The greyness of the city is complemented by the browness of the water lapping up against its walls. Accommodation was less than stellar. Infuriated by tepid showers, we left hostel number one and went to hostel number two where it was too cold to even consider getting undressed to bathe.

Shouldn't put big ugly buildings up behind national monuments

We sampled the local vegetarian cuisine, which proved hilarious, dangerous or just plain inedible depending on your opinion as to whether food served from a lukewarm bain-marie which is then microwaved (by the waitress) to a temperature approaching warm is suitable for lunch. Pigskin lampshades in a vegetarian restaurant were a curious choice of decor.

At a Chinese eatery I ordered a large plate of Mao Po tofu, which, although tasty seemed to have some sort of ...urgh... brains.... as an ingredient.


After getting used to the idea of microwaving our own food, we enjoyed a tasty all-you-can-eat buffet at one outlet of a chain(!) of vegetarian restaurants. Four to eight hours later, neither of us suffered any side effects and the meal was declared a success.

Montevideo sits beside a river of chocolate milk.

Onwards.

Puerto Varas

Puerto Varas is a cute little town in Chile. It has a volcano and German houses. Chameleon-haired Angie made her final transformation and is now dark and mysterious. Plus we adopted a travelling buddy. More soon. The End.

Another day, another volcano.

Optimistic graffiti.

Puerto Mont

Vegetarian Option in a local seafood restaurant.