Some of you will know that Paul has a sweet tooth and can’t be trusted if there is chocolate or most other yummy treats near by. Gayle’s weakness is salt - especially the salt found on chips and crackers!
This journey has revealed that our sweet and salty desires are not always met by our host’s food options. Fortunately, the majority of our wwoofing hosts made sure we had enough sugar and salt - and Paul expanded his food choices to include a raisin or two! We also repaired some bikes so we could ride to town and conveniently found a dairy!
During our van-life time in the South Island, we had been eating quite healthily (ask us about the giant $1 zucchini!) until the 6th day when we discovered a 2 ltr ice cream “on-sale” and managed to consume that in 2 days! It wasn’t long after that before we developed at taste for New Zealand meat pies! These are amazing!
Our home-stays in Nepal were a totally different story. There, it seems, we were constantly searching out new treats - especially after our stash of TimTams from New Zealand were exhausted. On a walk we found some local peanut “cookies” and bought enough for everyone. They were neither sweet nor salty enough! During our first weekend in Nepal, w purchased some fresh baking on the bus and we returned with bananas to share and we soon realized that we didn’t have anywhere near enough!
Subsequent trips to town or the local store included small purchases of baked goods, donuts, chocolates, cookies (even Oreos!), more bananas, apples, crackers, chips, and coconut cookies that were a favourite for Gayle. We even found ice cream cones being sold by a bike vendor - although we are unsure of how much cream was actually in the cones!
We also developed a taste for Sal Roti - a yummy deep fried rice “donut” that is sold everywhere. None were better than the one’s Maya made at home, though!
Upon our return to Kathmandu, being both frugal and thirsty for sweets, we went to a bakery at exactly 8pm because that’s when the 50% discount prices started! (We needed something for breakfast!)
So far in Thailand, we’ve eaten a tube of cookies, lots of fruit, some fluffy desserts and of course - a bag of chips. Of course, we went for a walk, and had to contribute to the local economy by getting ice cream!
