0 to full in 2 minutes or less

The hardest adjustment for me, other than sleep, has been food. I’ve had stomach problems for a decade, which is a significant portion of my life. I’ve been through all different types of pills/meds and one slightly scary procedure. By this point in my life, I’d resolved to live in some amount of pain.

Asia was my cure.

I’m not really sure how or why this worked, but the food in Asia just agreed with me. I think it has to do with the crazy amount of veggies, but I’m no foodie, nor stomach-doc, so I really don’t know.

What I do know, is that for the first time in my adult life I was eating pineapples, drinking orange juice, and loading on the chili sauce like it was my job. Maybe I’m allergic to cheese?? Nah, can’t be.

There were times in Beijing when Kel and I would get tired of cooking, and seek out some western food. I felt really guilty when I’d eat what seemed like a long string of western food. Now that I think about it, I always ate Chinese food for lunch, so I never went more than two days eating entirely western food.

Being home, looking at my stretch of endless meals of hot dogs, lasagna, and meatball subs (all which I find incredibly delicious) my stomach turns in knots. In a typical Chinese meal it is common to have dishes that aren’t all food. Dishes are served with peppercorns, dried chilies, basil leaves, not to mention shells and bones. The meal takes long because you have to pick through it, in addition to balance it in your chopsticks, making smaller bites the norm.

Yesterday I walked down to the “slip” a friendly little shack down on the Mattapoisett Wharf. I got the cheese dog that I’d been craving for eleven and a half months. Two seconds later, bewildered, I was sitting on the rocks by the water with just an empty cardboard sleeve. I was hungry, and now I’m already full? That was a meal? It didn’t seem possible, but my stomach was so full of cheese, bread, and meat that I knew I couldn’t extend this “meal” if I tried.

Biggest Chinese Food Craving: Sichuan Green Beans, which are little spicy treasures buried under peppercorns, chilies, garlic gloves, ginger, and I’m sure many other treasures I was never able to identify.