"Vegetable Soup" (Joanie)

Some people would say that Micah and I aren't the easiest people on the planet to feed. We keep kosher and on top of that I'm a health fanatic vegetarian. When you have a language barrier to maneuver, getting vegetables alone is quite a challenge. Every time we walk into a restaurant we pull out the guide book and point to the phrase that says, "I'm a Buddhist/vegetarian." Yesterday morning's breakfast seemed promising. We started off with Mmmmm'ing and Yummy'ing as we happily downed our vegetable dumplings with kimchi and slurped our vegetable soup. It was the most satisfying warm meal we had enjoyed since leaving NYC...that is, until Micah discovered the soup was swimming with tiny, baby shrimp! Our slurp spoons were promptly dropped and we resorted to supplementing the rest of breakfast with fried dough from the street.

We also discovered that opting for a vegetarian or kosher meal on the plane will get you served before everyone else. Although, you'll notice that the kosher meals are much more filling than the vegetarian options. Apparently vegetarians don't need as much to eat as everyone else?

We are staying at the King Joy's Hostel just south of Tienanmen Square in Beijing for the next week. It took us a few days to recover from jet lag and switching our days and nights as there's a 12 hr time difference. Yesterday we explored the Forbidden City. We forgot to pack snacks and my hangry monster erupted around 5pm after a day of exploring. Poor Micah. We got through it though.

Food lessons learned so far: 1- Specify no fish or shellfish along with "I'm Buddhist/vegetarian". 2-Pack more snacks for Joanie. I'm sure there will be more to come.

We stocked up on snacks at the market last night. Let's see what today's adventure brings!