Everywhere we have been, food has fallen at our feet. SE Asia is largely verdant & fecund, with some areas of central Myanmar & Vietnam experiencing unseasonal drought. Fruit & vegetables are literally dripping from the trees. We have eaten mangoes that have dropped at our feet in all of our destinations. We observed a multitude of plants & trees bearing fruit especially in Laos & in particular in the jungle hotel & when touring the minority villages. The fruit & vegetables are obviously seasonal but there seems to be a lot of food growing all the time.
We have seen:
- small green bananas growing on banana trees
- larger yellow bananas growing on palm trees
- coconuts on plam trees
- eggplant trees
- beautifully-shaped & dippled custard apples
- grapes on vines
- rice grown everywhere - in small plots, over massive fields, grown vertically high in the mountains
- corn grown on flat & vertical fields
- papaya
- white & red-fruited dragon fruit grown in trees
- pineapples in trees & in ground-based shrubs
- all kinds of nuts grown in palm trees
- guavas on trees
Top 5
1. We have a new appreciation for food & its origins, we are living much closer to the source of our meals
2. Eating local is de rigeur. We haven't seen any refrigerated vans on the road but I am sure that there are some but we have seen lots of local & roadside food stalls selling food grown in that particular area
3. Sustainability seems to be part of the overall process when growing in a controlled way, however much of the growth when in the jungle seems to be haphazard with items growing with little intervention so we are unclear as to whether proactive sustainability practices are in place
4. There seems to be food sources available for people to eat, we hope that this helps with managing hunger in this part of the world
5. We feel blessed to be able to enjoy the richness offered by this region
No comments:
Post a Comment