After a few months in Asia we were both really craving a good, fresh salad. And along came Laos. Simple. Natural. Fresh. Laap (or laab), was a nightly ritual for us. Perhaps the most famous Laotian dish, laap is made from chopped or thinly sliced meat or fish that is mixed with lime juice, fish sauce, mint, coriander, spring onion, chili and uncooked rice grains that have been dry fried and crushed. It is usually accompanied by vegetables including eggplant, fresh chilies, mustard leaves and lettuce. It can be eaten with ordinary rice or sticky rice and is usually eaten with fish/meat soup depending on the main ingredient being used.

We enjoyed eating this and all the other Lao food so much we decided to take a cooking course. And I can assure you, it’s as good as it is easy to make.

Reason enough to visit Beijing (nee Peking) this traditional meal blew us away. Available at more places than you can shake a chopstick at, our host ensured that we would try this traditional Beijing dish at only the finest establishment.

Up on a terrace overlooking one of Beijing’s leafy parks (yes, they exist), bow-tied waiters brought out all the elements of the quintessential Peking duck feast. First, there is the duck – deboned and carved in a very specific manner. The meat is crispy on the outside but absolutely succulent on the inside with just the right amount of fat to flavor and crunch to please. Next are the accompaniments: doughy crepe, plum sauce, spring onion and thinly-sliced celery. They arrive to the table separately; it’s up to you to put the final product together. And it goes like this.

Take a crepe and place a few pieces of the duck inside. Add a few slices of the cucumber and spring onion. Finally, spoon a dollop of plum sauce on top. Wrap it up like a mini burrito (or mu shu pork) and enjoy! Oh man, enjoy. Just writing this now is killing me…quack quack.

Not much to this one, folks. Another tasteless beer without competition, but I’m not sure what else one can expect in a place where dispensable income is very rare. The only redeeming quality would have to be the label. If you can’t make (or afford) the trek up to the world’s rooftop, then at least you can drink a beer named after it while taking in the ridiculous view of the 30,000 ft. tall mountain.

When it comes to food and drink I don’t bring out the “Oh, dear baby Jesus” comment unless something really, really, really merits the swearing of the Lord. Well, India’s lassis are worthy.

My Indian friends, when giving recommendations, all made a point of telling me that I couldn’t visit India without enjoying one of these bad boys. So I did – about fifty of them.

To start, what is a lassi? A lassi is a yogurt-based drink common to the Indian subcontinent and parts of the Middle East, traditionally served salty or sweet. Never got around to trying the salty lassi, mostly because of the discovery of a sweeter kind, the mango lassi. Mangos lassis are only served when mangos are in season so when the season began, about a month into our time there, I simply doubled down every day to make up for lost time. Mango lassis are creamy, cold, smooth, sweet, and delicious and the perfect antidote to India’s heat.

I tried many great lassis but none better than the makhani or saffron lassi at Shri Mishrilal in the blue city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Our guidebook had claimed that it might have the best makhani lassi in all of India and we wanted to put it to the test.

This place was indeed an institution. They served one thing and one thing only – saffron lassis. Your only decision was ice or no ice. We chose to forgo the ice as Indian water is the quickest way to trouble. You simply ordered and the waiter brought you over the extra-thick and creamy lassi with a a much-needed spoon and glass of water. Bliss in a glass, people, bliss in a glass.

The of course there is the ever-popular bang lassi. Alcohol is frowned upon by many Indians, but marijuana or hashish in your drink – well, that’s a different thing. You see, the Hindu god Shiva loved a good smoke as the next guy. As a result, the holy men that follow in Shiva’s footsteps often smoke in his honor. That same transitive experience from smoking weed has spread to India’s favorite drink – the lassi.

The result is the soporific bang lassi, essentially a lassi laced with weed. I never actually got around to trying this “special” lassi (as it is referred to when ordering at restaurants) found in many parts of Rajasthan, but I’m told that its effects are indeed very real and quite transformational. I’m very sure Shiva would be delighted that Western tourists are doing their best to follow his ways.

Vapid, tasteless, uninspiring, Kingfisher beer is all of the above. But even its watered-down taste can’t take away from how good it feels to cool off from the omnipresent and oppressive heat in India with a surreptitious swig of this icy beer.

Because many Hindus and Buddhists abstain from drinking alcohol, beer is often hard to find in India (or very expensive). In some states, there are laws forbidding the sale of alcohol. This does not, however, deter Indians’ capitalist interests. You simply have to ask for an “iced coffee.” In the beach area of Varkala in the south our Kingfisher arrived in a tea pot and in Udaipur we had to hide the bottle under the table to avert the eyes of suspecting authorities.

The old adage “you want what you can’t have” seems to be true. Somehow, drinking a tasteless beer just tastes better when you know you shouldn’t be having it. Nothing like an Indian speakeasy to bring out the flavor in an icy Kingfisher.

Much like Guinness this Tibetan specialty is a meal in a glass, and a very buttery one, I might add. Thick as oil, yak butter tea is made using tea leaves, water and butter from Tibet’s beast of burden, the yak.

Consuming butter tea is an integral part of life for Tibetans. To kick off each day, Tibetans typically drink several of these beverages out of tiny little bowls. Nomads, who live in the mountains and along the Tibetan plateau, are said to drink up to 40 cups of it a day. In a Tibetan home it is customary for the hosts to continue refilling the bowl to the brim after a few sips are taken. The guest is never supposed to drain his or her bowl, rather, have it constantly topped up.

Butter tea is made by boiling black tea leaves for a half a day. The tea is then combined with salt and butter in a special tea churn and churned for several hours before serving hot.

For Tibetans who are constantly in battle with nature and all of its colder elements, butter tea provides great sustenance. In a place where very little can actually grow, fatty butter tea is also a great way to escape cold and hunger, and as an added bonus, it’s said to keep those lips less chapped.

We soon learned yak butter tea may not be the best fit for a foreign palate. More rancid than savory, this frothy, oily brew is definitely an acquired taste.

Noodles are an integral part of Chinese culture. You can order them thick or thin, made from rice or wheat, piled high or swimming in a stew. One thing is for sure, you’ll never go wanting for noodles in China.

Our favorite noodle experience, other than our noodle ninja at the hot pot restaurant, was in the Muslim Quarter in Xi’an. Like tacquerias in Mexico (or any part of southern California), these dive-looking noodle shops are less about ambience and all about the food. Tucked in hutongs, or tight alleyways, are squat tables surrounded by cheap, plastic chairs where locals gather to drink beer and slurp noodles – our kind of spot. These eateries have baskets full of stick-pierced vegetables to choose from. After selecting your vegetables, you drop them off at the counter whereupon the white-capped Muslim “noodler” goes to work. Whipping up fresh noodles right in front of you to go with your veggies, out comes an Asian spaghetti that would make Italians proud.

Beijing is full of upscale noodle shops, too. At the eponymously named Noodle Bar, we (I should say “I”) delighted in having home-made noodles with the innards of cows – tripe, intestines and a whole lot more, a Chinese delicacy and experience to be sought out.

Steamed buns….Sounds hot, right? They are. Not to be confused with Jane Fonda’s derriere in those 80’s workout videos, these steamed buns are a traditional Chinese snack. Served in nearly every restaurant, rest stop and on almost every street corner, steamed buns are filled with either minced meat, traditionally pork, or a sweeter almond paste filling.

Because the Chinese language was a mystery to us, steamed buns were like a box of chocolates; we never knew what we were going to get. Good news was we couldn’t be disappointed, just pleasantly surprised, as they were always delicious.

Trying to master the hot pot with fellow American traveling friends in Xi'an

China’s version of fondue, hot pot experiences are meant to be shared with a good group of friends. It works like this; in the middle of the table is a hole where a “hot pot” of boiling water and oil sits.

Patrons choose from a variety of meats, vegetables and fish to put into the pot. Additionally, you can add in different spices including red chili peppers, basil and my personal favorite, the mouth-numbing Szechuan peppercorn, sending your taste buds into such confusion you’ll think it was a dose of Novocain. Hot potters throw the contents into the boiling oil mixture and after a few minutes and sips of Tsingtao beer it’s time to put your fishing skills and chopsticks to work. Fight your neighbor off and fish out what you’re after before the final step – dunking all that goodness in the spicy peanut sauce. Our Sino-based friend, Rory, said it best, “this sauce is so good, you could dunk a pair of shoelaces in it and it would taste good.”

Sharing a hot pot with friends in Beijing

If you are really lucky or in the know, your hot pot restaurant will come with its very own “noodle ninja.” This samurai noodle-maker will take a ball of dough and knead and stretch the dough into sinewy-thin noodles. Like a raver at an Ibiza nightclub, the noodleman will chuck his edible glowsticks into the boiling pot for you to enjoy with the rest of your meal (check out the video here if you need a visual explanation).