The 3-month, halfway-around-the-world trip that myself and Peter made in the latter half of 2009 has so far been one of the most memorable events of my life. A 30+ hour flight to New Zealand, backpacking, driving a camper van through vast empty stretches of the countryside without another vehicle in sight, spending a special day on an almost empty beach resort on an almost remote island in Malaysia, riding a roller coaster built within a shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur – these are just a few of the exhilarating experiences we had during our trip.
Of course, food formed a very important part of the journey and experience as well. From great quality organic food in New Zealand (we tasted, by far, the best meat we’ve ever had in NZ) to the exotic fusion cuisine that’s the hallmark of Malaysian food, I only have mouth watering memories of food in the countries we visited.
One such food item I tried and fell immediately in love with are anzac biscuits. I later learned that these chewy, coconutty biscuits are a mainstay of Australia and NZ. The story goes that these biscuits were made by soldiers’ wives to be sent to their loved ones since they keep for long and don’t go bad so easily.