WARNING: Image-heavy and will want you to cheat on your strict diet like right now.

First of all, Happy New Year y’all! I hope everything is going awesome with you guys, because as for me, five days in 2012 and it’s not looking so peachy–but that’s okay, because I’m starting Cole Walks 2012 with FOOD! I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love food?

So y’all pretty aware that I am a pescatarian by choice. A pescatarian’s diet, as for me, is only composed of fish, seafood, dairy products and veggies. I am not influenced by religion, health problems, and/or social class, I just want to control my food intake. More importantly, staying away from meat and stuff makes me–based from my friends’ observation–calmer. [That makes sense? We kind of have to talk personally if you are curious about the whole idea of my dietary choice, which is not really something of high significance that could help you get through life, so please disregard this note hah!]

However, when I moved to Singapore some four months ago, I had to do a drastic change–just like what I did when I marked Pescatarian Day 1 in June 2010. My brother needs meat, and I mean, real meat. He doesn’t like fish, and he can’t even stand chicken wings and thighs [cos I only allow myself to eat chicken once in a while, it’s my kryptonite]. As an obedient person that I am, or cos you know, he adopted me in a pretty awesome condominium above the mall, I had to follow the rules of the household. I did argue my way out of it because I did not want to break my diet. I was at the point where the sight of pork gave me a mini heart attack–I felt the fat crawling in my veins and I wanted to gag, I swear. Just thinking about all the roasted beef I refused to eat in Laos, yeah, all that would not be worth it if I go back to being a full-blooded carnivore! But I am in no position to be picky…plus I really really missed chicken.

Like transitioning to pescatarian diet, going back to meat made me a little queasy at first. I just needed a little getting-used-to, and some serious feasting. I have decided that I must try the country’s cuisine first, and then wait for my stomach to hurl from gluttony before switching back. Well, that didn’t exactly happen yet, because I am still the biggest fan of chicken-rice here, like I can make a Chicken-Rice page on Facebook and be done with it, seriously. But I think my body isn’t responding to my meat-eating days as well as I wanted it to. I got acne, hormonal imbalance which makes me pretty emotional than usual, and some other irregularities I didn’t encounter during my pesco-days. These conditions may or may not be caused by such, but I am taking a chance.

That much blab just to pay tribute to Food Tripping in the Melting Pot of Asian Cultures…Here you go.