Food is cheap. I mean, when you think about it, restaurants in the U.S. are so expensive because of the additional costs (overhead) added on to the cost of the food: salaries, benefits and unemployment taxes, decorations, property taxes, utilities, lease payments, and on and on. No wonder there is such flux in the restaurant market.

Here in Asia it is quite different. Most major cities have huge "Food Centers" that are lined with food stalls. Typically your chef is also your waiter and the owner. There's no need for staff here. The food is cooked to your specification and at a price you are willing to pay. Outside on the streets, workers have converted their motorbikes into moving restaurants with grills and burners. The food of the day is being cooked for all to see.

Just yesterday in Bangkok, for instance, Abram and I were feeling the urge to eat so we fought through the crowds on the street to one such stall. It looked like chicken (identifiable by the legs sticking out of the stew) and it was only 35 baht per plate according to the vendor's broken English. (That's about 90 cents.) There was the semi-discomfort of eating food of unknown origin, but that soon passed once we put it in our mouths. Delicious!! Deep-boiled chicken marinated in a sweet brown sauce laid delicately on a bed of rice. The food exploded with taste.

We came to Asia prepared with boxes of Immodium and laxitive -- but for what? It seems to be pretty safe. We've eaten this way for the whole week and have not suffered any ill effects to speak of. The only thing making us feel poorly is the heavy smog and blistering humidity -- a deadly combination. Given the food, it has been worth the price of admission.