If you know anything about Irvine, California, you should probably know how it has a bit of a reputation for being boring. It’s got the lowest crime rate in the country for maybe four or five years now, and that number doesn’t seem to be changing. Will Ferrell, who was raised here, said he had to act like the crazy funnyman he is now to counter Irvine’s monotony. They even call this city the Bubble – because we’re stuck in our own little, unexciting world.
That’s why my friend and I are going out to find our own little slice of adventure. Because if you can’t beat them, join ‘em. My name is Vincent Tzeng and I am a freshman majoring in whatever I hate least at UC Berkeley. My friend, Jaehak Yu, is also a freshman there, majoring in Business and to-be-determined. We both went to high school in Irvine, and now we’re planning on going on the Mongol Rally, the latest and greatest in fun-for-the-heart and good-for-the-soul escapades.
We’ll be driving 10,000 miles from London, England to Ulan Bator, Mongolia in a car that is hilariously unfit for the journey. Imagine a Suzuki Swift, Nissan Micra, or Fiat 500. And the best part? We’re doing this all for charity. Our charity is the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and we hope to raise $10,000 exclusively for them. In addition, our gear, like the car and camping equipment, will be donated to charitable causes in Mongolia once we’re done.
How does this relate to ZenKimchi? You didn’t think we’d be going the entire way on canned sardines, did you? Even though this site is dedicated to Korean food, we’re opening our palates to every culture’s food and we’ll be sharing it with you. As we pass through fifteen different countries, we’ll be trying only the best they have to offer – their cultural food icons.
For example, there’s no way I’m leaving without trying real fish and chips. I might, however, be okay without trying the eel pie. In France, I’ll try my fair share of baguettes and escargot, all while figuring out the deal behind actual French fries. You get the idea.
All the while, we hope to spread the joys of our culture’s foods to people there. I’ll cover the Chinese food. Jaehak will see to it that the Koreans are represented. And if they don’t hate Americans like everyone tells me they do, I’ll even show them some awesome American eats.
Whatever the case, I hope you’ll help us reach these people and our goals. The best way to do that is to visit our Charity page, where you can donate to the Children’s Hospital and help those in need. For those that want to help us cover the necessary equipment and travel expenses, you can visit our Sponsor Us page. If you can’t do either, just show your support by visiting our Facebook page and giving us a like – it means just as much to us.
Thank you for your time and we hope you join us in this adventure.