Bio:

Kim is a health care professional working in pediatric brain cancer research at a local non-profit. She is political junkie, history geek, earth tiller, and an amazing wife and travel partner. She loves to run…even when Brian isn’t chasing her. Kim is a wine lover and foodie looking forward to trying tasty and interesting eats in new places around the world. She is also crazy about the cutest dog ever.

Kim caught the travel bug early when at the age of 12 her parents took her to New York, Washington D.C. and Boston on a great east coast adventure. Additionally inspired by her parent's great travel stories of Europe and China, she went on to study world history at the University of Washington. She's had the good fortune of experiencing cultures the world over, from Tibet to Cuba to France, and hopes to never quit!

Growing up with a horse-training mother, at a young age Kim had already initiated her own adventures by going on "quests" with her paint pony, Kaia, galloping bareback through the wooded trails by her childhood home. By age 13, although having graduated to dressage competitions, she could still be found in the pasture basking in the sun with her grazing thoroughbred/arabian mare, Elation (whom she misses dearly to this day). She's a lover of ponies, be they Mongolian, Icelandic or Norwegian.

Read Kim's Posts:

Baatar Hero’s Latest Sponsor – Sisalwood!

The team is very excited to have Sisalwood on board as our newest sponsor!

Sisalwood is a decorative panel composed of natural fiber composite veneer that is adhered to an environmentally certified plywood panel.  The veneer is made from rapidly renewable plan fibers such as banana bark, sisal, and grasses, and a polymer that emits no formaldehyde or VOC’s.  Sisalwood is used in interior design and furniture applications as a replacement for tropical hardwood-veneered panels. 

While helping to preserve tropical forests, Sisalwood simultaneously provides quality employment to significant numbers of people in developing countries.

Baatar Hero is honored to be sponsored by such and environmentally and socially conscious company.  Please think of them for your next remodeling project!  Visit the Sisalwood webiste here.

Another TV Interview!

Baatar Hero is very excited to be featured on King5’s new morning program “New Day Northwest” this Wednesday, along with our sister Seattle team Just A Steppe Away.  This time around, Jean Kim will represent BH on stage and will be interviewed by esteemed former Dateline NBC anchor and Mercy Corps executive Margaret Larson.

BH and JASA will be seated in the studio audience along with current Mercy Corps director of communications, Joy Portella.  Twenty-five very lucky middle school students of Amy’s will also be showing their support by being in the studio audience – the next generation of adventure-seeking charity rally participants perhaps?

Tune in to see the interview on King5, Wednesday, 5/26, at 11am!

Some “Bizarre Food” in Mongolia

“It’s a far away land of meat, meat, and more meat!”  That’s  how the host of The Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods” started out this week’s episode about Mongolia.  I admit, I was both excited and a little apprehensive about watching.  I’ve watched Mr. Zimmern eat bugs, intestines, stinky tofu, worms, and more bugs the world over.   And since I know that the Mongolian diet is all about meat and serious resourcefulness, I settled in for an hour of blood and guts…my soon-to-be diet.

The show started out in Ulaanbaatar and the gigantic “Black Market.”  On a busy day 60-100 thousand people shop there for anything from clothing to food.  The animals are slaughtered just on the edge of the city and trucked in to the market where people buy the whole carcass and carry it home over their shoulder.  Sheep’s head is quite a treat, just like a turkey dinner is to Americans, and you’ll conveniently find a whole pile to choose from in the back of the market.  Not so easy to find are vegetables and if you do find them they are smartly pickled for long storage.  In fact, a few pieces of pickles veggies will cost you about $0.40 which is about the cost of an entire sheep’s head!  As this meal is reserved for special occasions and guests, here are a few tips for all my fellow Mongol Rally adventurers if you’re so lucky to be invited to partake in a sheep’s head dinner:

(1) After the hair is burned off, the head will be boiled for a few hours in a pot of root vegetables, which will probably be the only vegetables you’ll see the entire time you’re in Mongolia.

(2) The group elder will divvy up all the goods.

(3) Don’t be a pansy and ask for utensils.  Just dig in with your hands.  The only way to really get all the good bits is by gouging away at the crevices with your fingers.

(4) If offered the eyes, you must eat them both.  You can’t share, it’s really not proper.

(5)  Sorry boys, the palate is always given to girls.  Apparently you’ll really miss out, but you can have some of the tongue.

Mr. Zimmern then took to the Gobi – in a rather comfy looking Toyota Land Cruiser (what the…?) – to experience real country fare.  Upon arriving at a gracious family’s ger he was offered the traditional fermented mare’s milk.  Who needs refrigeration when you have fermentation?  According to Mr. Zimmern, who quite liked this drink,  it tastes like thin sour cream mixed with lemon juice; good to know.  This was followed by snacks made of cheese in just about every form imaginable.  They even had crunchy cheese curds fried in their own fat.  This particular munchie was something soldiers thew in their packs before heading off on a campaign, and it’s still carried by today’s herders for a long day on the steppe.

But even more ingenious was the lunchtime meal preparation.  Okay, this was a little gory, but I found myself marveling at this perfect example of how resourceful the Mongolian people are.  A goat was slaughtered and cleaned out reserving the body cavity.   All the innards were rolled in the goat’s fat and then wrapped and tied with intestine.  The hot stones were placed alternatively with the little packages of goodness inside the body cavity to cook, like an oven.  After the final touch of burning the hair off, the whole goat was opened up and devoured.  Everyone in that ger, including Mr. Zimmern, happily feasted with nothing going to waste.

Of course this isn’t an everyday Mongolian meal.  A family might go 1-2 years before preparing and eating an entire goat in one sitting like this.  But again it is this resourcefulness, even during an apparent day of gluttony, that is so intriguing.  And for a few minutes I traded my Western tendency to be squeamish for the great respect the Mongolians pay to the land, their animals, and to each other.  Their tradition of not having stakes for their gers or heels on their boots so that they don’t pierce the land is both a wise philosophy and a beautiful metaphor.  In a few months I’ll excitedly be packing my bag.  And although I’ll be sure to bring along wet wipes and Lactaid, I will leave my heeled shoes at home.

Click here to watch a few clips of the show.