If you like eating and traveling, then Alice Shin is living your dream. The 27-year-old copywriter and expert Yelper from South Beach beat out 500 applicants to win an 18-day tour through Asia with chefs from the restaurant Pei Wei.
She also won $10,000.
"Everyone was screaming," Shin said as she recalled the moment at work when she got the surprise phone-call. "It was really one of the greatest moments ever."
Shin's trip is taking her through China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand. Her goal is to document all the juicy details as the Pei Wei Chefs search for inspirations for new dishes.
"Some of the stuff that we're going to be doing on the trip will be kind of outrageous," Shin said. "We're going to be trying things like bug skewers."
I don't think bug skewers are making the Pei Wei menu anytime soon. But Shin said she's up for anything. And she wasn't kidding. During her stay in Korea, she bravely ate live octopus.
"It was weird because when you ate it, you could still feel the little tentacles sticking to the inside of your mouth," Shin said.
Local
Unfortunately, you can't join Shin in Asia, but she's sharing all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes every single day on her blog, at www.peiweiblog.com.
Also, read a post Shin wrote especially for NBCMiami.
Follow Adam Kuperstein on Twitter at @akuperstein.
