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I like traveling, and I like eating. (Um, really? I hardly ever talk about food…) One of my favorite things when I visit a new country is going to grocery stores and markets, and trying new foods. I figure if other people are eating it and not keeling over, it’s probably edible. And if it’s really nasty, I can always spit it out. I’ve only done that once in recent memory, but there are a few things of which I did not take a second bite.
My recent trip to Thailand and Singapore brought me a few new culinary experiences. Here are some of them:
Funny Fruit: in Thailand I had the chance to eat some tasty and super fresh fruit that is not common in the US. One morning at breakfast I was brought a plate of small fruits still on the branch. They were about the size and shape of a strawberry but with a hard, scaly skin. Not sure how to eat it, I started by peeling the skin off to find a very tasty sweet, succulent fruit inside. Turned out to be a lychee - or linchi as it is called in Thailand – something
I had never had fresh. Another morning I had fresh rambutan, another sweet treat.
Got Milk? In many countries the ingredients list on packaged items is printed in more than one language, but not in Thailand. Even if the item was imported, a Thai ingredients list would be slapped on over the original. Since written Thai makes as much sense to me as Klingon, that didn’t help me much. I wanted some milk for my morning muesli, figuring that shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Like many countries, especially those with iffy refrigeration, shelf-stable UHT milk in boxes is common in Thailand. I was pretty sure the box with the cow on the label was cow’s milk, but I wasn’t convinced the box labeled “Mew” was something I wanted to drink.
Durian: In a word – don’t. Durian is a big spiky tropical fruit with a very distinctive smell. You can be fined $500 for bringing durian on the subway or bus in Singapore, and most hotels in durian producing countries forbid it in their rooms. I’ve tried durian twice now in pastry form, and didn’t finish either one. The worst part is that your burps for the
next four hours will taste like durian. I had to eat chocolate and drink beer just to get the taste out of my mouth. (And that was my
only reason for eating chocolate and drinking beer…really.)
Pastries: Other than durian, I don’t think I’ve ever met a pastry I didn’t like. On this trip I encountered green pandan cake, flavored with pandan juice, good wife cake, filled with wintermelon and coconut, and good husband cake, with a filling of sesame and red bean paste. All were very good and made for a nice morning snack with coffee, but my favorite was the Buddha’s Hand filled with lotus paste. The lesson here – if it looks good, it probably is good.
Ice Cream: Why restrict yourself to vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and variations thereof? I’ve had ice cream flavored with black sesame, green tea, yam, rambutan and red bean. All were good, though I liked the black sesame was the best.
Supermarkets: I’m not talking about the wet markets or fresh markets where you can find fish still wriggling on ice, or live chickens. I’m talking about Western-type supermarkets where the meat is cellophane wrapped and the soup comes
No Durian!
Sign in the Singapore subway in cans. It looks familiar, but there is a slight twist. In the snack aisle you can find potato chips and peanuts in a jar, but also crispy fish balls. And Nest Tea is made from, you guessed it, real birds’ nests. And cuttlefish crackers just don’t sound tasty. Maybe it’s just me.
You can travel and spend a lot of time looking for restaurants that will serve you food you are used to. Or, you can have an adventure and try that funny looking fruit or the black ice cream. If it’s fresh and smells good, try it. You might like it.
Oh, and the one thing I have ever spit out was a fish flavored soy paste. Wrong on so many levels.
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