When Morris is in town...

adventures can happen.

Morris, a guy I met at school in Xela and again on a boat in Nicaragua, flew into Singapore last week to start a 6 month tour of SE Asia. Deb and Sean have been kind enough to open their door to him.

One goal he has during his tour is to try new and interesting foods. For some reason, I have taken part in this experience.

On Saturday, we went to a "hawker stand" in Chinatown.

Hawker stands remind one of food courts in US malls but unlike the US malls, the food at the hawker stands is often much more interesting. At your average hawker stand in Singapore, you often have a variety of food styles: chinese, thai or indian and a variety of food tpes: veggie, meat, seafood or noodles.

However, when you go to Chinatown, the hawker stand is mostly chinese food but the sorts of foods you can get still varies quite a bit. We started off our "dinner" at a stand that seemed to sell everything duck - except the meat part. You could order duck heart, duck head or duck feet. They did have duck wings, too but there did not appear to be a duck breast to be had. We got a free sample of duck heart - not bad.

And then Morris ordered a duck head.



Despite their size and their look, after being fried, a duck head does not seem to have too much to offer. But at S$1/each, I guess you can't complain too much. We each had a bit of the brain - not much taste and not a texture I enjoyed. And Morris got to eat the duck tongue. Although the head was friend and there appeared to be a bit of a crispy covering all over the head, there were still some small feathers on the head, which made the thought of eating the crisp unappetizing.

The duck pieces were a bit of an appetizer. For dinner, Morris went for a duck-meat noodle dish, while I took the easier road with a veggie noodle soup. In Singapore's Chinatown, it appears that "duck meat" includes duck liver as more than 50% of the "meat" resembled a liver. But I am not doctor.

Morris shared some 20+ oz Tiger beers with one of the locals. These big beers were $6 each, while 12oz Tiger beers at bars can be $12.50 each.

If you are looking for cheap beer, Singapore is not your place.

After dinner, we had a local fruit favorite - durian. There are a number of ways you can eat durian. In this case, we had durian pancakes. They took a small pancakes an spread some cold (mashed?) durian on it, folded it over, placed it in a small bag and handed it to you. The dessert resembled a crepe that you ate with your hands.

If you have never had durian, let me tell you, it is unlike any other fruit you have ever had - or will ever have. The fruit of the durian is encased in a prickly orb that seems to be the size of a large pineapple. The orb is cut open to reveal the fleshy fruit. I haven't seen the whole - remove the skin procedure so I am not 100% sure how it works or how it looks.

While the prickly covering seems to be a unique design, it is the smell of the durian that sets it apart from all other fruits.

Sean likes to compare the durian to a "well-used out house sitting in the hot sun."

I am not sure I could describe it any better.

The smell is overpowering. Sean and I walked in a very clean and modern grocery store last week and a rotten smell hit and overwhelmed me...durian. Sean tells me that they ban the fruit from many hotels and from the Indonesian ferries.

Needless to say, eating durian is a challenge.



And I failed the challenge.

I was able to take a very, very small bite of the durian pancake but then I had to throw it out. The love the fruit here and in other parts of SE Asia but it will not make it to my dinner table any time soon.

I would rather eat a whole duck brain than have a nibble of durian.

But don't let me dissuade you from trying it.

bjm 10.28.08