Food, Glorious Food

So as you may have read in previous posts, a focal point during our trip has been (and will continue to be) the food. Especially with our food partners in crime Gar and Dee, we have been eating well the past 2 months.

I've jotted down some "food observations" and I think the best way to delineate them is through bullets. So here goes:

-Every country gives you candy at customs. With flashes back to my childhood with my parents saying "don't eat candy from strangers" I was at first a bit hesitant. Andrew on the other hand thought it was some sort of a test, "If I take and I don't like, does that mean I can't pass?" Turns out the candy is quite tasty, not poisonous, and not a test and only a nice gesture.

-A couple of McDonald's observations. Indonesian/Malaysian McD's do not have Diet Coke. Very strange. They are also SUPER stingy about ketchup only giving 2 packets per order. You have to beg for more. And don't even think about sweet and sour sauce. You'd have to hand over your first child before you got a tube of that goodness.

-I wouldn't call myself an adventurous eater, but I'm not that picky either. Asians obviously have a ton of curious and different food than we do, but I'm not all that interested in eating any sort of cat, dog, testicle, intestine, etc (although I did try bbq frog which was good). So I've decided that my form of "curious" eating is through exotic fruits. It all started with mangostines (sp?), these delicious little creatures that sort of taste like lychee. And then I was ravenous for any sort of fruit I didn't recognize--and I wish I could tell you what I've eaten but unfortunately I can't understand about half of what the fruit ladies say.

-However, the most interesting is Cacao, which what chocolate comes from. It looks sort of like a small squash and when you open it up it's a bunch of white sort of sweet pieces with a pit inside. I decided whoever made the first chocolate bar was a genious, as I have no idea how they thought "oh let's dry out this fruits pit, crush it, add sugar, and TA DA the most delicious thing in the world." Thank God for Mr. Hershey.

-The worst fruit we've tasted is Durian. Andrew alluded to it before talking about Garrett destroying his taste buds and that's because it smells and tastes AWFUL. First off, it's a huge fruit with tons of spikes on it, like porcupines but thicker. We were reading a book that featured durian and they warned not to throw it on anyone's head as it might kill someone. Ever thought you'd here that warning for a fruit? How desperate was the first person who ate durian? Or maybe they were using it as a weapon and it accidentally broke open. Anyways, it smells nasty. Like really rotten cheese, although I like aged cheese but this is cheese gone sour. And the texture is sort of like slimy tofu (another of andrew's favorite things). And the worst part is that the taste sticks on the top of your mouth and you end up tasting it for an entire day. And the smells wafts so badly that there are signs everywhere, like in subways and hotel lobbies that say "No Durian." Like no smoking, but worse.

-Anyone who knows Andrew well knows that he HATES eggs. Only after 3 years of dating him did I finally convince him to try an omelette. Anyways, indonesians and asians in general are obsessed with eggs. I'm guessing it's because it's such a cheap form of protein (and in my opinion DELICIOUS). Rice, club sandwiches, burgers, sushi, EVERYTHING comes with a fried egg on top. This means that Andrew has to pick egg of most of his food, which I find quite amusing.

-And finally, the most amazing thing we've tried so far is suckling pig, or Babi Gulung (baby pig). We followed in Anthony Bourdain's footsteps to Ubud, trying to find the restaurant Ibu Oka. Like I've mentioned before, It's rainy season in Bali and it actually rains (errr pours) in Ubud. So we decide to trek out in the pouring rain to the restaurant, supposedly a 5 minute walk. After being soaked after only going 5 blocks, we get to the restaurant that is completely empty A guy is sitting in the convenience store next to it and says "It's closed." Duh. Thank you for your help. I ask him it's closed for good, and he says I know another babi gulung place you can go to. We don't want to go to another place, Anthony Bourdain didn't eat at another place, he ate at this place, and we want to go here. Then we see a sign that says "We've moved to the House" and an arrow. Ummm what the hell does that mean? We look a far ways down the street and no house. Luckily, another guy is actually inside the restaurant and he says that they've merely relocated (to the house, clearly) and gives us directions. And by the way, if you only had the sign to rely upon there's no way you would have found it. To the house means down the street, turn right at the ally, the next left and THEN you're at the house.

-Anyways, after an epic journey to the restaurant we order some bintangs and are getting excited about eating some pig. We wait about 5 minutes and all of a sudden plates of succulent pork arrive in front of us. No menus, no ordering, just pig. The way the pig is cooked is over fire on a stick for about 6 hours. It's stuffed with all sorts of spices and the skin is coated again and again with coconut water (have you ever heard of something more delicious?). We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to actually see the pig cooking ( you have to arrive at the restaurant at 8 in the morning...and that wasn't going to happen). On your plate, you get about 4 pieces of the tender pork that almost looks like chicken, fried bits (aka the parts that aren't big enough to serve so they fry it up), lots of yummy, spicy sauce, a blood sausage (which I promptly gave to garrett) and crackling. The crackling is my favorite part. It's the skin and it's incredibly crunchy with hints of coconut and fried goodness. And good for your too!

Sufficed to say, our food tour through asia is going swimmingly.