The Menu:
1. Beef Kway Teow and Frog Porridge
2. Been Curd, Soya Milk and other snacks
3. Durian
4. Fermented Fried Bean Curd (and Deep Fried Pig Intestines as an unexpected appetiser)
Stop 1: Beef Kway Teow and Frog Porridge
Beef Kway Teow from the restaurant called Famous Beef Kway Teow. It's beef with noodles like Asian beef stroganoff, really good.
The frogs legs and porridge in two separate pots and the Seafood Kway Teow on the other plate. Not everyone can eat beef so I guess seafood is a good alternative. I like the seafood version better than the beef.
The frogs legs are served on top of the porridge in your bowl and it's very tasty. Supposedly it's supposed to be just frogs legs but then some of my coworkers pointed out that would be wasting a lot of the frog so they actually use part of the body as well...but not the head! so they said. As I looked at the different chunks of frog meat in my bowl that definitely were not legs I thought it's pretty subjective for the chef to decide where the frog's head ends and it's body begins...it's all kind of the same thing isn't it? Anyway, frogs are good and they really do taste like chicken though I think the are lighter tasting and more delicate than chicken which is usually really tough when I've ordered it in restaurants. One of my coworkers explained the subtlety in the Chinese name for the frogs we were eating.. translated as field chickens...or paddy chickens because that's where they were collected and they, of course, taste like chicken. It's really easy to catch them. They said all you have to do is go at dusk and shine a flashlight on them and they freeze so you can just pick them up. All right, sounds easy enough, though they said they of course had never done it before.
The secret to good frogs are fresh frogs, I'm sure. Since we were actually sitting in the alley behind the restaurant where they set up some tables for our big group, we got to see a fresh shipment of frogs coming in....about 10 feet from our table. That's a lot of fresh frogs, he probably delivered over 200...a couple even got away from the guy and hopped over to our table trying to escape. I don't think I've every seen something quite like this at a restaurant before but it was kind of nice to know your food is so fresh. And yes, those are the two big dumpsters right there by our tables, too.Stop 2: Soy Bean Extravaganza
I like a nice simple menu- It really makes ordering easy!
Some been curd. This place added soaked peanuts into it. It was a little course and sugary for my taste and the peanuts were not a nice touch. I've had better ones at other places.
Oh, these things! I still don't know what they're called but it's basically deep fried dough. It's like a doughnut but it's not sweet and it doesn't have any filling and they're dripping with grease. The ones at this place were huge and I ate too much. After eating the bowl of bean curd, the fried dough, a glass of soya milk, and some other fried snacks from this place plus the beef and frogs and seafood I was getting full.. but ready for the next stop:Stop 3: Durian (the king of fruit)
Durian stinks. No matter what people say about them, have a really strong smell that most people say stinks. You're not allowed to take them on the bus or the MRT because they have such a strong smell. Some people say they smell like bad cheese, and some people say they smell like old gym socks but I've never thought the smell or taste is as bad as people say. I think it's some version of a sweet smell and I like them. There are different strains of Durian. D24 is apparently the most popular and it's what all the vendors in Geylang were hawking.
The wall of durian at the stall we stopped at was both impressive and dangerous.
By the time we got to the durian stop on the tour almost half of our group had already left. We had passed the point of no return now moving to the 3rd stop and in the back of my mind I knew it would only get worse when we got to the 4th for the fermented bean curd, the wild card- the only thing on the menu I hadn't tried before. I think we had 6 or 7 durians split between our group of about 10 at that point. This was the most durian I had ever eaten. I was feeling even more full now but also starting to feel confident that I could handle the fried fermented bean curd.
After the durian we had a very long walk to the final stop. This part of the street is lined with other fruit markets for blocks.
It was a long walk. Too long. I was way too full from so much food and I don't actually think anyone was looking forward to fermented bean curd which is neither refreshing nor a desert in my opinion. Why were we eating it last? No one knew but still we walked on.Stop 4: Fermented Bean Curd/Pig Intestines (The last straw)
It smells and everyone knows it smells. Bad. Even look at this newspaper clipping the place has on the wall. Yeah, "Phew" for sure. Some people say it's smells like a barnyard and some people say it smells like a sewer, which I tend to agree with, so I don't get what the attraction to it is. This place apparently has won a lot of awards and the walls were full of newspaper clippings and awards so at least we were getting the good stuff (though I'm not sure if that just means the smell and taste are even stronger or not).
The deep fried pig intestines were an unexpected appetizer our leader ordered (they're up on the top of the photo). She also ordered fresh lime juice for everyone as a 'chaser' for the bean curd if we needed it. Basically the intestines tasted like deep fried fat encased in a sausage wrapping (intestine). I told myself it was basically the same as hot dogs and it was fine to eat but I didn't really see the attraction...I guess it's just like snack food. The fried fermented bean curd is in the bottom of the picture and the chili sauce to dip it in is in the middle. Whatever you say, this stuff was horrible. I had two pieces and the second was more difficult to get down than the first. The smell was definitely worse than the taste and if you exhale though your nose when you eat it.. it's manageable to get down. Trying to get the second piece down was the only time when I think my gag reflex was triggered trying to eat something...I got it down but after that I really wasn't felling well and I think drinking the whole glass of lime juice after was a bad idea. Food tours sound like a good idea but we just had way too much food and having that fermented bean curd taste lingering in my mouth wasn't making me feel happy.
The long ride home:
Well the way home was rough. I was walking to the MRT line with my coworker Jeff and some Singaporean coworkers and we were talking about the last stop we were at. No one liked it. I don't know why I ate that 2nd piece. That fermented bean curd and lime juice weren't sitting well and I really just wanted to be home so I could go to sleep. My place was only 4 subways stops from where we were but I was really feeling like I was going to puke. The rocking cars on the subways as it starts and stop and goes around corners become so noticeable when you're tyring to repress your natural reflex to vomit out something that smell like a sewer. When we got to the 3rd stop I told Jeff I was getting off because I didn't think I could have made it to the next stop. He said something like 'Good Luck, See you on Monday,' I thought, 'what-ever,' as I walk off then straight down to the end of the platform. As the train pulled away I sighed in relief. Then, the inevitable. Luckily the platform was pretty much empty and I felt I was exceptionally discrete considering the situation. The smell of durian with lime juice and fermented bean curd is really not a good combination but I felt 100% better.
Alright, now look. I know it's not cool to puke on Singapore's MRT platform and I don't feel good about it but what are they doing allowing people to legally sell that fermented bean curd when they regulate so many other things for their own good. People have the right to eat what they want but how do they know what they should or shouldn't eat? Forgive me but I just had to find out the hard way. Plus I had made my way to a corner away from everyone else. Besides I had bigger things to think about at that point- Like getting home. I took a quick look around to see if there were any cameras watching (I was almost surprised to not see any as I pretty much figure they're are always cameras watching here in Singapore) then walked back up closer to the main part of the platform where the LCD screen said only 4 min to the next train, perfect!. Thank god the trains come so often. I was still not feeling normal but I got in, went one stop, got off then started the 15 min walk back to my place which seemed to take an eternity. Once I got to my place I was straight to the bathroom and puked a few more times and I think I got it all out. I took a quick shower and went straight to bed where I finally felt good.
Looking back over the night, I'm glad I tried everything but I'm not really happy the way it wound down.
So my summary for the night is:
frog legs= good
frog bodies= bad
porridge= good (tasteless)
beef= good
seafood= good
soy milk= good
fried dough= too greasy and bad
bean curd= bad
durian= good in moderation
fried pig intestines= bad
fried fermented bean curd= just wrong
lime juice= good
3 comments:
Wow, I am surprise you like Durian.
As for Stinky Tofu (that'd the literal translation from its Chinese name), it's an acquire taste, like durian and blue cheese. Many people love it (though I don't like it).
oh, as for the fried donut, you suppose to eat it with porridge. The porridge totally counter the greasiness. We usually cut them up into bite size, then dip each piece with soy sauce and eat them with porridge.
Okay, I admit, maybe I was too hard on the stinky tofu. I should be more culturally sensitive. I can certainly understand acquired tastes will seem strange to others the first time they've tried them... I like durian and blue cheese but I really did not like the stinky tofu. I really don’t want to try it again though…
Cutting that fried dough up would probably be better than eating a whole piece, too
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