Durian fruit and glutinous fish balls - Posted by Maggie

So far Singapore is fun. It is a bit overwhelming - feels like living in Manhattan surrounded by multiple cultures that speak english with heavy accents, who shop and eat a lot. Sort of being in a perpetual Chinatown...

The food is good, but most of the time I don't even know what I am eating. And I still have to get used to the weird smells, like durian fruit. It smells like rotten fruit doused with petrol, but tastes pretty sweet (almost like a guava) and it has prickly thorns on it. Buses and the subway have signs prohibiting the transportation of durian fruit. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

As a globe trotter, I have seen (and sometimes eaten) many weird dishes. ("Globe trotters" actually sounds like a dish you'll find in a restaurant here in Singapore: "I'll have the curried globe trotters with a side of glutinous fish balls". Serious, they sell "glutinous fish balls" here - it looks like ping-pong balls served in a soup with noodles). Here is a picture:

Today I also saw chicken feet, and soup made from the slug-like sea cucumber and something called seafood porridge. The porridge part is actually just rice in a broth of some sort.

Bon appetit!