Durian Fruit - Commonly called Stinky Fruit. This football sized fruit looks like a spiny sea urchin and its odor greets you at the door of every grocery store. It smells like spoiled milk. We have been told that people get addicted to the taste of the fruit inside. At a restaurant in the Gombei underground shopping mall, we ordered a durian fruit, vanilla and coconut ice cream dessert. The flavor was a unique blend of banana, peanuts, and rotten potato. We think it must be an acquired taste. We left the durian fruit on the plate and focused on the ice cream instead.
Hua Long Guo - Fire Dragon Fruit - This beautiful fruit gets its name from its red outer skin. It looks like a very large artichoke in beautiful pinkish red. The fruit inside is white with many little black seeds and a texture like kiwi fruit. The flavor can be summed up in one word - bland. It really tasted like water - and what's the point of eating that?!
Frog legs - Yes, frog legs really do taste like chicken, but they have many little tiny bones. So why not just eat chicken?!
Squid - This was part of a large dinner of many different dishes. It was chopped into small pieces and stir fried. It had a mild flavor with a definite rubbery, chewy texture. Nathan gave this a thumbs up.
Red Bean Buns - Imagine a soft white creamy dough on the outside and a thick red bean paste on the inside. Heat them up in the microwave or fry them on the stove. We were all in agreement that red bean paste is another acquired taste....
Beef buns - Imagine Grandma Hvidsten's barbeque on a soft white bun and you will know why Nathan loves these.
Shrimp Pringles Potato Chips - A bad idea on many levels....
Sweets from the Danish Pastry Shop - Who could go wrong with a European Pastry Shop? We chose three sweets. First we had an angle food cake with spun sugar on top. It must have been in the shop for weeks since it was dry and tasteless. Our next choice was a sugar cookie. Again, it was old and stale and none of us finished it. Finally we tried a puff pastry with a filling that looked like apple or maybe almond paste, but it turned out to be durian fruit. Ach! Lesson learned - just because it sounds like western food, doesn't mean it tastes like western food.
Fish - We live on the ocean and ride the bus past acres of oyster fields every day. The boats of local fisherman line the harbor so fresh fish is abundant. We don't know what kind of fish we are eating but it sure is delicious. Yesterday we bought fish at the "wet market" - a very large farmer's market where you can buy every food imaginable in China - bananas, apples, grapes, lemons, bok choy, broccoli, onions, carrots, potatoes, egg plant, many kinds of greens, beef, pork, chicken (you can choose a live one and have it butchered while you wait), and fish. The fish are in small cement ponds built into the floor. You choose your fish and the fisherman or woman retrieves it for you, whacks it on the head, descales it, guts it, and puts it in a flimsy plastic bag for you to carry home. My fish kept flopping around in the bag the during the rest of the morning shopping. Cooked with a little green onion and ginger root, the fish was wonderful!
