the elusive mangosteen.

no longer elusive.

finally had one on thursday night. actually, i had two. words simply cannot describe the flavor. not because it was super good and i'm embellishing (it was, though), but i really cannot find the words to describe the flavor.

the last night of the conference, they split us up by company -- y&r with y&r, wunderman with wunderman, etc. after the dinner, we crashed the wunderman dinner at straits kitchen. there were fruits on the table, jackfruit, dragonfruit, rambutan, and mangosteen!

the mangosteen looks somewhat like a round eggplant, about the size of a tennis ball. you have to put a small slit into the side and kind of push the shell open. it gives quite easily to pressure, but you need to be careful not to squeeze to hard because the purple shell is filled with a plummy colored juice that stains hands and fabric.

inside the shell looks like a whole bulb of garlic. the fruit is cream colored and in sections like an orange. one or two of the of the sections has the seed. the flavor is slightly tart, but the tart quickly turns to sweet.

this post really isn't expressing the enthusiasm with which i devoured not one, but two of the fruits.

pic of me with my two mangosteens a little later. i'm waiting for someone to send it to me.

singapore, 01.24.07

wow. wasn't able to fill you in on yesterday. all i can say is duck, duck, duck, more duck, and lobster @ min jiang on robertson. fantastic meal.

had an even more mind-blowing eat fest today. but first, i had two hours free, so i ran off to chinatown and little india. i was surprised at how small the chinatown is, considering how large the chinese population is in singapore. but then again, maybe that's the reason why.

the sri mariamman temple is truly amazing. deities around loom down at you from the rooftop. a little scary.

food street was also truly mindblowing. i had to have something from one of the hawker stalls, so i stopped and had some carrot cake. it's not really made of carrots and it's not really a cake (at least the singaporean version of it isn't). it's more like a scramble of daikon radish with eggs and prawns. awesome. i couldn't finish it because i had to save room for dinner later.

little india was also fascinating -- i loved the stalls where they sold indian desserts and the indian flower garlands.

but on to the good stuff. had dinner this evening at jumbo seafood. the big name in seafood. chowed on chili crabs -- dungeness crab cooked with a chili curry sauce. kick ass. fatty crab has nothing on this place, sorry to say. also had black pepper crabs, some kang kong with a spicy sambal, rice, of course (needed something to through the chili sauce on top of). good eating all around.

pictures posted on booger flickr.

singapore, 01.22.07

i woke up this morning with some serious jetlag -- my eyes popped open at 4:30 and it was impossible to fall back asleep, so i surfed around the internet catching up on the news.

at around 7, i hopped in the shower and got ready for breakfast. breakfast was a bit of a disappointment. the room service menu offers everything from local malaysian and chinese breakfasts like nasi lemak (chile omelet, coconut rice, fried fish and sambal) and congee (blech) to the standard american breakfast. the buffet was complete: pastries, sausages, poached eggs with truffle hollandaise, cereal, fruit, etc., but no malaysian or chinese food in sight.

the greater part of this morning was spent in lectures. we took some time to introduce ourselves, acclimate ourselves to the program objectives, meet the client. standard training fare. but let's move on to the fun
stuff: LUNCH.

lunch was better than breakfast. tandoori chicken, vegetables, sweet and sour fish, some malaysian noodle dish. much, much better.

but nothing beats the snacks.

i finally tried dragon fruit. the flesh is white with tiny black seeds. the dragon fruit is a little bit like the bastard child of a kiwi andjicama. there's a bit of bite with the weirdly crunchy seeds that give the faint sweetness a bit of a sour bite.

i also got to eat fresh longan. longans are about the size of grape, but they're encased in a shell that's easy to peel. their texture is similar to a lychee, but their flesh is slightly chewier. they're also not as sweet.

the highlight of today's snacks, however, were the fried taro balls (woo kok) stuffed with pork and chopped shitake mushrooms. my guess is that they make a taro paste and fill it with the pork and mushrooms. then they dip them in shredded taro so that it forms a crispy, yet thin, crust around the filling. dip them into sweet hot chile sauce and they are absolute heaven. i wish i took a pic, but that probably would have been embarassing, what with all of the other folks around me.

spent most of the afternoon in lectures and small group sessions. had some fun today, because i got to play the role of the difficult client. i'm not going to bore you with details.

went to dinner with my group. a restaurant called straits kitchen. i've linked to a girl's website whose pics kind of capture the ambiance and sheer abundance of food. they whole place is a buffet with steam tables separated by type of cuisine: malay, chinese, and indian. the variety is astounding and it's really hard not to overeat. i really wanted the fruit but i was too full. thankfully, there were no mangosteens in sight, otherwise i would have had to make room.

well, off to my status call with my team in ny.

i'll post again tomorrow.

in singapore. . .

just got in after 18 hours -- nyc to london to singapore.

can't wait to see my american airlines miles after this journey.

my flight was delayed by an hour in nyc, so i missed my british airways flight to singapore. i have to say, flying first class does have its privileges. there was someone to meet me in london once the flight landed and she escorted me to my new flight on quantas.

even better, though my luggage didn't make it to singapore with me, the airline gave me $200 singapore dollars to spend on clothing (app. $130 usd). that rocked. so i won't look completely awful tomorrow.

my cousin, monette, met me at my hotel. i haven't seen her in over a decade. i feel horrible -- i dragged her up and down orchard road searching for clothing for tomorrow. in my search for replacement clothing, i did get to explore quite a bit of the area around my hotel. i'm staying at the four seasons (airfare and hotel not on my dime, so i'm not complaining). i had heard that singaporeans are nuts about two things: shopping and food. damn! saw the shopping because my hotel is right next to orchard road, which is a shopping mecca. name the designer and he or she probably has an outpost on orchard road. lots of goodies to be bought.

the cost of clothing is less here than it is at home. the cost of cosmetics, however, is inflated. i passed by a drugstore selling revlon mascara for $17 singapore/$11 usd. talk about highway robbery!

i ended the evening with dinner at the hotel in the restaurant. grilled prawns, broccoli. pretty good, particularly since the prawns were crawling around in a tank minutes before they set them on the grill.

and so ends day 1.



dinner with monette at 190 in the four seasons.

up, up and away.

so. this is the 5th blog that i've started in the past 6 months. talk about follow-through.

maybe i'll be good and actually stick with this one.

no promises.

leaving for singapore tomorrow. will be gone for 2 weeks as i make my way from singapore to the motherland to hk. then back to nyc.

keep you posted.