Anyway, despite having thought I was done with India, sure enough I found myself in Mumbai again five years later.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t changed at all.  It is just as dirty, grungy, and old as it was the first time.  Slums everywhere, people sleeping all over the streets (a huge amount of the population is unemployed and homeless-I think more than 50%), tons of pollution, and really not much to do at all.

At least I was there for a reason: a friends wedding.  In this regard I defintely got to experience a part of India I never would have otherwise.  Staying at the Royal Mumbai Yacht Club was certainly an experience.  And it was nice having some old friends around, too.  Even so, I think it’s pretty safe to say that none of us really enjoyed India.

Anyway, on to the photos:

India 2009 (the album has a few mistakes that I am working on fixing)

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Chili beer - brewed in the US

Here’s a really interesting beer that I found in Hanoi as we were leaving.  I like beer, I like chilies, and it sounded quite strange so of course I had to buy it.  After purchasing, I was happily surprised to find a real chili (serrano I believe) floating inside.  I was even more surprised when I examined the label closely and discovered the beer is not from Vietnam or even anywhere in the vicinity.  This chili beer was actually brewed in Arizona!  Great, so I come all the way to the other side of the world to find an interesting drink that is made right inside my home country. Well anyhow, the beer itself did taste very good.  The beer had a nice spicy kick, but it wasn’t overwhelming.  Try to imagine the amount of flavor a lime wedge might add to a Corona and then you’ve got it. Since I can’t get these in Bangkok, I might have to start expirementing with creating my own concotions using Thai chilis….

You can find out more about this beer at there website: The Chili Beer Company.  Maybe next time I’m in the US I’ll try to find a few in the local specialty beer store.

Yeah, that's a real chili in there!

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Sea cucumber piece

Well, I just posted about sea cucumbers and now I had a chance to try them myself. Interesting, but I won’t be seeking them out again. This dish was at a fancy Chinese restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. First of all the texture wasn’t too appealing. A bit crunchy and a bit rubbery with some sliminess mixed in. The taste itself was not bad, just rather bland. The soup had a thick gravy like broth that was also quite bland. I know this is a huge generalization, but it seems to me that many Chinese foods have a bland overtone to them. I feel like this especially applies to their sweets and more exotic dishes, but not the standard stuff you would eat. I’m sure many of you will disagree with me there.

Sea cucumber soup

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Tapioca

Cassava

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Snails!

Here are some snails we order in Ho Chi Minh City. An interesting food, but I’m not a big snail lover in the first place and these certainly did sway me. I suppose not too bad, but I always find snails a bit rubbery. Maybe I have just never had any good ones. Anyway, there are a lot of large snails around Southeast Asia and these ones seemed pretty big to me. I wonder if the French influence has anything to do with snail consumption, or perhaps the enjoyment of escargot is a result of Southeast Asian influence on France? They pulled all the snails out of the shell first, chopped them up, threw them in a mixture of spices and batter, then restuffed the shells. I did enjoy being able to easily get the stuffing out by pulling on the ‘plant-stem handles’. I still think I prefer it when you take the snail right out of the shell yourself. Anyway, I am always tempted when I see snails on a menu, I just need to get it into my head that I don’t really enjoy them.

The mixture inside

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Dinuguan (in the cup)

Another interesting food I happened to have in Hong Kong. Not Chinese at all, but due to the large number of Filipino workers their cuisine is quite common there. This item is dinuguan, which is essentially a stew of pork meat and pork blood. It’s the item in the cup there. The mess around it is our leftover balut shells and I can’t remember what the other item is. You can read a lot more about dinuguan over at wikipedia. It was really enjoyable. I’m not a big fan of the coagulated blood commonly found in Thai cuisine, but when liquid blood is used to flavor broths I usually find it nice and tasty. Someday I’ll have to visit the Philippines and try a bunch more of their delicious food.

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Unopened balut

Here’s a good one… balut.

Partly-developed duck or chicken eggs, commonly eaten in the Philippines. They can also be found in Cambodia, Vietnam, and even in some parts of Thailand. These ones that I tasted were actually found in Hong Kong, but at a Filipino street restaurant.

Anyway, on to the eggs. I think the pictures below are pretty self explanatory but I’ll provide a little more info. The age of the balut makes a huge difference. the ones here are aged about 17 days. Long enough that the embryo is clearly recognizable, but there is not much hard or feathery stuff. In Vietnam they prefer balut aged up to 21 days which means that when you eat it you definitely get crunchy beaks, bones, and feathers. These older eggs are often cooked in soups.

Because this was a younger balut, the embryo ended up being soft and slimy. Basically, I just slid it down my throat like a shot of tequila. Not too bad, but a little off-putting. And that’s the embryo I’m talking about. The ‘white,’ which is now filled with visible veins, is also edible although much less appetizing in my opinion. Imagine a hard and dry cheese for the texture, but with the taste of egg.

Don’t believe me? Check out wikipedia. And if you think all my talk of embryos is gross, it’s basically the same as a normal egg-balut less than 9 days old is usually indistinguishable from a standard hard-boiled egg. Added bonus: they are considered an aphrodisiac!

Opening balut

Opening the balut

Balut - embryo separated from the white

Closeup of the egg white of balut

Balut - the embryo

Closeup of the emrbyo of balut

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Roadside stand

This here is a roadside stand located somewhere between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. You see stands like this all over the major roadways throughout Thailand selling whatever the local specialties are: from grilled pork to seasonal fruits to corn on the cob to rat (yep!…see here and here). The roadside vendors are a great place to pick up some really fresh goods at generally the cheapest price around. it is hard to see how they stay in business though, since you will typically see five, six, seven, or more in a row…all selling exactly the same thing. This stand here happens to sell pickled bamboo (naw mai dawng [หน่อไม้ดอง]), something I heaven’t seen much elsewhere in Thailand. Actually, I do see it around in Bangkok sometimes, but these pieces were just massive. I did purchase some, but I ate it before I got any photos. It tasted pretty much like bamboo shoots from a can except much fresher. Pretty good if you like pickled things.

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