That's Jack Fruit

What's that? Famous fruit of the Philippines, Jack Fruit. I'm assuming it can be found in other SE Asian countries as well. My students tell me this is expensive, but smells and tastes great.


Hey, what smells like garbage, did something die? No, that's Durian fruit. Some people say, 'oh it smells awful, but the taste is to die for.', NO...if you tell me I have to eat this again I might die, it tastes exactly the way it smells, and it makes your breath smell like garbage.

I had some Durian candy here at the school and it was so disgusting it was a joke to give it to people and watch their faces. First, the student is so delighted that the teacher has given them a candy, and then their face changes. It's pretty hilarious to see the reality set in. "What is this?" And then their breath. It stinks up the whole classroom. When new students arrived, if they annoyed the old students in any way, I would get a look from them..."teacher, he has not yet tried your candy". Man, we had fun, I haven't done that in awhile.

One classroom that I use is pretty small, it's for the 1:4 group and we had this really funny student named Young, she would purposely eat it and breathe it all over the other students, and we would all vacate the room. I'd bring in the incense.

I constantly heard from locals how great this fruit tastes, and I was like what kind of drugs are you guys on? Some of the staff here assure me that they do NOT like Durian, so it's not a Philippino thing altogether, just many people here are crazy.

Discover Cold Beer

Here's something from Discovery Channel's Mythbusters Message Boards.

fachimoto posted:
"Lets keep it simple. I didn't hear this from a guy who knew a guy. I did this myself in Vietnam with regular gasoline (forget the jet fuel). Take one can of beer, open, dip 2/3 of can into gas, pull out. Air hits the beer can, rapid evaporation = beer slushy in seconds. The scientific reason you tell me. I just know it worked on beer and cola. Simple, never failed"

jarhead10 posted:
"My father did the same thing in vietnam and it worked for him too. I'm wondering where they got the idea to light the gasoline on fire."

I don't really understand jarhead10 because fachimoto didn't say anything about lighting anything on fire. He might be saying that some people think the gas needs to be lighted when it doesn't. Ok. Then some third guy posted, "I don't believe it!", OK. Whatever. Some message boards are hard to follow this is one of them, BUT I thought this was an interesting post on making beer slushy!

My son and I try to catch every episode of Mythbusters whether it's a good episode or not. He learns about ideas and testing and trial and error and controls. One of the guys makes my kid laugh all the time. That's good.

On the Discovery Channel Mythbuster's page there are also links to science blogs, but I don't see anything interesting. DC Asia is different, right now we're just getting RERUNS* of American Choppers only. I think there's a new season going on and we're not a part of it here.

Does anyone know if the Mentos company changed their white Mentos? Because I want to do the soda thing with my students, and ...I tried it with a little can and it didn't really work, maybe it only works in the 2L bottles? That stuff is expensive here and I don't want to look like a dork.

[*Edit: Maybe not, last night I saw the one where they made the HP bike, and I'm pretty sure that's new!]

Food

This photo was taken by Richard Nowitz and I hope that I can use it here.

These are roasted scorpions on a stick. My student Nike has tried these, and say that they taste like a salty snack. She said that was for novelty, "just experience", they weren't that great.

My student June has eaten monkey brains, he said they were served in the monkey head with the skull opened at the top, like a lid removed. The taste was similar to vomit. He said that the monkey head was very small and "cute". This also falls under the category of novelty and not something that people just eat daily as part of a regular diet. Both these experiences happened in China.

I have another blog entry about bundegi (pupa), but that's not novelty, bundegi is a popular food item in South Korea. I would love to try these scorpions, but here in the Philippines there doesn't seem to be anything exotic like that. They do have balut, but that's disgusting to me, there's blood in it. I'm willing to go for insects and arachnids, but exotic mammals, no. Birds half-formed in their egg, no.

South Koreans also eat small live squids. They say that the sensation is better if the squid is alive. I had one student tell me that he ate a live squid and it came out his nose. It just swam right out the front of his face. He could feel and taste that for a week. Some people have choked to death because the squid opens itself up in the throat and blocks air passage. But again, these are normal foods for Koreans.

South Koreans are not known for being adventurous experimental eaters, some act like they might die if they have to eat non-Korean, so I thought these two students who tried those dishes in China were interesting.

Bundegi

Bundegi, it's pupa. Koreans eat it. Here it is in a can.

And there it is on a plate in some kind of prepared dish. I found another pretty good picture on the net, but it's copyrighted by someone.

I would love to try this stuff. I want to try eating any insect/bug. These are not available in the Philippines. They don't have any bugs here to eat, as far as I know. Bum deal.

New Beer

The students were excited the other day about a new beer that they tried, "The name is Colt 45!" They reported. Yeah, I've heard of it. They should also try Red Horse if they like that. Red Horse is made by San Miguel. A lot of alcohols here in the Philippines are made by San Miguel, they have kind of a monopoly. Anyway, Koreans love alcohol, they are called the Irish of the East. I have no experience with these guys that would break that stereotype. They love it here in the Philippines because alcohol is cheap. The prices in Korea for alcohol are high with the exception of soju. Soju is like a nasty gin/vodka. It's an interesting beverage, it makes people talkative. I was laughing when they said they liked Colt 45, because I don't think they know the difference between beer and malt liquor, all beers are not created equal. Of course they would love malt liquor.

What's Root Beer?

Root Beer Spazz Attack!
Anyway, I forgot that the students don't know what RootBeer is, and I was drinking a can of MUG after lunch. It has a picture of a mug filled with a foamy dark beverage.
My students assumed I was drinking alcohol. I didn't understand why Scott was spazzing out so I just blew him off. But when my other students started buzzing and passing the can around a little lightbulb went on *ding*


"You guys! That's just soda! It's called rootbeer!"

Then I understood why Scott was talking about Germany and dark beers, because of the picture on the can. So I straightened it out and there were bellows of laughter, June was especially relieved, but Peter was still examining the can and reading the ingredients, "So what is the alcohol content of this?"
Um, hello again, that's just soda! More laughs.
So what...these guys think that I brought BEER to class? Come on, now give me a break!

The Hundred Dollar Watermelon

My students tell me that there is a special melon in Kwangju (South Korea) that's 100 US Dollars.

I assure them that there is no watermelon worth that price.
But here's a picture. At least it's big!


And as for the watermeloney life in the Philippines, here's a couple of slices.
Sometimes people here put coins in their ears to carry them. They sit nicely in the ear like it was a slot designed for just that. Wish I had a picture.

Also, I got a 20 Peso bill yesterday and someone had inked on the back:
txtm8 wnted 095834058340 (and some long number, this one I just made up).

People here are obsessed with text messages. It seems noone wants to just sit and enjoy a jeepney ride, they feel naked if they're not glued to the cell phone texting every second. Texting and singing are the national pastimes.

Here are a couple of questions my Philippino collegues have asked me this week.
What does this mean, "Are you a chicken?"
and
Is it, 'Christmas is IN the air.' or 'Christmas is ON the air.' ?

The first answer is:
It means "Are you a coward?'
The second answer is:
'Christmas is ON the air,' means it's on the radio.

Finis.

Prison Break and San Gyup Sar

So last night after work I did something stupid and went to the Korean restaurant and ordered San Gyup Sar. This is a put-it-together- dish. Dishes of lettuce leaves and bean paste and small veggies and then a bunch of slices of "meat", and it's like a make your own lettuce burrito type thing. The reason it's stupid, is because this pork that they serve is like bacon, and mostly fat.

I was craving the rest of it, the lettuce, bean paste, etc. but not the meat-fat. But I feel silly trying to order san gyup sar with no meat. I'm not even sure they would do that. The taste was great, but wow- unhealthy I'm sure. And I ate the whole thing.

Enough lamenting.

I went home and watched Prison Break first episode. I have to say wow. That guy is amazing. I knew he was good looking from the commercials, but seeing him act and interact, I have to say, he's quite attractive. Like quite.

I just finished a class where a student was announcing that South Korea should attack North Korea. Interesting debate. I have some fun students.

Well I'm in Love...

Well, I'm in love. I must post about Korean food. I found this great website, it's got a bunch of pictures of dishes.

The first section is meat. But scroll down to the rest. I'm so in love with Korean food, I wish I could eat it every day. I want to marry it. The food that I eat here in the Philippines at the Korean restaurant is just vegetables and spices, basicly. I LOVE Korean spices. They are not just hot, they are tasty.

Like majorly tasty! Now, I wonder how Koreans can tolerate food in other countries. Sure enough, the students here can taste all the salt in anything, because they are not used to eating salt laden food, just spicy, tasty food!

Korean food is very healthy, full of vegetables and prepared with spices that aid in digestion. Kimchee has been declared one of the healthiest dishes in the world, and I'd say it's one of the tastiest also.

I eat here at my friend's restaurant, and the students here say that the rastaurant ain't that great. But for me, it's good enough and I think that means that I would LOVE food in Korea and a Korean restaurant in Manila.

So at our table we've got dishes all over the table and knock back the Soju, which is actually disgusting but fun...and beer (come on, you don't need a link for beer!) and we discuss life and stuff and things. There's just nothing better than this.

I used to always order Dolcet Bibimbop, which is a rice and vegetable dish. I thought, yeah, you guys put a drug in this. But it's the red pepper paste that my mouth is enjoying. The other day I had the shredded beef soup, and it made my eyes water, but not in an uncomfortable way. That was the best soup I've ever had. This food is SO healthy. Mostly vegetables and spices.

You know what? I'm in love. I'm looking for a Korean husband now.