Gefiltesushi: Lena and Ari's Life

Jackfruit

Even those who have never tried a durian have heard of it - while it's extremely populary, it is most legendary worldwide for its smell, resulting in bans throughout Southeast Asia in transport and hotels. The jackfruit is kind of like the amateur cousin of the durian - somewhat similar in appearance, also pungent, but not nearly as offensive.

I haven't yet tried durian, but I did try the jackfruit, which is sold weekly at the nearby Saturday market by an operation that has three women standing behind a table and continuously breaking down this massive fruit. As a result, the whole market smells like jackfruit. And it is massive - these fruits are the size of Nicky. I don't think generally one buys a whole fruit (though I have seen them for sale by the kilo), because first, you'd have to spend a day doing surgery on the thing in order to tease out the edible part, and second, because you'd need a family of 20 in order to make a dent in the amount of food you get. At the market, the dissected fruit is sold in little, individual-portion plastic containers for about $1.50 for maybe a third of a kilo.

But the smell is actually not unpleasant, and the taste of the fruit is actually quite pleasant, if not the lip-smacking "wow!" of some of the new fruits I've tried here. The pieces of the jackfruit come off in roughly 2-inch bright yellow flat segments. The texture is fibrous and crunchy and it tastes and smells like like a very sweet, powerful banana. Here in the Philippines, it's called "langka" and is a popular addition to salads. Many desserts are also flavored with jackfruit, so it's not uncommon to see jackfruit ice cream or frozen yogurt.

We didn't buy this fruit frequently while here, but it was definitely worth trying. My goal is now have to get up the courage to try to the durian.

Soursop

This one is a winner. I'd heard of this fruit before, and I think I'd seen it a few times at H-Mart, but never in any condition that made it worth buying. Here, they cost about $2.

We had to try this one a couple times. Read online that you should wait until it's really soft before slicing open and eating. With the first one, we waited too long, and parts of the inside had already gone bad. With the second, we waited about 2 days after buying, and it was in perfect shape.

Soursops are about the size of a pineapple you'd buy in any supermarket in the States. They are green and have prickly bumps all over the skin. They are also fun for toddlers to play with.

They're kind of messy. You slice it open, and the flesh is very soft and sticky, and a bit liquidy and slimy. There are hard black seeds seemingly randomly scattered throughout. The only way to eat it is just to dig in with a spoon, and either carefully navigate around the seeds, or just spit them out.

But it's worth the effort. This thing is absolutely delicious - it's like eating tropical fruit punch. Very sweet, but with a nice, slightly citrusy, acidic tone that gives it unique character. This fruit just feels like the tropics. Tough to compare it to something because it's pretty distinct, but I'd say like a very mild, sweet pineapple with a very light touch of mango and lemonade. There you go.

Nicky and I ate almost the entire thing within about 15 minutes of opening it. (We did leave a few spoonfulls for mommy.) He loved it and was asking for more. Only problem is that it's a bit challenging - you want to just grab the whole thing and stuff it in your mouth, but you really have to work through all the seeds and stringy fibrous parts that connect the fruit to the skin.

Want. More.

Chesa

Calling this "chesa" because that's what the label at the supermarket said, but it has a lot of other names, like "canistel" and "egg fruit". Some of them were shaped kind of like an egg.

After doing the above searches on google, I found out that you are supposed to eat these in as soft a state as possible. Luckily, the guy at the supermarket who weighs and labels your produce - who seemed kind of annoyed/amused at me asking him "what's this?, what's this?" - helped me pick out a few that were ready to eat, and a few for "2 days".

We picked out the softest one, and cut it open. The flesh is a kind of soft, dense, crumbly texture, kind of like a cooked sweet potato, also a bright orange. Maybe a bit firmer. It's also described in some places like a hard-boiled egg yolk. That's pretty accurate as well. You have to scoop it out with a spoon, as demonstrated in the diagram below: 

My first impression on tasting it was that it tasted like pumpkin pie. It is definitely sweet, but maybe not that sweet. But it's also kind of sticky - it leaves a dryish residue in your mouth that keeps you swishing your tongue around to try to get it off.

It was tasty, and unique, and we finished one. I tried to give some to Nicky, but he didn't like it. But it's not the kind of flavor you'd associate with tropical fruit, and probably not something we'll buy again, unless we find a good recipe that it works in (I could see making it into a soup). We still have a couple in the fruit bowl that have been there more than a week now and are still rock hard.

 

Star Apple

Another "apple" fruit. This is the star apple, also completely unlike an apple, except a slight external resemblance.

The outside of the fruit is a purplish-green, and it's about the same size as a large apple. I think they get more purple as they get riper. We sliced it in half, and the inside is kind of two parts - a firmer purple-white layer, and then a soft, squishy white inner core. We decided to start with the squishy part, because we were pretty sure that would be edible.

The texture is actually very familiar among tropical fruits - kind of like a lychee or a mangosteen, if you've ever tried those. But the flavor was completely different, not fruity/tropicalish at all. I couldn't nail it down, but I recognized the flavor as something I'd had before. Then Lena pinpointed it - persimmon. It tastes *exactly* like a persimmon, albeit with a different texture. If you closed your eyes and somone fed it to you, you'd think it was a persimmon. (Assuming, of course, you were familiar with persimmons. If you were from the Philippines and closed your eyes and someone gave you a persimmon, you'd probably swear it was a star apple.) I happen to love persimmons - we buy them by the boxload at H-Mart in Wheaton when they're on sale, and I can eat 2-3 at a time. So the taste was really good, but it just didn't feel that exotic. 

Decided to try the purple part, too, which was firmer and almost the same texture as a persimmon. That has a bit of a bitter aftertaste, but tasted very similar.

Wax Apple

"Wax apple" is not a particularly appetizing name, and this was actually probably the least interesting of the fruits we've tried so far. One thing you quickly notice is that many of the tropical fruits' names in English are some variation of "apple" or "plum" or "fruit", even if they bear little resemblance to those items (well, except the last one). Probably not going out on a limb to guess that's because English-speaking explorers/fruit-tasters came here from the old world, saw something from a tree people were eating, and thought 'that must be some type of apple, because that's what I know, and I know everything.'

So the wax apple - called "makopa" in Tagalog, among other things - is about the size of a big strawberry. It's red on the outside, white inside, and you eat the whole thing. The skin feels slightly waxy - hence the name, but only slightly - it feels basically like those shiny apples you try to avoid buying at Safeway because they cost $2.49 a pound and have no flavor, and have been bathed in wax to make them all shiny and marketable. Now back to the wax apple. Its texture is actually not dissimilar from an apple, very crunchy, but it's almost completely flavorless, just a very slight hint of sweetness, but almost imperceptible - at least the ones we had, which we were told were ripe. 

So, thumbs down on the wax apple. We bought a whole package of them, maybe 15 pieces total (for about a dollar) and ended up tossing them after they started rotting on the counter after a couple days. Fruit fail.

Belize

Lena and I just returned from Belize, where we spent our long-awaited fall vacation.   Able to take a week and a half away from work, we were just looking for a lazy, relaxing time on the beach.  Belize was perfect for this, and we found ourselves at the Coral Bay Villas in Ambergris Caye.

Though it rained for the first few days, and on and off the rest, we didn't really mind much.  We relished the opportunity to lie on the couch and read and sleep without any responsibilities.  There was enough sun for us to spend two days snorkelling, and for me to get in one day of diving, at the world-famous Blue Hole.

We arrived to Ambergris Caye on an 8-seater Cessna that landed at a little airstrip on the island after a 15-minute flight from Belize International Airport. 

The roads in San Pedro - Ambergris's town - are mostly unpaved, and as it was the rainy season, this meant the roads were just long tracks of soppy mud, over which it took about 15 minutes to go the half mile to our hotel.

Once we got there, we were very impressed by the room - a one-bedroom condo with a full kitchen and a balcony overlooking the beach, where we ate breakfast each day.

   

We also spent time exploring the beach and lounging around doing not much of anything.

   

The reef just off the shore is one of the longest barrier reefs in the world, and home to all kinds of interesting fish and marine life, including sharks and rays - non-agressive - with whom you can swim.  When we parked near the reef for our second day of snorkelling, sharks and rays surrounded the boat.  Check out this video we took right off the side of the boat.

Download shark_ray_alley.wmv

These dogs also enjoyed Belize's laid-back atmosphere.

After our week at Ambergris, we headed back to the mainland to visit Lamanai, one of the oldest Mayan sites in Central America.  The trip started out with a 2-hour bus ride to the town of Orange Walk, then an hour boat ride down the New River, to the park where the ruins stand.  Lamanai thrived about 1500 years ago, and has only recently been excavated.  It's not on the scale of some of the other Mayan sites like Tikal or Copan, but it is still quite impressive.

 

The tour included a climb up the main temple, from where there was a spectacular view over the treetops.

Looking down from the temple top.

We returned to Belize City for our final day and a half, and took a day trip to the Belize Zoo, which is actually one of the better zoos I've been to.  The animals are in large, natural enclosures and seem content and well-cared-for.  Some of them even take small breaks outside their cages.  We came across a grey fox that was just walking around the grounds.  Then there was this guy that was perched on a railing outside its area.  We were a bit freaked out and notified a caretaker.  He said not to worry - sometimes they just come out to walk around, but that it'll go back.  Sure enough, the animal watched us for a few minutes, then apparently got hungry, jumped onto the fence, climbed up, and then jumped onto a tree inside the enclosure. 

We met this girl on the bus on the way to the zoo.

Didn't know what a Tapir was until we came to the zoo.  Very cute animal, called a 'mountain cow' in Belize.  Looks like a cross between a horse and a pig, with an elephant trunk stub for a nose.

Also saw a crocodile.

 

And a very colorful toucan.

 

And then it was home again.

Be sure to check out the Belize photo album, to the left, or here.

Toronto & Niagara

Went up to Niagara Falls and Toronto for a long weekend last week.  It was Lena's first trip to Canada, and I hadn't been to this side in probably close to 20 years. We flew into Buffalo and then drove a rental car to Niagara.  Stayed at the Trillium Bed & Breakfast in Niagara on the Canadian side and the Mulberry in Toronto. 

The Trillium was pretty basic - just a mid-70s house that had been turned into accomodation, but the owner was nice and the location - a 5-minute drive up from the falls - convenient.

The Mulberry is in an old house in downtown Toronto, with a lot of character and full of knicknacks and photos from the owners' trips around the world - Persian carpets, Peruvian decorations and the like.  Of the two, the Mulberry had the better breakfast, though neither was stellar.

Niagara

Here's the Falls from above, and the Maid of the Mist on its way.  Lena and I got on the boat, which was a lot of fun.  Unsurprisingly, the falls are far more magnificent from up close.

The Falls were packed with tourists, and after riding on the Maid of the Mist, there's not a hell of a lot to do in Niagara if you don't want to gamble or visit cheesy attractions like the Ripley's museum.

So, we headed up to the quiet old towne of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a pleasant drive north on the Niagara parkway, stopping along the way to buy fresh fruit, maple syrup and wine from the many farms and fruitstands.

Some scenes from Niagara-on-the-Lake.  It's a town full of flowers.

 

Toronto

Toronto's not a beautiful city, but full of interesting things to do, and our 2 1/2 days there were packed. 

First stop was the CN Tower.  I've always thought this was one of the world's most stunning buildings.  It, of course, defines the Toronto skyline and city views from most places within the city.  But there's something powerful about this tv tower that you don't get from others, like the Ostankino in Moscow, or "Tashkent Tower" in, well, Tashkent.  Its design seems both timeless and signature 1970s at the same time.

If you don't look too closely, this vertical panoramic picture came out ok.  Was cloudy most of the time time in the city, however.

A few years ago, a glass floor was installed on the bottom of the CN Tower's viewing level.  Standing on it is one of the city's more remarkable experiences.  You know it's solid - they make the point that it could hold the weight of 14 adult hippos - but your brain does not click with the fact that you're standing over 1200 feet of air, looking down to the ground.  The floor is only visible in several small sections, around which crowds of people stand and gingerly step onto - while holding onto loved ones.

Apparently, the floor was installed on the entire level, but people had difficulty walking on it - seriously, you get vertigo - so they covered most of it.  It's difficult to get pictures downward because of the contrast between the bright outside and dark inside.

Lena and I worked out an exchange.  We would spend our half-day on Monday at the Hockey Hall of Fame, if we could go to the Bata Shoe Museum on Saturday, which we did.  My expectations for this museum were far exceeded.  It was actual a very interesting museum, that put shoes into different well-explained cultural and historical contexts, all very attractively laid-out.

Our first evening in Toronto, we saw the musical Lord of the Rings.  First clue about its quality was that they are practically giving away tickets.  We got orchestra seats for $35, as opposed to the $120 if you buy off the website.  After opening in May, its run is ending quite a bit earlier than originally expected.  It was engrossing to watch - simply because it's clearly a million-dollar production with all kinds of moving stage parts and special effects.  But trying to fit a 1000-page book into a 3-hour musical (where you have to add the songs) just doesn't work.  It needed 9 hours of movie!  There's no way you could understand the story if you hadn't read the book or seen the movie (not that that really applies to anyone), as they have to breeze through all the explanations.  Also, much of LOTR is battle scenes, in both the book and movie.  It's not easy to do massive, 100,000-strong-army battle scenes on a stage, and they didn't have much success, reducing them to sort of interpretive-dances.  But those get old after the first couple times.  Anyway, not a waste, as it was worth the price of the tickets (in Canadian dollars), though I would have felt cheated if I'd paid $120.

On Sunday, we met grad school friend and Toronto native Lorra, who took us to a fabulous dim sum in Chinatown, at a place hidden away on the third floor of some a building without any English signs. 

During the meal, I got a phone call from Seattle that my new nephew, Jacob Simon Spinak, had been born!  Afterward, we trawled the neighborhood's fruit markets and found cheap delicious cherries, and longans - a southeast Asian delight we hadn't been able to find since returning from that part of the world.

In the afternoon,  we took a tour of the city with Tap into TO - a free "Toronto Ambassadors" program that hooks you up with native Torontoans who show you their city.  Our guide was Amber, who was actually from Edmonton, but had lived in Toronto for 14 years.  She's an Oilers fan, and while waiting for 40 minutes for a bus that never came, we talked about their playoff run and what it's like to be an Oilers fan in Maple-Leaf country.  She showed us the historical part of Toronto, which is very scant, considering most of the city burned down in the early 1900s.

The tour included Toronto's old city hall - now a court, and going past the Hudson Bay Company, Canada's proud department store.  It's interesting how proud Canadians are of their chain stores - several people, Amber included, repeatedly encouraged us to go to Tim Horton's, a ubiquitous donut chain, in order to complete our Canada experience.  Lena and I couldn't imagine Americans imploring visitors "you have to go to McDonald's!  you can't leave the US without trying Burger King!".  I'd imagine its because so much of their culture is imported from the US that they feel attached to those few things that are native Canadian - even if they are just mediocre vestiges of consumerism.

The Canadians do love to mock George Bush.

On Sunday evening, we dined at Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant - basically an overpriced version of Friday's with some hockey memorabilia and pictures of the Great One, but the food was actually rather good, especially the cinammon apple tortilla we had for dessert.

Then we went to Second City for their evening show, which was stroke-inducing hilarious.  Much more mocking of Bush, and also of conservative Canadian premier Stephen Harper - who's seen, apparently, as a Bush stooge, and destroyer of Canada's precious social welfare system.  Second City is, of course, where many famous Canadian comics got started, including Mike Myers, Dan Akroyd, John Candy.  I'm sure we'll see some of those who we saw on Sunday on Saturday Night Live in a couple years.

On Monday, we finally made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  I had been there once before as a kid, but it's completely changed since then. 

Lena and I both got to try out our hockey skills in the interactive section.

We both failed miserably.  I think I stopped one shot, and Lena scored one goal.

Felt the glory of 24 Stanley Cups in the replica Montreal Canadiens dressing room.

The quirky World Hockey Association display case.

Lena was exceedingly pleased when she beat me in overtime, 2-1, in table hockey.

In the international exhibit, the jerseys of hockey powerhouses Israel and Turkey.

Lena gives the Pioneer salute in honor of Vladislav Tretiak, and then examines the Calder Trophy for best rookie, awarded this year to our own Alexander Ovechkin.

And...after many long years, I finally get to kiss the Cup.

Dushanbe - Bishkek Flight

   Am currently travelling in Central Asia for work.  Any flight north out of Dushanbe is a dazzling show in itself worth the price of a window seat.  Yesterday morning, I argued my way through Tajik customs, which always tries to scam you, and got on an Antonov-24 propeller plane to Bishkek, taking in the breathtaking Tien Shan mountains.

Seattle

We visted my sister Naomi in Seattle over the Memorial Day weekend.  It was both Lena and my first time out in seattle.

Naomi and her husband Dave live on Bainbridge island, which is a half-hour ferry ride from downtown Seattle.  During the weekend, we spent most of our time in Seattle, so we rode the ferry six times.

Seattle's famous skyline, from the ferry.  The building on the right is Smith Tower, built in 1914.  It was the tallest building in the world outside of Manhattan when constructed.  It no longer has that distinction.

The old section of town houses many used bookstores, which Naomi was excited to peruse as we wandered around.  Naomi and Lena also made friends with this wooden fellow.

No Seattle view is complete without this familiar awning.

One of the city's most famous tourist attractions is a tour of the underground - the old first level of Seattle before it was cemented over in order to avoid frequent flooding.

We spent some time at Pike's market - a fish and farmer's market in the town center.  Nearby, we found a Russian baker whose fabulously rich and caloric pastries attracted long lines worth the wait.   

Naomi and Dave enjoy their new books in a non-Starbucks coffee shop.  I defend Lena from a vicious Naomi on the ferry ride home.

Some updates

This has been a long time since we last updated our blog. I guess this is one of the signs of being married and actually entering the daily routine with work/family responsibilities... Well, it could also have a simple explanation that we got LAZY... Guilty!

To catch up, since our last post in November, we both still work at the same places. And getting used to new American way of living... Oh, and we both are now both big hockey fans, well one more than the other... But it's a lot of fun to watch the actual game, I have to admit.

 

We even went to the Washington Capitals game on my Birthday!

We did spend a real Birthday though in Annapolis, MD.

Very pretty and quiet town, perfect for a nice weekend for two. We did stay in a nice bed & breakfast at this house built back in 1850. The room though had a jacuzzi.

   

Aside from just walking around that weekend we went to Japanese Steakhouse.

   

It was a lot of fun, seeing the food being cooked right in front of you and actually having very funny chef doing it all.

Everyone probably knows Kia by now- the cutest dog in the world and of all times, and that is a very objective observation!!! She also enjoyed the weekend at Ari’s parents and even had a photo session later that weekend.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!