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How to Eat a Cockroach

I get asked all the time whether I eat strange foods while traveling. And to answer this question, yes.

Among the stranger delicacies throughout Asian cuisine, cockroaches of various species are on the high class menu.

Personally, I could go my entire life and never even see one of these again, and it would still be too soon. But it seems apparent that these disgusting creatures aren’t going anywhere. They’re found everywhere on earth. And because I travel native style, it’s time to man up and eat one like a local.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD_QNjA3TWg&w=560&h=315]

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Singapore Day Two: Part Two:

In the evening, I headed over to Little India to experience what all the fuss was about: the food.

Just past Mustafa Center is the section of town that leads to Arab Street, the famed location of many amazing restaurants and even the growing glamour of Kampong Glam (Glam Village).  Here, you’ll find an array of delicacies – not the least of which is stingray sauté.

And of course, how can one eat out with friends and not share some “shisha?”

Shisha is a long time favorite item of restaurant goers here.  After dark, younger adults to  senior citizens group-order food and wash it all back with a bubbly brew of their choosing – much to the chagrin of the Muslim locals in the area.

The key ingredient, though, is flavored tobacco from a giant water bong known as a hookah.  And because of the way that it is inhaled, it’s both incredibly addictive and extremely harmful.  In fact, it’s about 200 times more dangerous than smoking cigarettes.  But that doesn’t seem to stop these anxious smokers from indulging.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7AAe_dq8MQ&w=560&h=315]

In any case, after some lovely eats and chats with others having a coke-and-a-toke, I ended my night by catching up on journals and planning for the next day.  Which, of course, was epic.

Be sure to come back in a couple days and check out the video from indoor skydiving, swimming with man-eating sharks, a mile-high cable car and much more!

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Singapore Day Two: Part One:

Today, I was in for another wonderful day of heat.  But I won’t complain about that anymore than to just say that I sweat non-stop for every moment that I was not indoors.  In fact, for the most part, If I was awake I was pretty much sweating the entire time.

That’s not to say that all places in Singapore are hot.  In fact they love their malls so much that they air condition the sidewalks just so that people are comfortable walking around to buy things.  Now that’s a generation of dedicated shoppers.

And amazing malls aren’t the only things that I’d see on my photo-walk through Singapore’s Bugis area.  I must have walked seven or eight miles throughout the course of the day, too.  And while incorporating old colonial era architecture with the new age design of the world’s elite planners, this region of Singapore is truly worth the work to see.

It was nice to see just how much of the old cultural influence still has a hold on this futuristic, artsy, progressive city.

I stayed mostly away from the myriad shopping complexes in the city.  I know that Singapore is famous for its shopping.  But because of that, I am sure there are other places to find documentaries and blogs about them.  No, sir.  This trip was more about squeezing the “real” Singapore out of this place.

And where better than cultural heritage spots, museums and the old quarters.  In this tiny island nation, there are plenty of those.  But luckily, while the culture is spread out all over, the museums and dedicated architecture has a centralized location and can be browsed at an even walking pace in one afternoon or so.

I eventually made my way around to the opulent palace-like hotel where the original Singapore Sling was invented and first served.  There is a lot of history in this place as well.

In 1887, the Sarkies brothers, Armenian emigrants, opened this bar in its first form – a 10 room bungalow.  From there, its success was certain.

It soon grew into what was known around the world as the classy-people’s diner.  Ngiam Tong Boon invented the Singapore sling, which now costs a bewildering $26 and tastes like costs much less.  The very last of the world’s Singaporean Tigers was shot dead underneath a pool table, having escaped from the zoo and finally cornered here.  In 1991 it had a $160-million renovation which brought it to its present form.  And if you’re in the area and have an extra $750 lying around, feel free to book a room.

After cooling down and taking a breather, I headed back out to continue my photo walk to check out what else there was.  There are churches and cathedrals all over the place.  And there’s no need for a guide to make it around to all these places.  Anyone walking around in this area likely works or lives there.  So they should be able to direct you to all the hot spots.

And speaking of hot spots, I stopped by the Cafe La Caire and made some new friends, ate some great food and made another wonderful memory for the second day of my trip.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRn9-3PfrTM&w=560&h=315]

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Malacca: Day 1

Recommendation number one: Don’t drive to Malacca.  Take a bus, take a train – hitchhike.  Just don’t drive here.  The maps are wrong, the locals are directionally impaired and when you finally find the one road that is supposed to be a straight shot from the highway, it turns out to be a zig-zagging version of a city planners bad joke.  It winds through suburbs, combines with other tandem roadways and if you ever need to make a u-turn, forget about it unless you’re willing to take the 5-mile detour needed to get back on track.

But once you’re here, it almost seems worth it.  Just kidding.  It’s quite awesome, I must say.  I have only been to China Town and Little India so far, and I arrived at 5pm today.  So even in the short time since being here (currently around midnight), I’ve already had a great time.

After booking a nice, quiet hotel off the beaten track, I was able to find this nice little sectioned-off parcel of road that closes it’s access to cars and sets up shop for the foot traffic.  I ran into this kooky, little, old lady with a mask shop containing enough wood carvings to answer for the mysterious bare spots in the various rain forests of the world.

I’m not kidding.  This woman had more masks than the prop closet on Broadway.  I was in heaven.  I love masks so much that I nearly asked her if I could set up a cot in the back and spend the night checking them all out.  I didn’t, though.  Instead, I talked her into letting me film all throughout the shop and even got an impromptu interview – though, I am not sure that she knew it was happening.  And I think that she really didn’t like being on camera once she found out.

At first, she told me to stop filming.  But I whipped out a business card and told her that I’d put her in my latest documentary and she loosened right up.  So I will try and put the outtakes on my YouTube channel and in this blog (time allowing).

I ate what they said was a “large” pizza on the corner of the main statue in front of this makeshift night market and kept cruising the shops until late in the evening.

Once I realized how hungry I was from not having filled the coffers on the quasi-large pizza, I headed over to this Pakistani restaurant that the hotel manager suggested for me.  The food was excellent and I was happy that I took his advice.

The spicy chicken tandoori that I tried was de-li-SHUS!  And it should have been, because I was told by the hotel management that it was the best in Malacca… e’hem.  Uh, that’s, the best in Malaysia.

The chicken is open-roasted on a spit.  They rub the spices on it that you order and give you a choice of dipping sauces.  I took the “herb dip,” which included garlic and Italian spices.  In addition, the reason that people are actually attracted to this Pakistani restaurant in the first place is the bread.  They make it in a clay oven heated from the bottom and slap the flattened bread, spices already wiped on, right inside the giant caldron of an oven, and let it cook for about a minute.  You can add cheese to this, in which case they will roll it up into the inside and it will melt along with the rest of the ingredients at the sweltering 700-degree heat .

They serve it on a plate, normally still steaming, with a various pallet of dips which can be ordered to come with the bread.  I tried the bean curd.  And I can’t say enough about it.  It was a splendid contrast to the bold and spicy punch that the chicken packs.

Washing it all down was the famous Malaysian tea.  Just say “tea” and it is already assumed that you mean “Malaysian” style.  Normally just a black tea with either milk or soy, this tea comes hot.  But you can order it with ice as well.  I generally don’t recommend the iced version because you can never tell whether or not the water for the ice is filtered – though, the assumption is that it’s unfiltered.  But on this warm night, I figured I’d just dive in and worry about the repercussions later.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E3EJmsD3ek&w=560&h=315]

(In this article) Highly recommended: stay at ABC Hotel.  The rooms are comfortable, but don’t plan on a discount (single/double RM70 – RM90 on weekends).  The showers are hot, the AC is cold, and the management is friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating.  Contact Mr.Selvam at Mobile: 0126396577 or Email:abchotel1954@gmail.com.  Address: No:34, Jalan Kota Laksmana 3, Taman Kota Laksamana, 75200 Melaka. Phone: 062816670.