Dim sum and durian

Last night we took a bus to Singapore's red-light district 'Gelang' for... food. It was refreshing to be somewhere a little grimy. People were in plastic flip flops not Prada kitten-heels and there wasn't a single franchised shop-front in sight. We sat in 'Kung Khong Coffee Shop' and the girls ordered for us and themselves, they knew what was worth trying and what was not! There were sweet potato patties, deep-friend wanton, chicken porridge, egg tarts, poached pork dumplings...

Afterwards, we walked around for a bit before settling down at a fruit market-stall selling durian "The King of Fruits"

The durian fruit is an acquired taste. Personally, I hate it. I tried it first in Indonesia and I remember thinking that it tasted so much worse than I had imagined; than it smelt. And that is saying something because the fruit STINKS, like garlic, smelly feet... Apparently though, the smellier, the better. People will spend up to £15 for one fruit, but only after a long selection process. We observed men squeezing, smelling, cutting open, tasting a fruit before purchasing it. There are different 'grades' of durian which are reflected in the price and depends on its shape, colour and smell.  

So while the rest were tucking into their durian segments, I opted for these:

Rambutan was something I ate copiously in Indonesia. 'Rambut' means 'hair', so I guess this is known as the hairy fruit, which sounds really unappetising but rest assured, it is the sweetest most refreshing fruit on this side of the equator. 

The fruit stall supplied picnic tables to its customers. It turned into a bit of a fruit party as the place got busier and busier and more and more durians were being bought; men were getting more and more het up about the particulars of their fruit, the sellers were running around with axes in their hands trying to find the perfect one before cracking it open to be sampled and bought.