Today we came back to Cebu from Bohol by boat and met with P, D, and their adorable kids, C and L. We went for lunch at Cafe Georg and I had a refreshing arugula, apple and blue cheese salad with almonds and grapes. Rowan ate most of it, but I had most of his tomato and garlic pasta so it all evened out in the end. I also had this great pineapple and lime juice drink which I have to try to make at home because it was just fantastic.
Then P and D took us to buy some fresh fruit from a local fruit stand by the road. The fruit stands are hidden behind blankets from the afternoon sun and are separated from the main road by a little fenced in driveway. D stepped out and came back a few minutes later with bags and bags of different types of fruit that we’ve never tried before.
“It apparently smells incredibly bad, but tastes really sweet.”
I told P that I wanted to try durian fruit because I’d just heard about it before we left for our trip. It apparently smells incredibly bad, but tastes really sweet so D was kind enough to bring one home for us.
We also had mangosteen, custard apple, rambutan, milk apple, chico (sapodilla fruit), and sour mango. My favourite was the mangosteen, which was a cross between an apple and a citrus fruit. The milk apple was mildly sweet. The custard apple was also delicately sweet but difficult to eat. The chico had the texture of a very grainy pear and was unbelievably sweet, almost as if it had molasses in it. The rambutan was good, but there wasn’t much fruit on the large pit at the centre. Sour mango is just like regular mango, except extremely sour.
The shell or peel of the durian is spiky and green-brown, and there are two fruits inside, so you have to crack open the shell on both sides. It took D a while to open it and for P to scoop out the fruit that kind of looked like a fat yellow cucumber. The fruit has the consistency of a very mushy, almost milky avocado, but with a slightly stinky and sweet taste to it. I liked it and ate two of them, while Kevin finished one off himself. It was messy though.
For dinner we went to Ching Palace for Chinese food. It was awesome and we had a whole bunch of different vegetarian dishes that we’ve never had before and I had a fresh mango juice that was just amazing.
We’re staying at P and D’s beautiful house on one of the hills surrounding Cebu City and Rowan is incredibly happy because he gets to hang out with C and L all day, play with all their toys, including racing around their living room and kitchen with little cars, and watch cartoons on TV. I’m not sure how we’re going to get him to agree to leave for Borneo. I think the lure of orangutans and crocodiles will help…