Fruit of the week (Dragon Fruit) and Arab street

It's amazing how much better E is in a week.  We battled asthma for the past week.  Two days off from school and many many breathing treatments later she is as good as new.  Thank goodness!  I will admit, it was nice for E and I to have a few days together without school.  We hadn't really had that since we have been here.  We went to the doctor and did a little exploring and shopping.  What a treat!

This week the big fruit special was "Dragon Fruit".  This is soon to become one of my favorites!  I think my favorite part is that is it extremely easy to peel and it isn't too sweet.

The dragon fruit fits in the palm of my hand (about the size of a large potato) and is bright pink with either yellow or green leaves that poke out from the sides.  Its skin is kind of rubbery and it kind of looks like a fish.  To get to the fruit you cut it in half.

The flesh is juicy white with small black soft seeds throughout.  It isn't too sweet and reminds me of a kiwi texture.  It almost has a honey type flavor.  To eat the fruit, I peeled off the outer skin and cut up the fruit.  I can eat one of these in an entire setting!  I have friends who blend the fruit into smoothies.  Yumm!

The dragon fruit is also called "pitaya" and is the fruit of several cactus plants.  There are also red dragon fruit, but I haven't tried that yet.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to Arab Street (that's the actual name of the street) with some girl friends.  What an interesting environment.  Lots of fabric shops that look like they sell sari fabric.  So many fabric shops I'm not sure which you would look at first.  I didn't look in any, but would love to browse around another day.  We got there about 7:30pm and it looked like things were just getting started.  By the time we came out of dinner the streets were packed with people sitting at tables al fresco.  Most were just drinking and chatting at the different restaurants.  I think the thing that intrigued me the most were the many men smoking Hookah pipes.  Loads of them!  

 Hookah pipes ready for use

Man smoking Hookah pipe (was trying not to be suspicious taking a photo)

I asked our waiter about them and he said that the tobacco smoked was mostly herbal and many were cherry or something of that nature.  As I sat and drank my Singapore sling, I could smell the cherry smoke surrounding us.  It was kind of pleasant and so exotic smelling.  As we walked the streets I could smell and see all of the different pipes and scents.  I didn't see a single woman smoking one, but I would try one if I had the opportunity.

A Hookah pipe is also called a "water pipe". The tobacco that is smoked is called "shisha" (sheesha) and cooled by the water in the pipe.

Another interesting week here in Singapore!