Food for thought

The chance to experience the local cuisine is one of the best benefits of travel. Yes, it does occasionally put me in some unpalatable situations, like those times that I had to eat frog legs or raw fish, but most of the times, I have been glad I did it. Food is so much intertwined with local culture and ecology that its impossible to understand a place well without tasting the local diet. Most of the popular food in any particular place is something made of locally grown and therefore fresher stuff and definitely healthier than the fast-food alternative.

Darwin, because of its tropical climate has a much greater variety of fruits and veggies available than many other places. The best place to find fresh stuff is the Rapid-Creek Sunday market, although getting up at 7am on the rare Sunday I am not working, needs quite a bit of motivation.



Anyways, the reason for the huge prologue is the new fruit I have recently discovered. With a red hairy exterior and white flesh inside, Rambutan tastes very sweet, and almost like తాటి ముంజలు from back home.

With my latest food fad now being to increase my fresh fruit intake, I am gulping as many rambutans, pears, kiwis and melons as I can. Another recent introduction has been the Avacado. I had it the first time in Nani anna's place in San Diego, and was surprised to find that it was grown here too in NT. A bit scared to eat it too much though due to its high fat content.

My next aim is to find some bush tucker- food eaten by native aboriginals.

Interesting tit-bit - the 'Kiwi' fruit is actually a native of India and has been brought to NZ by a missionary from India. How come I never came across this stuff back home!!