Smoked Duck from Dirty Duck Diner, Ubud

My blog's collecting dust cos I'm very busy. Just a short update on what I've been up to in June, which involved contributing to Indonesia's economy thrice. 

Went to Ubud for 4 days in early June to take a much needed break from work. My 2 months of misery has such long lasting effects - my friends think that I've undergone reformative training, and one even claims that my handphone has been hacked -___-" 

So many people have been raving about the Crispy Duck from Bebek Bengil, so I had to be one of those lemmings. I did my research before going there, so I managed to try both the crispy duck and the smoked duck (cos I can't pass up the chance not to!).

Being my greedy self, I ordered the smoked duck (comes in a standard portion for 2 people) even though I was dining there myself, just because I simply could not have gone all the way to Ubud and not try it. It costs about SGD$30 for the whole set which includes keropok crackers, rice, some sticks of satay, a vegetable dish, and 2 fruit punch. 

The smoked duck has to be preordered 24hours before, so I got my driver (yep got a driver cos I didn't want to worry about transportation) to drop me at the restaurant the day before to put in my order. They didn't require a deposit - not sure if it's cos it's low season but I read somewhere else that they do require a deposit?

The smoked duck has a very strong herby taste, and a more gamey taste than the crispy duck, which is really quite dry and pales in comparison to the rich smells and flavours of the smoked duck. The duck is smoked in a betel leaf and stuffed with traditional herbs and spices. It looks like a mummified duck (as pointed out by WKR) but it's really very soft and moist, with the meat easily falling off the bone. Definitely a must try if you go to Ubud. 

Managed to get a table on the 2nd floor, overlooking the paddy fields (which are increasingly being cleared to make way for new restaurants and hotels).  I hope that there are still rice field left in the next 5 years. 

Dirty Duck Diner (Bebek Bengil)

Jalan Hanoman, Padangtegal, Ubud

Gianyar Bali 80571, Indonesia 

Nepal Part 1 - Kathmandu

Mega long break - cos I've been busy with frivolous and not-so-frivolous things, but have been commandeered by some people to update my blog.

So after I went to Sikkim last year, I was super enthu about visiting more of the Himalayan countries. Managed to coordinate leave (nearly couldn't due to logistic issues but in the end can! win!) Went to Nepal for a non-hard core semi-trekking trip.

We could see the Himalayan mountain range from the plane window - little did we know we weren't going to see it for the next 5 days after due to bad weather!

Staying in Kathmandu must have been the most stressful part of the trip.
The fragile valley has been subjected to rapid urbanisation, and there's quite a big issue with pollution and the traffic here is really impossible. Think tiny windy roads which are not meant to accommodate huge tour buses - it's a recipe for a massive jam every day. The roads are really dusty (not sure why, because they aren't dirt roads) and when we had to wash our clothes (more about that later) the water would turn brown. I don't want to think how my lungs look like...

I was really happy to go over to Pokhara, which is really more laid back and relaxed, and most importantly (for me at least), not polluted so I can breathe lots of fresh air.

If you look past the dust (which irritated my eyes to no end) as well as the traffic (and block out the noise too), Kathmandu can be really fascinating.

Multiple modern buildings juxtaposed against temples and shrines, and the narrow roads zig-zagging all around them.

Ecofriendly leaf bowls in assorted sizes. They also have a dried version of these leaf bowls.

We also visited Durbar Square, which is located in front of the previous Royal Palace. The buildings here are built by Newari craftsmen and the intricate architecture is really amazing.

I cannot imagine the amount of time it takes to carve all the wooden screens and stone blocks (also I cannot imagine what it would be like having to clean each hole in the wooden screen everyday)

Inside the Kumari Ga, which is where the Virgin Goddess lives. Spent the time in Nepal reading lots of books (the bookstores here are amazing - extremely affordable print - I read more books here than I read in the last whole year...). I bought this book, which is a autobiography of Rashmila Shakya, one of the ex-Kumaris. It's a really easy and entertaining read, and explains the intricacies of being a Kumari, which was previously shrouded in mystery. 

The Nyatapola temple is a 5 storied pagoda. The statues on the staircase up are arranged according to strength - with man at eh bottom, followed by an elephant, gorilla etc It's a steep climb up, which wasn't made any easier as there were lots of tourists and some goats

Potter at the pottery square in Bhaktapur. This is a manually spun pottery wheel - the potter uses a stick to spin the wheel, and subsequently make his money bank.

Of course being touristy, my friend was very happy to try her hand at making a ash tray (after that she needed lots of wet wipes).

The finished product - a money bank, drying in the sun.

The multiple lines of pots/bowls lined in the sun to dry, before they are transferred to the oven. 

Lots of craftmen (and women)selling their ware

The open oven, where the pots are place in and covered with lots of straw and heated.

I can't remember which temple this was - saw so many until I was confused.

There's a portion of Durbar square that is overpopulated with its and lots of pigeons. I don't know why people keep feeding them - I'm sure that there would be an outbreak of some avian-bourne disease soon.

The other side of the pigeon-infested square

Strawberries - lots and lots of them. I didn't get a chance to buy them though cos we weren't going back to the hotel and I didn't want to drag them around the whole day.

We also visited the Bouddhanath Stupa which is one of the largest stupas in the world. The dome of the stupa has a lily pattern, and there are many multicolour prayer flags hanging from it, which makes for nice photos.

India - Darjeeling and Sikkim : Part 5: Food

Not many people know this but I don't like chicken rice and bak ku teh (I was told that I am the oat unpatriotic person :/), Indian food is really one of my least favourite cuisines. Other than my once yearly butter chicken / murtabak / roti prata craving, I don't really eat Indian food. I find the curries and spices overly aromatic and I don't particularly like the oily feeling I get after eating. 

Since I learnt my lesson in Bhutan, I armed myself with lots and lots of snacks (Hello Panda, Pocky, potato chips and Tao Kae Noi) and a whole load of instant noodles, before I went to Indian, just in case my hotels didn't have international food. Kiasu max. 

Fortunately, I didn't have to eat any of them (save for 2 days where I didn't want to eat the Indian food at the hotel restaurant but I wasn't hungry enough for instant noodles). 

This was one of the first meals we had in Darjeeling - I think it was Tibetian food and not Indian food. Lots of curries, pickled vegetables with rice. The brown soup at the front left hand corner is lentil soup, not really my cup of tea.

One of the many roadside stalls selling food - I don't know what this is called, but it's a potato mixture with what looks like dried fried noodles on top.

Check out the environmentally friendly leaf cup!

A street vendor selling Pani puri

There's a puffed cracker which he first makes a hole in, stuffs a potato spice mixture into the cavity, and dips it into a jar of turmeric soup.

Hygiene standards are very questionable.

Whereby whoever is eating it will do so straight away, before the whole cracker becomes soggy.

You can read more about Pani Puri here  I didn't eat it cos of the questionable hygiene and I'm super paranoid about getting gastroenteritis (I didn't get GE in the end! And neither did my friend who spent the whole time eating the aforementioned street food with questionable hygiene standards)

One of the many biscuit shops along the way - lots and lots of biscuits.

Random Sweet Shop

Jalebi, which is a deep fried flour based crispy snack, which is saturated with rose syrup.

I'm not sure what this is called but its' a small pieces of deep fried potatoes with spices, similar to a vegetarian version of popcorn chicken. Highly addictive.

The famous rosso gula (white ball at the back), there's a similar version which is brown in colour and comes in rose syrup. It's so insanely sweet I feel like I'm going to get diabetes just by tasting it. The little coloured balls in front are some sweets.

One of my favourite foods - thukpa, which is similar to those ban mian kind of noodles you find at the food courts/hawker centres. I'm not sure if it's a Sikkimese dish or a Nepali dish (according to some online sources it's Nepali but it's widely available in Sikkim). Since I don't eat beef, I usually go for the vegetable thukpa as most of the restaurants are quite small and only stock one kind of meat.

We ate so much thukpa cos it's one of the few dishes that I really enjoyed! I was so thrilled to have found something that I really liked, so we had it for most lunches. 

Beef Thukpa 

Vegetable Thukpa 

I think this was not thukpa but some kind of instant noodles, tasted the same to me anyway. I really love noodles compared to rice so any noodle dish is welcomed. 

Something very similar to the Thukpa - but has a different noodle base - this one is a hand made shells which are very similar to macaroni. I think the flour base they use is same as the momo skin.

The momos, which are similar to the steamed Northern Chinese dumplings - very filling and usually stuffed with vegetables (cabbage, onion), cheese or minced meat (usually beef or chicken).

This was one of the hotel meals we had - usually fried rice with some stir fried meat (or curried meat) and stir fried vegetables.

One of the breakfast dishes we had, after dragging up everyone to watch sunrise at 4am. It's a potato curry, served with flatbread (looks like chapati but they call it roti). 

Some snacks which we ate at a festival in a monastery.

Gundruk, a fermented vegetable soup which is usually eaten during winter. There's a mixture of mustard leaves, radishes, tomatoes etc inside the soup and it has a slightly sourish taste due to the fermentation process. It's quite similar taste as the szechuan sweet and sour soup we find in Singapore, just that it's not spicy.

I honestly don't know if this tomato and cheese soup is one of their local dishes, or something for westerners, but it was pretty good. I really like the fresh cheese (it's similar to ricotta) so just as long as there's cheese in anything I think it'll taste good.

 Stir fried fresh organic mushrooms. Super delicious - I don't know what kind of spices they put in but it's so good.

Stir fried pumpkin (if you remember, it's the pumpkin we bought from the village earlier).

The tasty pumpkin

These are some wild jungle vegetables which is used to make shishnu

These were some fresh millet seeds which we saw in a farm, along the way.

And this is the local alcohol, called tongba or chang (see the wiki page here). It's fermented millet seeds. Traditionally, it comes in a large bamboo cup (don't know where my bamboo cup photos went, but this one is a aluminium cup).

Drinking tongba takes a lot of time, and needs lots of patience. Hot water from a flask is poured into the bamboo cup, and the mixture is allowed to rest for about 5minutes, no stirring allowed (apparently you will get a bad headache if you stir the mixture - I think it's just the hangover). After waiting 5 minutes, you then drink the mildly sweet alcoholic mixture through the very eco friendly bamboo straw. The process is then repeated multiple times, until there is no more taste.

There's a shortcut way to drink tongba, which is to grind and squeeze the fermented millet seeds, and then sieve it through a cheesecloth. The resulting mixture is a white milky mixture which has a stronger taste. For people who are pressed for time I suppose.

This is the last post for my Darjeeling and Sikkim trip. I will do a short post on my transit in Kolkata soon. I really enjoyed my trip and am missing the times that we woke up super early (partly due to jet lag) to watch the sunrise and walking around admiring the scenery and breathing in the super fresh air. Sikkim isn't very commercialised or touristy yet, and amazing beautiful scenery. I will probably go back to visit the northern part which wasn't covered during this trip due to time constraints, and am planning a trip to Nepal next year (cannot wait! Hope my leave gets approved)

You can read more about my trip here.
Part 1
Part 2 
Part 3
Part 4