I really like trying fruit I’ve never seen, and there was LOADS I’d not seen before in the Philippines.  There were also quite a few other things…

(Note:  The last picture is a bit icky – and it’s the only thing I refused to try – , so don’t scroll right to the bottom if you’re eating or a sensitive sort of soul).

From top right, a pineapple, banana (both taste SO much sweeter than in the UK), the hairy thing is a rambutan, above that is a santol – a really citrusy, almost grapefruit type of fruit and on the left there’s a bag of pork crackling:

I can’t remember what this one is called:

But it looks like this inside:

And tastes a bit like lychee.

This is green mango, which you dip in salt (you dip pineapple in salt too.  Weird).  This was a bit bitter for me…

This is durian.  Apparently it’s really stinky but I had a cold and couldn’t smell it.  I can only imagine that the photo is so unclear as I knew what was coming despite this.  It’s absolutely disgusting.  So disgusting that I ran across the room and spat it out in the bin (not the best table etiquette while a guest in someone’s house, I admit.)  It’s like eating rotten flesh:

My favourite new  fruit  was lanzones.  It’s lovely and sweet and refreshing.  You just have to remember not to bite into the pip which is bitter and bleugh:

Lemonsito are smaller than a lime but are very, very lemony.  Mama Pat made me the most delicious lemonade from them to try to get rid of my cold.  I could drink that stuff forever.  You also squeeze them over fish and savoury things (the ones you’ve not dipped in vinegar, soy sauce or fermented shrimp sauce, which actually doesn’t leave a lot… ):

And speaking of fermented shrimp sauce, that’s the pink stuff on the left, at the fermented fish stall stand in the market.  I may have had a cold but the smell made me wretch.  I did manage to swallow the tiny bit I’d dipped something into though, and very proud of myself I was too :o) :

This is a pudding called binagol.  I was told it was a ‘root crop’ (we never established which one) cooked in coconut milk and sugar.  This was good…It was very, very heavy and a bit chewy though – I could only eat about a third:

These are bananas cooked in sugar (top) and wrapped in a sort of pastry with sugar (bottom)  These are also lovely:

Below is a pudding that Mama Pat made and she let me have this taster while it was cooling.  It’s amazing – sticky rice cooked with molasses sugar and (I think) coconut milk. Like a sticky, sweeter version of rice pudding. Yum:

I was lucky enough to go to a beautiful island one for a night with some of Jackie’s friends.  The following day a boat man went out to get us lunch.  We were given a pan of cooked shells which you had to tap in a particular way (or smash with a hammer) to release the…oh I don’t know what to call it….the snail?  I just nibbled the end of one to tick it off the list as ‘tried’! :

I tried a few other things too.  Raw fish was definitely not a favourite.  There was also the lunch I had with just Mama Pat where I put a big spoonful of something on my plate and then thought to ask what it was.  It turned out it was cow intestine.  I’m still stunned that I managed to eat all of it without reacting. :o)

And the last one- the only thing I refused to try.  Remember, don’t scroll down unless you’re ok with icky things:

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This is a balut.  I was told it was a chicken embryo/ boiled egg but a google search has suggested it’s a duck embryo / egg.  Either way, I wasn’t about to try one.  Which actually is a bit silly when you consider I eat chicken.  It seemed worse somehow though.  So instead, I took a photo: