Friday, February 6, 2015

Nature and Poultry Lies

In our hyper urban environment, we seek green at the Kallang river/Marina bay, a block away.
There, we were confused by what seemed to be a grape tree, and wondered if, with the dry weather, these pink apple snail eggs were laid too high.
We realized that there are pine trees in Singapore which make miniature cones.
We saw herons.
And other amphibious creatures.
We have also recently rediscovered the street chicken. Being naïve, I had believed what I'd heard: that all agriculture was banned in Singapore (which is why we can import meat, fruit, cheese, etc.). All lies! Street chickens are not so legal, but one can own up to 10 poultry for personal use. That's right, in my apartment I can get me some birds - including peacocks or swans! There are a few limited farms in Singapore, and it turns out we can import Canadian mutton and chicken, but not beef. I hear swan meat tastes like beef anyway.
In related news, I got a rather local (Malaysia) chicken (dead). These have several features not known in western poultry.
Which begs the question - if we're all into healthy free range chicken, then maybe we want to check out their heads and feet. I can tell this little dude did not have his beak smashed and was able to walk around.
Yes, this freaks you out, as it did to me when the little guy opened his eye. But that's because we're crazy - headless chickens were no less alive once.
It turns out these wee "Kampong Chickens", which translates roughly to homeboy chickens, can be cooked in under 30 minutes!