There's a Frog in My Toilet …

Only in Florida. When we moved down here in 2004, I knew we’d encounter some creatures we’d never seen before — like alligators and cockroaches. Two years ago, when we bought our house, we had a run-in with snake that still give me the shudders (he got stuck in the dryer vent and came to a most unpleasant end).

But this … well, this one is pretty shocking.

I’ll set the scene. I had just come home from work at GrowingBolder.com. We’re in the middle of tearing out our master bathroom, so I was smashing out some shower tiles, when I heard Lucas say “Um, Katy? Can you come down here? Now?” He had a weird tone in his voice that had me throwing off the safety goggles and running downstairs.

“When was the last time you went in the powder room?” “I dunno, an hour ago?” “Go look under the toilet seat.”

And keep in mind, I had to raise the seat, which we always keep down because of the two dogs and two cats. Here is what I found.

(Blogger note — the brown spot next to him was some kind of sludge that he dragged in with him … or left behind once he was in the bowl.)

That is a FROG, people … who must have come up through the plumbing! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. I ran screaming, and left Lucas to deal with the frog on his own. He scooped him out and threw him outside. Now, of course, I have visions of snakes and rats and frogs biting my butt.

TMI? Maybe. But I know that if one of you found a frog in your toilet, I’d want to know.

So, after dispatching the frog, we decided to go out for New Year’s Eve Pho. We discovered Pho during our Seattle/Portland trip in the summer of ’08, and it’s one of our favorite meals. I had chicken, Lucas had beef, and we split some steamed rice cakes and stir-fried veggies.

So delicious! We ate at Anh Hong. I can’t find a Web site, but it always gets an amazing review from Orlando Weekly, and it’s one of our favorite places.

After dinner, we decided to wander next door to the Asian market, and I am SO.GLAD.WE.DID. We spent nearly an hour in the aisles, looking at all of the bizarre juices (artichoke, fish, etc), fresh seafood, baked goods, candies and vegetables (including the most TEENY TINY baby bok choy). We wanted one of everything in the store, but decided to pick a few items that we had never tried before. For me, that included sesame candy and some dried sweet olives. Lucas was much more adventurous and chose a mung bean cake with durian and a green gelatinous cake with layers.

At first, I was worried that our little experiment might be a bust, because the olives were terrible.

I couldn’t get a whole olive down, and Lucas took one nibble and agreed with me that this would never make it into our shopping cart again. But then I washed down the nasty taste with some delicious sesame candy that reminded me of a fruit rollup that had been covered in small seeds.

When we got home, we decided to try the other treats. First, the mung bean cake.

And before you see what happened, make sure you review exactly what durian is here. Here’s a brief snippet:

The durianis a fruit. Widely known and revered in Asia and Southeast Asia as the “King of Fruits”, the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odor, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb). Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale-yellow to red, depending on the species.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Regarded by some as fragrant, others as overpowering and offensive, the smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia.

It’s stinky, and I know this from watching Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern on The Travel Channel. But the cake itself was surprisingly mild! The outer crust wasn’t all that special, so after one bite, Lucas peeled it away and ate the yellow fruit inside. Here is his experience, in pictures.

As you can probably tell, the order in which we liked this cake went this way: Junior, Faegan, Lucas, Katy. It tasted okay, but the texture was weird … very grainy. Lucas compared it to semi-sweet refried beans. The most bizarre part was the dogs’ reaction. They like food, but they never act like this — we could barely get the cake in our mouths because they kept leaping onto us. And look at them sit and wait patiently! They did NOT get to taste the cake. But they loved the smell.

Then, we figured we might as well try the other cake.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. I couldn’t get a full bite down. Lucas hung in there a little longer, but only ate a quarter of the green goo. Actually, the goo wasn’t so bad — it reminded me of those sticky toys that we used to get in the quarter machines at KMart … you know, the ones that you’d whip across the room onto a wall then watch it slide down? But the cake part was nasty. The cake was made with coconut milk, mung bean, sugar and some other stuff. Shudder.

So, that was New Year’s Eve in pictures. We had a great holiday — staying up to watch the ball drop, sharing some champagne, and celebrating what we hope is a wonderful 2009. I just posted another blog at Growing Bolder, so make sure you check that out, too.