Eating Stingray in Singapore

After a long day of sightseeing and exploring, a serendipitous encounter with stingray at the hawker stalls made our night. It wasn't on the radar of things to eat in Singapore, but why not? Traveling is all about trying new things, even if unexpected, right?

Traditionally, it's served comes with sambal sauce -- a spicy sauce made from a variety of chili peppers and shrimp paste, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, shallot, green onions, limes, sugar, and vinegar. My friend can't handle spicy foods, so we opted for the non-spicy garlic version... and it really hit the spot.

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Plated on top of the banana leaf that was used to cook it in,  the stingray was coated with a generous layer of freshly chopped garlic and sprinkled with onions, which looked and smelled absolutely amazing.

Upon our first bite, we were surprised to find that it was quite tender -- not the chewy texture of squid that I was expecting. It's a bit crispy at the bottom, but it only added to the deliciousness. It didn't take us very long to finish everything and then we continued to picked at it some more until all that was left was the banana leaf and burnt garlic.

"Dude... should we get another...?"

We didn't, but every time we talk about this meal we wish we had gone for a second order.