Sunday bridges: in Mulu, Borneo

http://bayphoto.blogspot.com/


Much of Sarawak, Borneo is low lying and swampy. Many of the houses are built with stilts which my British teen aged pen friend exclaimed," Your house has legs." This is actually a clever way, when it floods, the house is safe from water.

We were in Mulu, and the resort was in the highlands. Still the buildings were built on stilts. I looked down and realised why. It was very muddy, and there were lots of roots ready to trip you. The stilts were very high, and bridges link one building to another.

We had our lunch, a soya chicken, with vegetables and a clear soup served all at the same time. We ate the Malaysian way, a spoon and a fork. The spoon we use to scoop our rice. Instead of dessert, we had fresh fruit. Sam was very happy as he loves water melon and coming from winter in New Zealand, he didn't get to eat a lot of that here. Besides water melons are very expensive in Auckland, and mean me, I don't buy often.

Miss Fries and durian

Miss Fries was my Math and Physics teacher when I was in Methodist school, in Sibu, Sarawak Borneo. I admired her for coming all the way from USA to teach us. I admired her more when she told us more about herself when she came to stay with us in 1999. I wish I could write her memoir.

Today, Miss Fries sent an email. I am so pleased she remembered Sam's birthday. Sam was born 7 years after Andrew died. He is my pride and joy. God made me whole again.

Sam started reading very early, and here he is at two years old reading to my American teacher. She was so impressed that she made a recording of him reading to take back to America.








There are many stories about this revered King of fruits. How do I describe the fruit. It's like a good thick custard. A good fruit is not just sweet. It should have a touch of bitterness. The best way to eat durian is to squat on the floor.

Most Europeans and China citizens do not eat durian, they can't stand the smell of it. The aroma indeed is so strong, that it is not an understatement that it smells like s***. There is a saying, if you like durian, you will come back again.

When Miss Fries came to stay with us, I was surprised she said that she eats durian.that So we bought some, and I told her," Lets eat the proper way." I got her a stool, I sat on the floor, the water engineer cut opened the durian on the floor of our balcony, we ate and laughed.

Durian is very heaty, it makes you warm and eating too much can make you very sick. We have known for ages that if you put some salt in the husk and add some unboiled water, drinking this concoction direct from the husk will counteract this. My siblings and I may be in the 21st century, and living in Australia and New Zealand, when we eat durian, we still do this.

You must never ever combine durian with alcohol. Some skeptics have ignored this and almost met with their death. One family has its own story to this warning. I won't go into details as this is a very personal issue.

Durian is an aphrodisiac. After eating durian, you have a warming effect. You know what I mean. There is a Malay saying," When the durian fall, the sarong drops." Some people take its literal meaning. In fact, it means people like durian so much that they will pawn their sarongs to get money to buy the durian. If this scenario is true, plus the pungent smell of the durian, it is far from being an aphrodisiac, if it causes fights in the family.

The water engineer and I went to buy durian. He was wearing his summer shorts in the humid Singapore. He bought the best ones, Sultan, Mountain cat or civet, D24 and the bill went to almost a hundred dollars. I was in the car, and he told me to get his wallet from his pants in the car boot. I took out his long pants and cheekily joked with the vendor that we don't have money and would he take the water engineer's pants. He laughed and said if he took our pants, he would soon be selling used pants instead of durians.

The queen of fruits, is the mangosteen. According to the Singaporeans and West Malaysians, the mangesteen is cooling, and hence an anecdote to eating too much durian. I learned this from my friends C.P. and S.L. Across the South China Sea in Borneo, it is believed that if you eat mangoesteen, you must not eat sugar, or you will die. I never had any mongoesteen when I was a child. My parents were cautious, they didn't want any of us 9 kids to die. I queried Dad, "But I will not eat sugar." Dad replied, it is not just white sugar, it is sugar hidden in biscuits and soft drinks." When I became an adult, I ate lots of mangoesteens.

I have lots more durian stories, I think I will leave them in my book.

Just one more for the road, the cultural centre, the oddly shaped Esplanade building, in Singapore has the look of the durian. Initially people got upset when it was referred as such. Soon, it became a term of endearment. Everyone calls it the Durian. Since the durian is such a well loved fruit, why not?

Sibu aka Sibau fruit

Common Name: Pulasan,Sibau fruit.
Botanical Name: Nephelium natubile
Specimens From: Malaysia
I was born in Sibu, in Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

Sibu was named after the local Sibau fruit. This fruit is similar to the hairy rambutan fruit that people cultivate. The Sibau fruit is a wild tree that grows in the jungle.

The natives pick them and sell them at the road side stalls. My grand dad did a lot of trade with the natives in upper Rejang river and we exchanged the Sibau fruits with Grand dad's grocery and other items like fish hooks and sinkers. It looks like an egg size hedge hog. The skin is thick and you open the fruit with a twist.

One day when I was living in Singapore, I saw the fruits in the market. I was full of nostalgia and bought some and shared my joy with my neighbours. They have never seen a fruit like this.

Ten years later, it has become a fashionable fruit tree. In West Malaysia, people were growing them in their back yard, and the markets in Singapore were selling a lot of them. Most people didn't however know what its name is. Of course, it is a grafted type, and the fruits are much bigger than the jungle ones.

In West Malaysia, they call it the Pulasan which in Malay means twist.

The grafted ones were sweet with a tangy taste but not as nice as the rambutan. When I saw them last July, I bought them for nostalgic reasons. They were also very difficult to twist to open. Full of sap, so I put my hand in a plastic bag, and used a knife to cut it open.

My West Malaysian friend teased me that my Sibu fruit was of inferior quality.

Pineapples

In the town Sarikei, in Sarawak Borneo, where my Dad worked for some years as the Divisional Education Officer, the pineapple is the mascot. This tall statue stands at the waterfront.


I grew up in Borneo and we lived in Sibu town. My Grandpa had a rubber small holding where he grew almost everything. It was like a paradise farmlet. We loved visiting him in the holidays, we swam in the Rejang river, climbed all sorts of fruit trees. He had patches of pineapple clumps.

We used to steal his green pineapples. We didn't unterstand why he was so protective of his pineapples as there were heaps of fruits. It was only as adults, when my siblings reminsced about Grandpa's pineappes did we realise why he was so protective. He was actually protecting us.

The green pineapple hurts our throats and tongues after we ate them. It made our tongues and throats so itchy and nothing could help. We also had to run to his outhouse. We sheepishly went to Grandpa and confess we stole his green pineapples.

Sarawak is famous for her "Sarawak Pineapple." When I went to live in Singapore, they started selling them for S$12 each. The Singaporean say this is such a good pineapple, they didn't mind paying a fortune for it. Whenever I visited sarawa, they would ask me to take some for them. I said," I wasn't going to lug the pineapples back when they could buy them there. All good things must come to an end, some smart alec smuggled some seedlings and grew them in Thailand. The Thai Sarawak pineapples sold for a friction of the price of the real McCoy.

This Sarawak pineapple is one foot long. There are different types and I still regard my Grandpa's as the best. It is not soft and soggly but is crunchy. Grandpa's property was reclaimed by the Government and the days of our youth remain in our heads.

The pineapple skin is usually discarded. They are useless. In the Philippines, they now use them for making paper. My sister in law believes in organic and health food. She makes a brew with fruit skins especially citrus and pineapple skins with some sugar. The resulting brew is added to her floor cleaning detergent. This brew serves dual purposes, it removes the artificial harmful chemicals in the detergent and gives a fruity fragrance to your floor and room.

mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com

Arriving from a cold winter to a scorching 32 degrees in Singapore, these slices of Sarawak pineapple are very refreshing and thirst quenching.

Pineapple is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Its nutrients include calcium, potassium, fiber, and vitamin C. We knew from Grandpa's days that if you are constipated, or in our lingo, heaty, the pineapple will help you move your bowels. It is low in fat and cholesterol. As pineapple is rich in manganese, a trace mineral that is needed for your body to build bone and connective tissues, health practitioners say it is good for your bones.

Finally, I am letting the cat out of the bag, something the girls knew long ago. If you ate too much pineapples when you are pregnant, you will get an abortion.

This cut pineapple is from Philipines. I brought this to my school when it was my turn to bring the "Munchies" on Friday morning. The difference between a Philippines pineapple is the skin is very thin. The New Zealanders serve them in the skin. I am still not used to that, and I peel the skin off. Old habits die hard, and Grandpa used to say, it the skin touches your mouth, that's when the sap cause the itchiness in your throat.

Carve a Craved Water melon

Crave a carved water melon,
Carve a craved water melon,
Carve a craved water melon for a craved job in a craved country.

I was never good in tongue twisters.

I was watching a documentary on New Zealand's recruitment of Thai Chef. The chefs had to do a fruit and vegetable carving presentation. Once I was in Bangkok, and was staying at the Bangkok, Dusit Thani hotel. My girls and I were admiring the vegetables presented in such a beautiful way.

This photo was taken last Year during the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyade's birthday. There was a display of fruits and vegetables so beautiful that you feel sorry to ruin it by eating.

Gingko fruits:Pak Guo

The Gingko tree, the leaves are good for your memory.

The Chinese use the gingko nut for sweets. They are very good for you.
http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/, fellow blogger and my school mate and "big sis" said she would like to be under the gingko tree. Yes, it would be lovely to see the leaves. Just don't look down when the fruits are ripe.

CY, this is for you.
I bent down to find some fruits and take the photo. Because I have decided that this is a food site, I am not going to tell you my reaction. Do go to my other site and you will understand why.
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2010/04/fso-trees-2-gingko-trees.html

Water guava: Jambu Madu: Thai Rose apple

In Borneo, we called this kind of guava, water guava or Jambu Madu. It is very sweet and juicy. My parents had a couple of trees and we used to have buckets of the fruits. Some times we dipped it in salt or the sour plum powder.

These two photos were taken in my Uncle Albert's garden in Miri. If you see carefully at the green guava photo, you can see the red ants. I was stung badly while I was photographing the fruits. Apparently the ants had a function, they pollinate the flowers. Without them, there will be no fruits.

About ten years ago, Singapore started to import the Thai rose apple (chompoo). There are several varieties of rose apples, with the most common in Thailand having a light green green skin. They were very expensive and grace the fruit baskets in hotels.

I lamented the times when I didn't appreciate the buckets and buckets of fruits we had from our trees. To be honest, I had so much of them as a kid that I don't really fancy them. I bought some Thai ones for nostalgic reasons. Just as well my kids and the water engineer didn't like them.