TROPICAL FRUITS INSIDE COPPER BOX

Last Sunday I went to the Bazaar market at Donggongon town and I tell you how lucky we are living in this part of the world where fruit season is a yearly affair. There were a lot of seasonal fruit on sale. As I was mingling with the crowd, I saw a friend eating wild durian so early in the morning and I stopped to ask about the price and since I’ve not eaten the fruit for a long time and bought five small durian for RM18.

There were a lot of selection to choose from whether Langsat, durian, Bambangan, tarap and many other tropical fruits. I bought one tarap fruit for RM3.00 each as I haven’t eaten it for a long time. When I was a kid I used to like this fruit but lately I dislike it because of its strong aroma. I remembered during the time when there were so many fruit trees at my parent orchard and after collecting unripe matured fruits, my grandmother would put it inside a big box made from copper. It was so heavy for us children to lift the lid at that time and sometimes it would need at least few children to lift it up. There was a time when we lifted down the lid when one of my cousins was inside the box and trapped him inside. He would scream out to be released and when our grandmother heard about what we had done, she would hit us with a rattan stick for our punishment. The fruit ripen faster when put inside the box and the smell that escapes from the box was so aromatic with different kind of tropical fruit inside the box.

Do you know that most part of Sarawak and entirely the whole of West Malaysian do not know about the Tarap fruit or scientifically called Artocarpus Odoratissimus? I was driving with three West Malaysian to Keningau last time when they saw the fruits hanging at a stall along the highway to Keningau and asked what fruit was it. I stopped at the next stall and had them tasted it and they like it very much. The best way to eat tarap fruit is by using your hand and it would be advisable you keep a bottle of water in the vehicle to wash your hand later. A popular TV program presenter amused me when he cut a durian with a knife and using fork to eat the fruit as the best and way is by using bare fingers.

There was another Sarawakian who really likes the tarap and since he has a big area to plant fruit trees, he took some seed and planted it in his hometown in Sarawak. He had been waiting for few years for the tarap to bore him fruit but to no avail. In frustration he cut down the tarap tree. As the tarap tree was planted from seed it would a long time to bore fruit.

So people go out and enjoy various types of fruits during the tropical fruit season and to those tourists, who are adventures in the local fruits, drop your forks for a while and use your bare hand instead.

LEARNING THE TRADE OF FILM MAKING

Accidentally I come across this video where a group of teenagers were asking two girls to fight (acting) and filming the act as they were producing a film. A voice could be heard where a boy asking the girls to start the fight as he has a football game to attend to later. There were quite a number of spectators watching the fight and very amusing listening to the voices where a good discount would be given to the spectators for the ticket.

Actually they were having a good time and nobody got injured but should it be left to the professionals to make a movie of this type. The teenagers should first learn the trade of movie making before they attempted to produce their film.

WASTED GOOD FOOD – PLASTIC BAG FOR ‘TA PAO’

I keep reminding friends and me during a meal when a heap of leftover would feed few poor children for a day. Some of us tend to order more than we could eat and that is where the waste of food and money arises.

Occasionally, we get invited or hosted a party at any posh restaurant or hotel and that’s where good food is served (depending on the Menu the host selected). A big smile on our face showed when seeing a long list of menu on the card and knowing most of our favourite food listed.

It started with the cold dish and in no time the plate is empty, even the decoration of leaves and flowers was snapped up. Then came the prawn’s butter, steamed codfish, Yam ring (yam baskets), spring chicken and vegetables as well as dessert. In no time after the fourth dish the focus on food slacken especially the vegetables and the fried rice.

Usually, the fried rice was barely touched and what about the other dishes half-finished and if we added about fifteen tables with many half-finished dish, surely could easily feed twenty people more. It is also a hotel’s policy that no take away are allowed and what a waste if really they throw away the leftover.

One old lady who prepared herself to ‘take away’ by bringing plastic bag, which was concealed inside her handbag, amused me. It was a wedding of my cousin’s daughter and I presume the old lady after attending functions at hotels or restaurant before was disappointed that there was so many leftover. We didn’t know the policy of the hotel was but we just tell the waiter to disregard what the old lady was doing with the food and some of the lady help with old lady stuffing the food inside the plastic bag.

I salute the bravely of the old lady for such untactful attitude but it would be advisable only with the attendance of people known to you at the table. In a private function among the family, leftover were taken away but not otherwise. In my case, I would not ‘ta pao’ but instead leave it with my siblings or cousin to do it.

I have been to many wedding, birthday and other celebrations and the habit of food wasting has not change. Like for instance my race Kadazan , they would prepare food double the invitations they send plus the not-counted families. They will not mind the leftover as long as there is no empty stomach that attended the function. The leftover can be taken back to the house for all you can eat at the house if the function was celebrated at the community hall.

We should change our wasteful custom and think of others especially hungry children in Africa and Asia. We are overfeeding our self.

TOO LONG DOES NOT GURANTEED OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE

A Taiwanese woman, who reportedly asked for divorce from her husband because his penis was too long, has been refused after a request to measure the man’s manhood was denied.

The woman, in her second attempt to divorce her husband, said that she had to bear with the pain whenever she had sex with him.

When the matter was brought up in the court recently, the judge called in a doctor to determine the length of the man’s penis.

The request was, however, denied as the length of a man’s intimate part was “very subjective”, and the judge rejected the woman’s petition and ordered her to return to her husband.

The woman said that they were married in 1995, and she applied for a divorce 10 years later, but the application was rejected the first time, though the reason for it was not very clear.

“I have never measured it before,” the Star Online quoted the man as saying about the complaints his wife made regarding the length of his penis.