Red Kiwifruit

Following in the foot step of the peaches and plum, the kiwifruit grower in New Zealand has come up with a new variant to the green kiwifruit - the red kiwifruit.

The trend of fruit growers to mix and grow is growing intensity. There was the yellow dragon fruit, (a cross between the lemon and dragon fruit I think), the pluot (a cross between plum apricot), and something that I have yet to see here a grapple which is supposed to look like an apple and taste like a grape.

So anyway was at the supermarket and saw this red kiwifruit for sale and had absolutely had to try it.

Cut it open and it was such a big letdown. No red flesh just some reddish hue around the seed. What about the taste? This one was soft to the touch so it should have been ripe but it tasted too tangy and was a bit too hard for my liking. Not like the soft sweet juicy gold kiwi. So I guess this mutant fails.

But what else will they come up with next? A banana & strawberry? Or how about a watermelon with a pineapple?

Kua Si Mi?

I loves to stare. I stared at heaving bosoms; the food at the next table; the couple tonguing each other at the park; the old lady crossing the road; the hawker cutting up slabs of meat; the gamblers at void deck; the young adults hogging the children playground; the driver picking his nose in the next car and so on and on. I also stares at people who makes a nuisance of themselves in public - people who shout loudly on the street, in the train; people who smoke and drinks at HDB void decks or public parks.

I guess it is normal for old people to stare. But my kids will always tell me not to stare. Staring can be quite deadly here in Singapore. As this poor kid found out too late. So maybe it is a good thing that I am into running. All the better to run away when the subjects of my staring chase after me with parangs and choppers.

And by the way, for my foreign readers, the header means  'see what? (said in a menacing manner)' in Hokkien, a local dialect.

My Grandfather's House

In those days in the 1960s, my paternal grandparents were considered one of the slightly better off folks in Singapore. They stayed in Chinatown. Unfortunately, the place where the house once stood is now the Hong Lim Complex/Fook Hai Building. There are no pictures of the place available and so before my memories failed me, let me pen down what I can remember during the short and infrequent visits that I spent there during my early years.

In those days, Chinatown was informally divided into different zones or rather streets. Each street houses a special trade or people from certain part of China e.g. Sago Lane where all the death houses were or Teochew Street where all the Teochew stayed. My grandfather's house was in Pickering Street (if my memory served me correctly). This street was devoted to small business and was rather orderly unlike the next street where there were street hawkers.

The house looks something like this

The house itself was a 3 storey shop house. Unlike many of the other houses in Chinatown, the whole house ie all 3 floors were occupied by my grandfather's family.

The next street with the stalls was something like this

My grandfather runs a wholesale medical shop. The ground floor was the main shop where there was a typical counter with samples of herbs and ginseng displayed in wooden/glass counter. At the back of the shop was a small office and right at the back was an air-condition storeroom. And I guess that was what set my grandfather's apart from the other business in the area. They were one of the few business that actually had air conditioned! The most interesting thing about the ground floor was that to get from the front of the shop to the back or to upstair, one need to use a short corridor just next to the office. And guess what else is located in this corridor? Can't guess? It was a urinal! And there was no door to the urinal. Just a swinging half door (like those in the cowboy movie) and anybody walking by can see the back of the person inside doing his thing! What a weird place to have an urinal but all the guys use the urinal because it was much better and more convenient than using the 'toilet'. But more about the toilet later.

Mooshi Bakes

Went by this bakery at East Coast, thought the place looks interesting and went back after lunch for a look see look see. Turned out it belongs to the people from Awfully Chocolate and was actually a 3 in one outlet comprising the Awfully Chocolate which had relocated from Katong Mall; JooJoo (what an unimaginative name!) which sells yakitori and finally the bakery which attracted my attention, Mooshi Bakes.

Was awed into silence when I saw their cream puff was priced at $3.90! Now what type of cream puff is worth that price? Of course, curiosity sufficiently piqued, went back after work and bought 1 cream puff plus an assortment of other breads to try.

The cream puff was fairly big and filled with lots and lots of errr very creamy cream. Ha ha I know it sounds kind of crappy but that was really the only way to describe it. In fact, I asked for it to be taken away and eaten there and then but the staff insisted on putting it inside a beautiful white box claiming the cream will squirt all over. In the end not daring to having cream on my shirt, I took it home to share it with the family. Their unanimous verdict? Yummy! So how come half of it is still in the fridge? While it is nice, I think it is a tad too big and creamy and would have been nicer if it was half its size.

The other pastry that impressed my colleagues the previous day was the Mooshi Mooshi - a bun like version of the raisin cream cheese bun made famous by Barcook Bakery. Yes this one was good. Not too creamy and with just a wee bit of raisin.

The other one that I liked was the Gooey, a cheesed topped cinnamon bun. It looks a bit yucky but I am a big sucker for cinnamon so yummy. Trouble is, it cost $1.90 each which sounds like a hell lot to pay for a bun.

This picture from http://life-bite.blogspot.com/

With so many so called 'Japanese' specialty bakery sprouting all over, I seriously wonder how long this outlet with its much higher price buns will survive. But I really hope I will be proven wrong though.