Pandanus

(Picture) Pandan leaves in our garden

This morning, hubby and I went to the Garden Center to get some baby spring onions. We bought some spring onions and celery sprouts to grow at home.

Then we saw two pots of pandan leaves. This is the first time I saw pandan leaves sold in Okinawa.
The local name for it is "niou adan" (say : ni-oh-oo + a-dang) or fragrant pandanus.

Picture from Google

There are lots of pandanus fascicularis grown on the beach on the northern side of Okinawa main island.
Pandan is the name of the plant in the Malay language, taken from its original Pandanus source.
The local name for this plant is Adan (say : a-dang). This is why they call the kitchen pandan as niou adan because of the plant physical similarities and niou or fragrant is stronger in the kitchen variety.

That's all folks.

Haiku Kacang Botol/Botor

Jika berminat mengulas haiku ini, saya amat alu-alukan.

*Haiku ini tuaian kacang botol/botor terakhir di rumah kami (Shuri, Okinawa) untuk tahun ini sebelum musim sejuk menyerapi Okinawa.

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Are you blue, blueberry?

This is my blueberry plant. Bought it about 3 months back. When it started to bloom, the tiny fruits appeared. Then most morning, I would peep from the glass window in the living room and speak aloud..."Are my blueberries, blue today?"
At last, it is blue and I had my first blueberry with some pieces of laici.

These laici were already pink for quite sometime but we didn't pick it. I thought to leave it on the tree to make it sweeter. But that was some wrong decisions. The bats come for supper every night. Well, we see some poo on the pouch near the tree. About 20 pieces are already taken. How do we know it is 20 pieces. My husband collect all the empty shell or skin every morning.
Then today, we decided to pick all the fruits and at the same time cut off some extended branches.

Those are my garden stories. I try to put all kind of stories here. I know some writers only write about books and the like. Tell me what kind of life is that?
Writers need to have every taste, every spicy things around them to write those experience first hand in their books.
I better stop before I get carried away. I can get quite emotional when I talk about books and writing.

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さくらんぼ

That is the cherry from my sakura tree.
It is not the same as those you find in shops. This is the uncultivated kind. It is smaller and bitter. Not sweet at all, even though the seed from the original fruit is sweet.
It must be something in the ground that is different and do not produce the same result.

But proud to say this is the first lot of sakura fruits or sakuranbo or cherry from my own garden.

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初さくら-Sakura pertama

 

My own sakura

I can't remember whether the cherry was the dark, American variety or the strong, orange Japanese kind but I clearly remember carelessly throwing the cherry seed into the front porch after I finished with the fruit.
That was ten years ago. We just let the thin branch grow. Every year, beginning of spring on this island, the branch spread out its leaves. Just leaves. I was thinking this cherry tree is not healthy at all. After all, cherry trees are supposed to blossom from the beginning of the season. Anyway, we just ignored the tree. But last week, things started to change.

There you go! I remember the date you first blossomed: 20 Jan. 2012. How beautiful the numbers. 20-1-2011.

The first sakura blossom from our garden. Congratulations my dear sakura. You just stay there quietly to mature. Now, you are a lady. Virginly, blissfully pink.

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Hanya sepetak...

Herb patch

Look carefully at this herb patch which is situated behind my house. It has bitter gourd/goya (peria), mitsuba, curry leave (daun kari), tumeric plant (pohon kunyit), ginger (pohon halia), pandan leaf, pohoh durian belanda (Holland durian), avocado plant, chilli plant, shikuasa (a kind of lime) plant. That's about all I can count. All ini all, in that small plot of earth, about 10 varieties of herbs are grown by my husband. We consume those herbs everyday. I use those herbs in my cooking like soup, gravy, noodles and other stuff.

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Summer Fruits

Summer Berries

The Japanese called the deep blue berries as yamamomo. I've grown it for the past 14 years. In May this year, I saw bunches of it on the tree in my front garden. I saw this fruit the day my first short story was published. Can you figure out which news makes me more excited to receive.
Even though I have hope for my short story to go into publication long before this, but the impact of receiving the news of this blurred out to the first season of seeing the first reward from this tree which I have waited for the past 14 years.
Unfortunately, the first typhoon of this years, plucked everything off its branches. I was really saddened by this. I have looked forward to tasting the first reward.
This photo was from a friend, Zetty Yada, who went to Beijing for her honeymoon. I looked longingly at the deep purple yamamomo in the picture and pray that next year, I will be given the chance to taste it sweetness.

The pink/red berris is cherry from the sakura tree which the Japanese called as sakuranbo. The sakura tree is still young in my garden and hopefully it a few years time, it might produce some sakuranbo.

Lycee from my garden

At this point of writing, I counted about 15 ripe lycees hanging on it branches. I just hope the bird birds (don't know its name) do not get to it first. Actually, there were about 50 of them still unripe but the typhoon in May took all of it. So, I should be happy to be having those few left to taste.

Lycee again

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...and the trees are empty.

Yamamomo
Our yamamomo tree has been growing for 13 years and has no fruits yet. But early this May, I saw some tiny fruit buds. That very day, I saw the fruit buds was also the same day I received an email for the editor in Spore about the publication of my short story in Spore mainstream Malay-language newspaper. So on the very day I have two very good news. Between the publication of my first short story and the fruiting of my yamamomo plant, I was more overjoyed with the success of my plants. It took 13 years to at last told me that it would not disappoint me.
Alas, last week strong typhoon storm took all the fruits down. I was so looking forward to have a taste of my own yamamomo.
(The yamamomo in this photo is taken from a nearby park about 10 years ago. See how I craved for yamamomo that my husband was willing to climb a tree in the park to steal some).
Last week's typhoon was this year second typhoon. It surely took us by surprise. It was slow and weak almost 2 days, when it travel from the South China Sea. Then when it reached the island, it lashed so strong suddenly for the night.
All the fruits are gone. Nothing is left on the trees. We have plentiful lychee but those too are gone now.

Lychee
This is the first time ever a typhoon brought damage to our property (not only the fruits). As I said, we were taken by surprise with such strength. We were not prepared. This gave us a few lessons to be learnt. The next time, we will surely bear in mind to keep updates on local weather.

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Number 53 tyme

Bukan sekalung rantai emas, bukan sebiji mata putih berkarat atau sebuah Honda Prelude...bukan, bukan tapi dua buah bergantungan dan berjuntai-juntai. Inilah hadiah istimewa itu. Hasil titik peluhnya sendiri.

That is goya grown especially for me. Goya or bitter gourd or peria. We are eating goya almost everyday now. Some Japanese eat it raw like salad but I do a half stir-fry and eat it still crispy. It is very bitter. But I'm used to the taste. I can't compare the Okinawa goya with the goya found in Malaysia simply because I forgot the taste of the Malaysia version.

When we were newly married, I could not hold hands like this. I was very conscious of people around us looking. Menyampah! Nak tunjuk-tunjuk!
But now, that doesn't bother me anymore. Holding each other is like eating and drinking after more than 27 years into the marriage.

My birthday dinner

Replying to a question in the previous entry from Sara atorako about halal food in Okinawa. So far no muslims have died of hunger in Okinawa. Even if there is no muslim shops in Okinawa, there are varieties of Japanese food that muslims can eat. If you insist on eating halal meat, go to the dining hall at Okinawa International Center (JICA) in Urasoe. That's the only place as far as I know that serve halal meat.
Hope your stay in Okinawa is pleasant.

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Tatkala Cermai diBelandakan...

Tajuk kali ini sungguh berkobar-kobar dengan semangat keMelayuan. Tatkala cermai itu diBelandakan, namanya bertukar menjadi Cermai Belanda. Sikit pun tak berkait dengan negara Malaysia lagi. Tapi bolehkah jahrera diJepunkan?

Oh NO! Tidak!

Sejak FIL balik dari hospital, setiap pagi Otto masakkan sop tauco atau miso shiru untuk sarapannya. Dalam sop ini ada miso atau tauco. Pes miso ini seakan pes tauco yang orang melayu masukkan ke dalam kuah mi rebus. Dalam sop miso ini dimasukkan juga sayur, tauhu dll. Ia boleh dimakan dengan nasi, menjadi lauk. Sudah mencukupi sebagai satu hidangan.
Otto masak seperiuk kecil tapi FIL makan hanya sebekas sahaja setiap pagi. Yang lebih dalam periuk itu kami bertigalah harus habiskan setiap hari. Kenapa Otto masak sarapan, ada yang ingin tahu bukan?
Otto masak sarapan dan membuang air kencing FIL yang disimpan dalam botol kencing setiap pagi. Jahrera masak untuk tengah hari dan malam. Tengah hari 3 jenis lauk, malam 3 jenis lauk lain. Jadi kasihanlah pada Jahrera ya pembaca yang budiman. Janganlah kata jahrera ini bini buruk pula. Sedih, rasa terharu akibatnya.
Otto paksa jahrera habiskan sop yang berlebihan itu. Nak tahu apa jahrera kata pada dia?
"I'm not a Japanese, don't force me to eat Japanese food everyday!"
Ya betul. Ke mana jahrera pergi pun, di mana jahrera menetap pun, tekak ini masih tekak melayu lagi. Hati ini masih bersemangat melayu lagi. Bahasa ini masih melayu lagi dan lidah noghori masih menjela-jela pekat lagi.
Tak macam buah cermai itu. Dia sudah menjadi Belanda. Merah bukan kuning lagi. Dia sudah lupa asal usulnya. Walaupun dia merah di luar tapi di dalam dia masih masam. Mana boleh hilang naruni seseorang yang ada di dalam? Bukan senang berpura-pura seumur hidup.

Sebenarnya cermai itu ada di kebun jahrera. Selama ini jahrera namakan aserola tapi rupanya orang melayu menamakannya sebagai cermai belanda.

Pohon Cermai Belanda

Lepas entri bunga kesum di bawah itu, ada kawan nun jauh mengajar jahrera masak nasi kerabu dengan irisan daun kesum. Jahrera cubalah cara yang diajarkan. Sedap sangat. Tiga hari jahrera makan nasi kerabu seorang diri.

Kerabu Kesum/Cermai Belanda

Tentang baja asli untuk daun kesum itu, kalau tak jadi subur macam dalam gambar jahrera itu, jangan salahkan takdir atau jangan salahkan jahrera atau jangan salahkan kesum itu. Sebenarnya blogawan budiman kena tahu terlebih dahulu kandungan kimia dalam tanah sendiri. Kalau tanah itu tanah liat bermakna lebih bahan alkali dan air kencing yang banyak mengandungi bahan asid akan mengimbangkan kandungan kimia dalam tanah tersebut.
Jadi kalau tanah itu sudah mengandungi bahan asid dari asal, janganlah ditambah lagi dengan air kencing. Itu sudah melebihi paras asid dan mungkin kesum mendapat keracunan asid dengan air kencing itu. Berwaspadalah wahai blogawan.

Jangan kencing sebarangan sebelum mengetahui keadaan yang sebenar terlebih dulu.

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