At The Orchard

While almost everyone I know online was updating about rain on the first day of Chinese New Year, we had a sunny day in Raub, which was great because we spent the day by being outdoors.

The plan that day was to visit a fruit orchard at 10.00am before going for a dip at a nearby waterfall and have a picnic afterwards. Since we run pretty much on Malaysian time, all four cars (Dad's, ours and brother's and sis') only made our way at 11.00am! Well, just one hour later than scheduled. (^O^)

City folks, how many of you have seen local fruits still on their trees and not at a stall or supermarket shelves? (^。^)
Dokong tree. Click here for more info about the fruit.
An unripe mangosteen
Here's Raimie with a ripe one. Mangosteen turn purple when it's ripe
Just look at the white flesh ensconced in that purple cocoon. Yummy, yummy mangosteen. But  make sure your clothes aren't stained by it! (*^0^*)
Rambutan tree with red rambutans. There's the yellow variety too, called the "Rambutan Gading"
Rambutan collected and safely stashed in a plastic bag. Picking rambutans can be rather a "painful" affair. See that one "kerengga" or weaver ant on the plastic bag handle? They make their nests on trees especially fruit trees like rambutan trees and if you dare to come near the tree, the ants will attack and those tiny creatures sure can bite! Weaver ants aren't exactly unwelcomed though, as they act as a natural protector to fruit trees.

How do you pick fruits here?
By using a "galah" or pole, usually made with bamboo.
or just simply by climbing the trees and throwing down the fruit to the people waiting below.
Both instances are of course not applicable when it comes to durians. Imagine the head injury one might get waiting below for the fruit to fall down!
To enjoy durians, we just wait for the fruit to fall to the ground and pick it. Wear a helmet for protection, just in case.
Half of our bounty that day. My Dad told us while we were scattered around the orchard looking for fallen durian fruits that there were signs of a tiger visiting, judging by some eaten durians he saw there. Yes folks, tigers eat durians too. Bears like them too. Don't worry though, they aren't usually seen during the day. They come visiting at night. Lots of other "things" come at night too. Ever heard of "hantu durian"? Heh heh
Small sized durian does not mean it isn't good. This one was very, very sweet.Yummy!
Of course, while traipsing around a fruit orchard near a forest, we'd encountered plenty of bloodsuckers. Mosquitoes are pretty normal. How about "pacat" or leech? That fella on my foot was a small one, it didn't have time to get fat sucking my blood yet. It'll grow bigger as it suck your blood!
While it isn't painful to have pacat suck on you, it sure isn't a nice sight seeing blood like this afterwards!

After getting all sweaty and clammy collecting lots and lots of fruits, we drove off for a dip at a nearby waterfall!

Anyway, on the second day of CNY; a villager came looking for my Dad. A deer was caught in a trap and my Dad is usually called by both villagers and Orang Asli to help slaughter the wild animals and also sell them. This time, since we are all at home - all of us got "kijang" meat/venison to bring back home.
A "Kijang"/venison lunch - a simply fried venison with tumeric, a "masak merah" dish and sup tulang (bone soup?). The meat literally melt in our mouth. Om nom nom

My Sis cook the meat differently. Sis no 3 cook it "masak kicap". Sis no 5 cooked "rendang". Black pepper style would be nice too. ^^

Comments

  1. eih.. i saw real fruit trees before lah, not only fruits in supermarket.. in fact there are mango trees, rambutan trees and papaya trees outside my house~~ :p

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    1. Wah... can come over and eat mangoes at your housr? So long haven't had the chance to pick mangoes lah. I miss eating unripe mango dipped in soy sauce & sugar. ^^

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    2. hehehehe, those belongs to the neighbours!! oh, but they are not those small little mango you eat unripe, but big ones that must eat very ripe.. what do you call those small mango huh??

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    3. Mempelam? Buah pauh? I just call them all mangga. xD

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    4. SK, you left so many comments lar! ;p ;p

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    5. haha, no idea.. just mangga that we can all hantam into our mouth!!

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    6. @ Rad: hahaha, i always spam here lah.. but too bad, Lina hasn't got any comment contest here, or else i sure is the winner!! wakakaka :D

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    7. I'm not "rajin" like SK, to make codes and count people's spam! Summore, a bit of IT challenge. Don't dare to tinker around codes. kakaka

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  2. so your dad owns this fruit orchard?? really lots of different types of fruits there huh.. and oh, that mangosteen looks really delicious, fairy white flesh is so tempting huh??

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    1. No... its a friend of Dad's. Our own land are filled with rubber trees.Not exactly edible. xD

      The white flesh of mangosteen sure is tempting. And the contrast with the purple "casing" makes it outstanding, right? ^^

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    2. oh, nice!! i mean your dad's friend's orchard.. aiyah, rubber trees not nice one, hahaha.. :D

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    3. rubber trees can be nice - when rubber price shot up! Then, everyone in the village want to be a rubber tapper! ;p

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    4. but it was way back before the 60s right?? my grandfather, dad and uncles have all sold away their rubber estate already i think..

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    5. rubber prices fluctuate lah...

      Wah, sold the rubber estate, so all kaya lah from the profit! ;)

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  3. urgh, i think as much as i wanted to go into the orchard, those kerengga and pacat (thanks, i learnt two new vocab today, wakakaka) really scared me off..

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    1. Aiyah! What is small "kerengga" and "pacat" for grown men like you!

      There are scarier things there - wild animals and spirits too, you know. ;p

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    2. hehehe, i don't like being bitten by them lah.. oh, spirits!! hey, next posts you blog about some spirits lah, i want to read~~ hehe!! :D

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  4. a very fruitful and meatful day huh?? longgoks of fruits from the orchard and a deer from the hunter!! wow.. somemore different types of cooking for the deer, all your sis having competitions is it?? :D

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    1. LOL Yeah, fruitful and meatful. xD

      We all have different taste. ;) And I happen to be the laziest cook of us all. ^^

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    2. hehehehe, and i definitely can see that.. :p

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  5. You are describing a fascinating world.
    How different all our lives are.

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    1. It's always fascinating to learn about each other's culture. As you me and I you. ^^

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  6. If you're not careful, I'm going to start enjoying this blog more than your Japan one.

    Mangosteen and rambutan? Never heard of it. Rambutan looks a bit like a lychee?

    I started grinning when I read this post. Picking wild fruit, bloodsuckers and insects, killing your own dinner ... it sounds just like Africa! ^^

    What is the meaning of the expression "lah" that commenters often add? (My fascination with your language continues.)

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    1. Noooo!!!! I want you to equally love my blogs. I promise I do the same to yours too. ;)

      Yes, kinda like lychee but rambutans have thicker flesh. A tad less sweet too. There another fruit that is similar to lychee and we call the fruit "mata kucing" - cat's eye. Small, thin flesh but oh so sweet. :)

      Oh yes, we are barbarians too in this part of the world. At least no foreigners asked me whether I lived on trees yet. xD We should totally meet up and swap stories one day. ;)

      "lah" is usually use as an emphasize in a sentence. I myself use it a lot in conversations - even while talking in English.

      Now that you are interested about a bit of our language - you should totally look-up on "Manglish". There is a delightful book by author Lee Su Kim titled Malaysian English at its wackiest; which delve into this hodge-podge of Malaysian English-with bits of Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil thrown in. Come to Malaysia and be prepared to be utterly confused and bewildred by our spoken English! LOL

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    2. Oh! Forgot to mention. Lychee fruits aren't hairy. Rambutans sure are hairy. Hence the name rambutan. "Rambut" is Malay for hair. ;)

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    3. I can buy that book on Amazon! Oh, help, here we go again.

      I love that word "bladibarsket". Perfect to snarl at reckless cyclists in Tokyo!

      I wish I could buy all your fruit in Tokyo, but even if it were available, it would cost more than Japan's budget deficit.

      OK, deal, we'll have a "savage barbarian one-upwoman-ship competition" one day. Preferably in Asakusa. Our cockroaches are bigger than yours lah!

      (Am I using lah correctly?)

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    4. You so clever lah! Catch up real quick one! ;)

      I was thinking of getting the book (or something similar as the book wasn't in stock at the nearby MPH bookstore here) for you. Have you ordered it yet?

      I was told that mangosteen is sold for 100yen a piece in Japan. I can so make money selling fruits there! LOL

      Yeah yeah your cockroaches are big. But have you ever seen a frog the size of a hen? @.@

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    5. I haven't ordered it yet. You're thinking of getting it for me? Fu-yoh! (Yikes. I hope I'm using this stuff correctly. Fu-yoh is an exclamation of surprise? If I'm wrong, please forgive and correct.)

      So ... shall we do the African/Malaysian trading/haggling thing and start a fruit import/export business?

      Frog the size of a hen?! I'm almost too scared to ask for proof, but ... OK ... what kind of frog is that?

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    6. Spot on with fu-yoh! You'll blend well with us here. ^^

      Now that's a business idea. You have to do the haggling. I'm exceptionally bad at it.

      That frog? Beats me what its called. LOL Remember I once mentioned about them and we'd sell the frogs to nearby Chinese Restaurants in my hometown when I was little? ;)

      We catch it at the stream in front of our old house. Haven't seen those froggies in ages though. The new terraced house my parents live in now doesn't have any creepy crawlies waiting to be caught and eaten or sold. xD

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    7. I hate haggling, but I had to learn to do it. If haggling fails, try intimidation and violence ... :D

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  7. hadehhhh sodap nya kijang tuuuuuu..

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    1. memang sodap. Jahat aku ek, makan tak ajak ko pun. muekeke

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  8. I am pretty sure I have left a comment on to this post... ummm it's gone!

    I was talking about the fact we only had various fruit trees at our old house, and my grandpa also had many more trees in his yard.

    I'm familiar with fruit trees. It's getting easier to tell what trees are just by the leaves ;p

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    1. Having a big yard with lots of trees is nice. My parents old home had lots of fruit trees too. Now that they live in a terrace house, the only plants I see are flower plants. xD

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