More Berries

The first time I ate fresh blackberries.


Again, Fairprice Finest were selling them at reasonable nice prices.


I'd thought they're like black-coloured raspberries, but in fact, they're totally different.


Raspberries have hollow centres, whereas blackberries are like many tiny, little berries clinging onto a central "vine". I think blackberries are nicer.


Eat fresh!

Berry Nice Berries

Perhaps I went a little berserk tonight, just a little bit.

I've never bought so much fruits, much less, so many berries, but they were irresistible!



The new Fairprice Finest is a wonderful place for fresh groceries. I love the look of rows and rows of fresh fruits on display, many of which are organic. There's even a good variety of herbs, some so fresh they're still in pots of soil.

These are among the stuff I'd bought.


Organic strawberries at a steal for $2.99 nia, so I had to buy 2 boxes. These are excellent, sweet and full of flavour.


Organic raspberries - it's the first time I ate fresh raspberries. They're sweet and slightly tangy, very nice. It's also the first time I see fresh raspberries so "cheap", at $5.90 only.


Blueberries - 2 boxes at $4.99 nia. These are non-organic, but still are fresh, firm and nice; I finished almost half a box on the bus ride home.


I told the SO he can eat as much as he wants of these power food, coz there's so much. :P

Yummilicious!


*Ngom, ngom, ngom.... slurrrp!*

They're all sweet or just slightly tangy, without the sharp, sour taste at all. Yay! Joy and happiness all round! :))

Nice, nice apples

These organic fuji apples from the US are just lovely, lovely to eat...wonderfully sweet and flavourful!

At about $5.95 for a large bag of 9 to 11 apples (depending on size of apples), they're a good deal. They're so delicious that they encourage me to eat an apple or two everyday.



These are unusual colour for raspberries.


At $9.20 a small box, I didn't buy them. :P

Groceries

From recent shopping trip.



The salad spritzer (cabernet vinaigrette dressing) is pretty cool to use. Just spray it on salads, toss in other ingredients and voila, easy peasy; tastes good too.


The expensive Thai chilli made with fresh chillies was nothing to shout about though...don't buy again.

The Sun Fuji apple from Amori is back at "aunty lucy" mart. This time at a much cheaper price compared to the last time I bought it in Feb.


However, it wasn't as sweet or as tasty this time... hmm...


My best buys of the day...both on discounts. I'm sticking to this RT for my usual morning cuppa (to save time). The Nescafe from Japan is surprising, surprisingly very good, with a smoky flavour, without the bitter aftertaste. Definitely worth buying again... can forget about the UCC (?) Blue Mountain which, more and more, is machiam like wall-paper...hardly noticeable.

Dragonfruit aka Pitaya

I had this dragonfruit and jackfruit over the weekend.

Dragon fruit (red flesh) - which has a bit more flavour than the white fleshed ones, which can taste rather bland if they're not sweet.


In contrast to the light-tasting dragonfruit, the jackfruit was strong in smell, taste, very sweet and flavourful.


Picture of the whole fruit, with easy-to-peel skin.

More photos and information on Wikipedia.

There is also a yellow-skinned dragonfruit, but I've yet to try it coz it's more expensive.

(Small photo (above) from Wikipedia)

New fruits - berries

These fresh fruits are new to me - I haven't tried them until recently because they are very expensive and are sold only at the better supermarkets. I chanced upon them at a corporate bazaar/fruit sale that was opened to the public and the stalls were selling them at discounted prices, so chiong ah!

Kiwi berries from NZ



Can just put the whole thing into my mouth, no need to peel!



They're soft and very sweet and don't have that tart / acidic taste at all...yummilicious!



If they were cheaper, I will probably eliminate the normal kiwis from my repetoire. :P


Next, fresh blueberries!

Blueberries are supposed to be high in phyto... something, which are antioxidants...good for keeping the body cells young!

The package says to wash before use, but I couldn't wait to try a few first (without washing)!

These were sweet too and they're still sitting in the fridge, together with the mangoes which I'd bought at the bazaar too, all waiting for me to devour soon!

The next thing I would like to try would be fresh raspberries. I wonder if they're usually sour?
;)

Recent grocery sighting

Bought these apples during the lunch hour at Cold Storage:

Ambrosia apples, from Canada (grown in BC)



The apple producer's website has some interesting information on a variety of apples, pears, berries and fruit-related recipes.

The apple is sweet and just crunchy (not as hard as the Washingtons)

Other grocery sightings. :

Is this langsat??



Interesting new product - blended herbs in a tube!


There's blended coriander, mint, basil, rosemary, etc. in a gel-like form, but all have rather short shelf lives (expires in Jun '08). How to use up all within such a short time?

Recent food sightings

Rectangular muffins from Cedele bakery - Blueberry-cranberry and Cuppucino



Fried Tilapia from Carrefour - fried and saltless



The "Ang Golly" that EJ mentioned; the English name is sea bream (I didn't know that!)



Red Delicious #4015...today's the day to buy 4D. ;)



There's no more MaLing at the provision shop *sob*, only the ang moh Tulips brand and this Yifon, which has ham and yet is cheaper than the ham-less ML (that's how much prestige ML commands in the market!)

Fuji apples

After having eaten the Fuji apple from Japan last Sat (for the first time), the PRC's Fuji apple I'm eating now taste blah!....so bland. The one from Japan has an intense apple flavour and was very sweet, definitely not a taste which I had tasted before. I think I will not buy PRC's Fuji apple from now on.

I saw the Japanese Wong Bok (pek chye) at Cold Storage earlier and was tempted to buy it. One whole cabbage costs about $5, perhaps $1.50 to $2 more than the PRC one. Luckily, the PRC's Wong Bok at this time of Spring (called 元宵白）usually tastes very sweet, so perhaps I'll try the Japanese version after Spring is over.

LHL can try to convince us with his "bread is bread, rice is rice" talk, but I am not convinced lah! If that were true, then there would be no such thing as 一分钱，一分货, would it? Even the Sunday Times' ranking of bread has proven that bread is not just bread, regardless of price, ok? That ranking/taste test by Violet Oon published last Sunday was like a spoof on LHL's theory...haha! And the funniest thing is that "Aunty Lucy" house brand of bread did not even get into the top 10 ranking.

Tsk, tsk, so malu!

Miscellaneous food and snacks

Some of the foodstuff I'd eaten recently. :)

Fish luncheon meat, anyone?

This Ayam brand product came out just in time during the shortage of the very comforting Maling pork luncheon meat from PRC; comes in original, spicy and black pepper flavour (as shown). It tastes ok lah...that is, after piling on the butter, cucumber and tomatoes in a sandwich!


Taiwanese vegetarian stuff made of mushroom, from this emporium I discovered at People's Park Complex that imports lots of its own Taiwanese foodstuff. It tastes like 肉酱 (meat paste), and great with porridge, though a bit salty.




I've been wondering about the English name of this fruit for ages.


I've seen the supermarts and sellers calling it 太阳瓜 （sun melon?) and honey melon or honey sun melon. They're really good, sweet and crunchy when in season (which this one is not; skin too thick) and cheap too (when in season). It's my 2nd fave fruit after the Hamid melon which we ate in Xinjiang, China (not the unripe, imported ones though).

I bought this pack of crisps at the ozzie section of "Aunty Lucy" mart when it was at the intro price of $2.95, and my, it tastes great! Best of all, it's baked and supposedly low in fat, so I can eat lots of it without feeling guilty (self-consolation only).



I've since bought 2 more packs in different flavours, but they're more pricey than even Kettle's potato chips, at $3.50 for 100g nia. I've to refrain from eating my fave Kettle's chips since I'm on a diet...coz once eat liao, can't stop!




A reprisal of my vegetarian aglio olio pasta...this time with less oil.



My fave Subway "cold cut trio" sandwich...which is great as a diet food dinner.



But I started to feel hungry around bedtime...which is a very dangerous thing...


I always ask for everything from the salad counter, plus extra olives...and usually on oregano parmesan bread, non-toasted please.

Spud's mom had just given me more of her home-baked goodies...will post next time. :)

Oops...there goes my diet!

The answer to "Guess the fruit"

Ta daa!!

Though the package says "Fresh fruits with syrup", I thought it was a mis-spelling, as I didn't see any syrup, what!?



I got a mild shock after it came out of the bag, coz I'd thought it was those Japanese sorbet dessert, coz the surface really looked like it; shocked because I had left it out on the table for several hours after I brought it home.

Then I thought: it can't be what...coz the fruit seller also didn't keep in in the fridge. *Phew!*



The inside was hard...



The skin had been peeled off, and the fruit soaked in syrup.
Ahhh...so, that's what they'd meant by "fruit in syrup"!



The skin tasted a bit like ...sweet, fruity, with a slight fermented taste...as if it had a tinge of alcohol...
I'm not sure if the fermented taste was supposed to be there, or the fruit had really started to ferment coz it was left outside of the fridge for hours!

I was a bit worried for my tummy after I ate it...



Anyway, just anyhow whacked it with some sour plum powder lah!



Verdict: It's got an interesting taste, and the white flesh inside tasted like normal fresh guava, though I'm not really keen on that syrupy exterior. I'm sure whatever syrup it's soaked in was sure to contain additives or preservatives.

So, I would still prefer to eat fresh guava fresh, without the syrup, but I would definitely dunk in into the erm...preserved sour plum powder...which er...in most likelihood, also contains preservatives and lots of salt. :P We choose our own sinful foodstuff, eh?


Guess the fruit

Guess the fruit

Just for fun, guess what fruit this is?

The package actually says "fresh fruit in syrup". :PP





I bought it at the market yesterday, but haven't tried it yet. While at the market, I had this exchange with the fruit seller (in Mandarin):

Me: (Intrigued, confused and peering intently at the fruit package) What is this?
Seller: This is good. It is xxxx (name of fruit).
Me: Got seeds inside?
Seller: I don't know, I haven't tried it yet.
Me: You haven't tried yet, then how you know it's good???
Seller: *speechless....*

*cues comedy music*
Gwa gwa gwa gwaaaaa!