After 66 years away

The restored family home at lin chuo

Ahem, decided to revive my blog. Almost 2 years ago, I wrote this post, forgotten about it and my password to the blog. Long story. Anyway, blog's revived and  brother-in-law is back from Taiwan after working there for some years. Moreover, tomorrow is Chinese new year, everything starts afresh! : )

Here's the post written a long time ago.

We went to visit my bro-in-law in Taipei and at the same time visited my Father-in-law's birth place in Jinmen 金門. No idea, where is Jinmen? No worries, I had no idea too. Jinmen is an island off the coast of China near xiamen. The taiwanese island was heavily fought over when the Chinese and the Taiwanese went to war. Heavily shelled, and if I didn't remember wrongly, a record of 40,000 shells fell onto the island in two hours. That was a hell of lot of bombs to me. Not going to talk about the famous war between the Chinese and taiwanese, that is really only interesting matters for the chinese history buffs.

Though interesting when I went on a history museum tour but seriously I couldn't listen to anyone talk about any war for 1 hour. 20 mins into the talk, the museum guide seriously sounded like the History Channel on cable and also she was rather nationalistic (over zealous in my opinion). I zoned out, it was much more interesting listening to R's relatives and FIL's account.

The most interesting part of the trip to Jinmen was my father-in-law visit to his old family home in Jinmen 金門, Taiwan after 66 years away. I have never seen my FIL so happy before. The memories which he shared with us, his raw emotions when he finally set foot into his old home and meeting his childhood playmates after being away for such a long time. 66 years! That's more that half a century ago.

It was 1945 when his family left Jinmen, set sail across the South China Sea to meet his father in Singapore right after the Japanese occupation. Leaving his old home as a boisterous 10-year old boy, that day, he returned much older at 76 years old. Age did not seem to matter to him as he wandered nimbly through his old home, reminiscing his childhood memories to us.

Normally, he speaks to us in mandarin but in his birth country, he spoke in Hokkien most of the time.

"This is the room where I stayed."

"I climbed up to the roof deck with my relatives and look at the stars at night."

"This was not kitchen then, so and so stayed here instead."

"We have a shared outdoor kitchen amongst the Lees from the village."

He doesn't seems confused about his identity. Born Chinese as Jinmen was under China till the Chinese Communist Party lost the war against Taiwanese. Now, he is Singaporean but at the same time he proudly proclaims 我是金門人！in Hokkein, his native language.

 

The original tiles are still intact. Almost peranakan colours too.

I let the pictures speak for itself or save the yarns for another post.

Fresh wasabi root from Alishan in Taiwan

Thanks for the fresh wasabi root, friends V & I

Does fresh wasabi taste different for the usual wasabi served at restaurants? The answer is a resounding yes. I have tasted freshly grated wasabi root in Tokyo and some Japanese restaurants in Singapore. Freshly grated roots are a faint green colour, lightly scented, mild but still with a kick unlike the lurid green ones from tubed wasabi. Tubed wasabi is made from horse radish, mustard powder and colouring BTW.

Couple V and I gave us the fresh wasabi from Alishan, Taiwan. Friend I's mum (Friend I is taiwanese) who came to visit had a friend who grows wasabi in her backyard in Alishan, Taiwan. So here we are, fresh wasabi. I never knew wasabi grew in Taiwan. Apparently, Taiwan imports their better quality wasabi harvest to Japan. All that I learnt from Japan Hour is that these roots need to be grown in very clean, unpolluted water and cool weather. Thanks for the root. : P

What did we do with the wasabi? R bought sashimi from Mediya and volia, dinner.

R's chirasu don with the grated wasabi

Mine, isn't it nicely presented?

Grating the wasabi, but here's one from our meal in Beer Delica, Tokyo.

Oops, I have forgotten to take a pic of the grating process. But here's a pic of our meal at Beer Delica, Tokyo, an izakaya I posted about previously. Hmmm, in Singapore, fresh wasabi is usually eaten in upscale Japanese restaurants. But in Tokyo, these can be found at Izakayas (local drinking joints). Not that out of reach after all.

Read more about Wasabi here