i am not afraid to stand alone~~if Allah is by my side

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Just what is it with petai that I've fallen madly in love with? You know that green seedy thingy, stinking-in-your-mouth, stinking-in-your-pee, stinking-in-your-waste veggie.

I used to loathe petai, petai dish is a definite no-no in my list of menus. I vividly remembered a petai incident 19 years ago. I was spending my month long vacation at my kampong. My cousin who is just a year older than I spent lots of time together creating ruckus to the villagers...feeling samseng remaja konon. Our favourite hang-out, port would be on a guava tree kat tepi parit. We loved daring each other like cycling through the narrow wooden bridge and who will end up in brown water parit, who dared to touch the caterpillar, who dared to enter a deserted house at the end of the village, who will be the bravest to visit the loo past midnight. Mind you, this is a kampong. The loo was a typical cubicle not more than 1sqm, perched 5 metres away from the house.

Then one day she decided to up the stake. She took along with her 3 or 4 stalks of petai and we sat on the wooden bridge. Then she began peeling off the petai skin and chewed the petai raw. She cheekily offered one to me. Knowing it was a dare and didn't want to drop my water face you see....aper ingat budak bandor, budak Singapor tak reti makan petai ker hah? So I daringly took one, brought it into my mouth and chewed slowly. It didn't get out as slowly as it came in though. One chew and I flagged up the white flag.

I can't recall the 1st time when my tastebud agreed with petai. Was it a year ago or so? Anyhow, I fall in love with petai for all the after effect that it caused after having devouring it. Hubby loves petai too. I so loving it when hubby and I will squabble on whose fart contributes more damaged to the already polluted air?

Besides folklore saying that petai does help to reduce high-blood pressure (true or not??), I love petai simply because everyone else around me loves it. Maybe it's hereditary, an urge to continue the family tradition. I would love if my kids love petai too but unfortunately they don't. I don't blame them. Hey, it took me all of 29 years to finally befriend a petai. Maybe give them few more years down the road and they might change their minds or by then they will feel obligated to continue the family tradition. Tradisi beb, biar mati anak jangan mati petai!! Boleh gitu??

Care for PETAI, anyone?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007