Recently I was given this plant when I went over to visit Mylene.
The wandering jew plant from Mylene – it’s medicinal too!
It’s become a habit of ours to exchange plants and seeds. She often said that she wished most companies would give her a potted plant as a token of appreciation instead of the usual souvenirs like mugs and engraved plaques. I agree.
At least getting a plant means you get to take a life home.
She told me that this plant could help prevent ailments. Chief among those was cancer. Ooohhh.
I asked her the name of the plant but she didn’t know.
So me being the intrepid and curious sort decided to find out. I happened to have an old book on indoor plants (which I wrangled from my dad years ago – one never knows with parents. They have a propensity of throwing or giving old books away). So I looked it up and figured it’s called Wandering Jew.
The pleasure of living in the 21st century is that ANYTHING can be checked and confirmed online.
So I started browsing some websites and ended up confirming that yes, this is called an Inch Plant, a Wandering Jew plant and Tradescantia zebrina (its proper name).
Close up of the wandering jew plant
It can be a house plant or grown outside as ground cover but further reading unearthed that if you do plant it as ground cover, beware that it might overtake the entire ground! Yes, this plant may look harmless but it is invasive.
Now I am more interested in this plant as a medicinal herb (yes, this is another addition to my herbal collection which I am growing).
In Chinese, this plant is called Shui Gui Cao (Water Turtle Grass).
Accordingly, it is useful when boiled as a herb tea and drunk to clear the kidneys and for kidney problems.
The first blog link above recommends using 200 gm of the Wandering Jew leaves to be boiled with 15 dried red dates and 12 slices of ginger in a pot of 1.5 liters of water. Simmer for 1.5 hours before adding brown sugar. This tea apparently helps remove toxins from your body.
Mylene said that her friend boils this plant and drinks it for health maintenance. For now, I am contented just having it grow on the balcony. Wait till it grow a little bit bigger before I pluck its leaves for a herbal tisane!
By the way, have you come across this plant?
I have been rather tied up with things lately that I have had very little time to blog.
But today being Wesak Day, I decided to give myself a break and come back to my scribbles. Lots of you have checked in and found too few updates. I promise to be regular. The thing is, I have way too many stories to tell.
As it is Wesak today, let me tell you a story about giving. (We went to the Than Hsiang Temple just this morning. It wasn’t as packed as I’d imagined despite the number of cars on the side of the road.)
We received a lovely surprise not too long ago in the post. Thank you card from Kawan Shop in Chulia Street
It was simple yet touching. And we felt immediately humbled and thankful.
Kawan Shop is on Chulia Street, directly opposite Kassim Mustafa Nasi Kandar (yes, the one with the lipsmacking duck curry which I’ve written about yonks ago).
They are a Christian missionary project by Youth With A Mission Malaysia organisation.
The Kawan Shop depends on well-wishers and generous people to fund and sustain their missionary work. Kawan Shop is where you drop off your old but still useful clothes, electrical appliances, household items, toys, books and bits and bobs. They’ll clean these items and put them up for sale at RM5 apiece. Some items are priced at RM1 and whatever they make, the money goes to fund their work.
As I’m always cleaning out stuff from my closet and spare room, I have plenty to donate to them. We make it a point to drop off things every few months but their opening hours can be erratic.
On top of that, parking on Chulia Street on a regular day is very traumatic, with Rapid Penang buses maneuvering tight corners and narrow roads and cars parked here and there. (Did I mention our favourite beef noodles is just around the corner too?)
Anyway, if you have items to donate to Kawan Shop (better to donate than create more landfills!), make sure you call them up beforehand to ensure they are open for business (Tel: 04 261 8405 or email kawanpg@ywammalaysia.org).
I was completely surprised by the handwritten card – it was just a plain piece of card, folded into half. But to take the time to pen a note to people who support Kawan Shop, it spoke volumes to us about the team behind Kawan.
It is such a blessing to give! Handwritten message from Kawan Shop
As it is Wesak Day today, let us all experience our little moments of enlightenment here on earth!
Once a month I engage in a ritual.
It’s called nourishing my body. Actually my femaleness needs it.
I grew up drinking this brew. Mom made it a must. As I have 2 younger sisters, mom always made a pot of it. We all drank it – vile though it may look.
Taking Pat Zhen soup or Dang Gui soup immediately after our menses was to help us regulate our monthly cycles as well as nourish our bodies. Drinking this monthly also prevents severe cramping.
Anyway that ritual is still with me till today.
When I was in university, mom even egged dad to get me a mini slow cooker so I could continue making nutritious soups!
And so this habit has continued till today.
Sometimes I cheat. Instead of buying fresh chicken thigh and a plethora of herbs, I sneak off to Eu Yan Sang and get my 6 bottles of tiny pills.
With these pills, life’s easy. Just eat one bottle of pills with some warm water a day or two after the menstruation’s done.
Once in a while I buy the wrong type though. Eu Yan Sang offers bak fong as tiny pills and as a ball the size of a lime.
Last month in a hurry I bought the ones which are the size of limes. I could chew this dark thing and swallow with warm water.
That didn’t sound so palatable so I slow cooked it with some chicken. The end result isn’t as tasty as the actual pat Zhen herbs but if it is good for me, I’ll drink it. Even the most bitter brews.
Of course there are some no- nos to adhere to after you drink this. No Chinese tea or radish soup for the next 24 hours.
I wrote this post over at my Soup Queen blog and thought you might like it too.
I ate this dish made with pomelo rind while in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
It was a tasty, unique appetizer.
Have a read and tell me if you’ve had this dish before.
This is a story of James White.
He was a true adventurer in his time.
When I heard he had passed on, I felt that we had all lost something precious.
He was in his 70s but he was such a good-natured grump – I used to tease him mercilessly about how handsome he was when he was in His Majesty’s secret service. He’d turn red and mumble (as the British tend to do – they ‘swallow’ their words!) but I knew he was often pleased that I read his stories – little did I know that in his London days, he took on a lowly paid security guard job just so he could spend hours writing up his stories from his days in pre-war and post-war Malaya.
He loved the Far East.
I treasured this friendship because we would share, for hours on end, our love for books, art and technology.
For a man in his 70s, James was never afraid of technology. He lived on a modest pension but somehow he would be able to get himself the latest Canon digital camera. Photography was his love, besides his four fluffy cats called Ice, Gin, Lime and Tonic! A gathering of friends, old and new at Bon Ton Langkawi to celebrate James
I didn’t know how emotional it would be at the special sharing session at Bon Ton. It’s true that you’ll only know who your real friends are when you die.
Because at that session, hosted by Kyri (James’ Langkawi friend) and Marianda (James’ UK friend), only the real friends turned up. Kyri (standing) and Marianda
Somehow Langkawi is like that. It is a big island but it is very kampung-like. News travel fast and I bet everyone knew James had passed away. The community can be nice but most people can be bitchy. I’ve heard enough gossip to know this to be true. Like Nic often says, Langkawi reminds him of the 1980s series “Fantasy Island”. It is an island where troubled souls come to escape their problems. And when troubled souls meet other troubled souls, the sparks fly. Marianda reads tributes from James' friends who emailed her
The session was to piece together James’ life -prior to Langkawi (his Hong Kong days, his London days) and post-Langkawi (what he did on the island). Included were our own personal journeys – how we each met him and what we loved about the man who was totally indefatigable.
James often told me stories of his upbringing – how he got his surname White, his Cantonese amah (he was born in Hong Kong) and his jungle tales of Borneo (as a planter). He rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous (Kate Moss was one of them!) but he was never starstruck.
Instead he’d gape with wonder at the local bomoh he’d found, or the orang asli he befriended in his days. Such was his attitude. This white man could speak Tamil and Malay (and I think, probably native languages too) as he traversed the jungles of Malaya and Borneo in his younger days. He puts many of us Malaysians to shame today with his incredible knowledge of the land, its myths, its jungles and its people.
These meanderings of his fascinated me to no end. No doubt he’d repeat them each time we meet but I put it down to being old and forgetful. Or he just wanted to drill the stories into me. I became a fan of his stories, so much so that he emailed me his stories, asking if I could help polish them up for him. He also gave me a hastily stapled together version, in a booklet form.
I’d often remarked to Nic that I’d like to help James do P-O-D or Publish On Demand as a surprise for him one of these days. Somehow it was relegated to the back of my To Do List. I thought this year would be a good year to do it. And now James has passed on.
As I’ve said, James made my life richer (and he taught me how to appreciate gin!).
I will never again meet someone the likes of him. The world doesn’t make unique beings like that anymore. He was a British gentleman till the end, a little upset and lost at the new world. He valued love, friendship and honour and he trusted people.
But he wasn’t very fortunate because his old-world heart trusted the wrong people – he used to recount bitterly how he’d been ripped off by his “friends” on the island. Perhaps his heart broke a little each time someone turned his life upside down. I know I’d be bilious too.
Therefore, meeting his UK friend, Marianda threw up a deep connection. I was calm when I got news that James had passed on but upon meeting Marianda, I collapsed into her arms, hugging her as we both wept at our loss. Intuitively, he connected us both.
My promise is that we’d keep James’ memory alive – all his beautiful stories (fiction or fact, who knows?) of him as a planter, spy, adventurer, son of the earth.
So this year, I hope it is one of my projects – to help edit through his stories and put them on a website so that all those who knew him would be able to read his Far East tales.
I hope to get an edition published too and those who buy the book will be contributing to his favourite charity or organisation. The orang asli were his favourite people besides the Indians. We were thinking that maybe the Indian temple in Kisap would be the beneficiary (he had, after all, been cremated in a pyre at that temple, as per his last wishes). Then again, all these are just my ideas. I wonder what his friends have in mind. Final send off for James White
The next day, all of us who could make it, set off in a boat to a spot near Pulau Dayang Bunting. James’ ashes would be sunk there.
The spot we chose was secluded, near a hilly cliff-face of scraggly rocks and tall tropical trees. Two white-breasted eagles swooped overhead and landed on a tree, watching us, watching them. Tropical flowers to line the way
They started singing as we each grabbed handfuls of cempaka flowers (taken from Kyri’s garden) to scatter into the mesmerizing green sea. We took this to be a sign that yes, James would like this very spot. Marianda reads one of James' poems
His London friend, Peter, used a hammer and screwdriver to chisel a tiny hole at the bottom of the clay vessel which held the ashes. Marianda read a poem aloud – a poem penned by James in the days he started to write. In the poem, James likened himself to a bear. Some shaman told him once that he was a reincarnation of a bear, a ‘beruang’ and I think James loved the idea.
As Peter released the clay vessel into the still waters of the Langkawi sea, we all wished in our hearts for his eternal peace. He would rest well in these waters. He was finally in his tropical resting place. James' final resting place
Johnny, the other owner of The Lighthouse restaurant, popped open a bottle of champagne to toast the final send-off. James would have been pleased.
So this is for you Tuan Besar (that’s what I used to call him) – the journey has ended but we will keep your stories alive.
We’ve been here for a few days already and the cold is getting to me. Immensely! I don’t know how the local Hongkongers do it (is Hongkie a bad word to use to describe them? Someone please tell me). They are wrapped up in thick sweaters but they go about their life as if the cold was just a mere fly.
As this is my 3rd time into Hong Kong (the first time I came during summer BEFORE 1997), we’re in that in-between category – neither tourists nor working expats. We’re the sojourners and that’s a label I use because I keep thinking to myself, I really cannot live here. The cold gets to me (even at 14C and it’s March) and I layer up like kuih lapis before I dare venture outdoors.
When it’s hot, it’s hot and that’s in July or August. That’s also when the summer sale starts.
Anyway, weather aside, it’s been great just taking our time traipsing up and down Hong Kong aided by nothing but the MTR Octopus card and a HK tourist map.
I can’t help but do a comparison and contrast while sitting at the park (and despite the cramped apartment conditions here, the irony that stares you down is that the supermarkets and shopping malls in HK are large, even those located in the boondocks and their gardens and parks are just as huge).
Food-wise has been nothing short of excellent. Just like Penang, you can’t get BAD food here. It’s just not possible. But what I would give right now for a piping hot ayam varuval or mutton periatal from Little India in Penang – in this freakingly cold weather, that kind of food will just energise me right up!
Of course the roast goose, roast duck and meats and stuff do make up for this craving for spicy food. And then there’s this preoccupation with afternoon tea which starts at 2pm right up to 6pm. As I was sitting about this morning warming myself up with a mug of hot water, I speculated that the HK coffeeshops here had to include afternoon tea because without it, their coffeeshops would be empty. And like all pragmatic Chinese, why waste good rent when you can maximize it? So average coffeeshops here (“char chaan teng”) does round the clock business, starting with brekafast, lunch, tea and dinner. It’s busy all the time. Business is competitive here.
HK as a tourist (forget your 3D2N trips) and HK as a sojourner (10 slow meandering days) are as different as kopi and nai-cha.
We came here to do a few things but mostly we came here so that we can fully appreciate the lives we have in Penang.
More of my insights later…. and photos too. Right now I am using my friend’s laptop to type this while waiting for Nic to get ready so we can go for … what else?… TEA!
Today I made savoury glutinous rice (Hokkiens call it “chu bee p’hng”) for lunch. It’s one easy dish because it’s a one-pot dish and very filling too. I forgot to take some photos though so you’ll just have to put on your imagination cap for this one. Will update this post with photos when I next make some.
This is my 3rd time attempting this tweaked recipe. The first time, I didn’t steam the rice long enough. The second time, my rice was too salty. This third time, it came out beautifully. Cooking is about experimentation and never giving up.
My aunt told me it’s so easy to cook this so I decided I had to try. Plus it’s a great time-saver for people on the go. This portion below serves 2 people nicely. (A tip: if you like making your own sushi but think Japanese rice is too pricey, try using glutinous rice.)
For this recipe, you’ll need:
1.5 cups glutinous rice, washed
4-5 dried Chinese mushrooms, rehydrated in water
1/2 cup dried prawns (hae bee) soaked and drained
2 Chinese sausages (lap cheong) sliced thinly
some spring onions, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 glass of water (about 150 ml water)
1. First, soak the rice overnight. This softens them considerably and you don’t have to steam them too long. I soaked mine for more than 12 hours.
2. Next day, heat a pan with some oil and saute garlic and dried prawns. Add dried mushroom and Chinese sausages. You have to saute till all the flavours start erupting from the pan. When you are excited by the smell, you know your dish will be gorgeous.
3. Add in the drained rice. Mix well. Pour in half a glass of water. Lower fire.
4. At this stage, you will prep the stage for the flavours to combine and turn magical. Your seasoning is the key: into the mixture you will sprinkle these – some pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon soya sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil, 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. You can add 1 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine too. Stir well. By now, the water should have all been absorbed by the rice grains.
5. Turn off fire. Scoop the rice mixture into a steam-proof plate (in my case, I use a stainless steel plate).
6. Get your steamer ready. Steam this rice mixture for 20 – 30 minutes until the rice is soft and edible. Halfway during steaming, taste the rice for done-ness and also check if the water in your steamer is still available or if the water’s all steamed dry. You may need to sprinkle some water over the rice and stir the rice a bit so all the grains are evenly steamed.
7. Before serving, sprinkle chopped spring onions. Serve warm.
I have this strange satisfaction in eating the food that I grow.
When I was 10, I was already growing my own vegetable – no doubt it was a tiny patch right in front of our terrace house. It was a vegetable which to this day I call “slimy vegetable” because my mom used my harvest to make a soup with the green leafy vegetables. I don’t know what its scientific name is, till today. I do know that it produced tiny purple berries. If you squished the berries, the purple dye will stain your fingers.
I still enjoy growing herbs and vegetables because at the end of the day, I get to eat them! Ulam Raja or Wild Cosmos
Nic and I have a passion for ulams, especially ulam raja.
I am currently growing ulam raja (wild cosmos) in my backyard (also a tiny patch but what a lovely tiny patch I have). Ulam raja is an unforgettable taste. Its leaves are best eaten young and with a good dollop of kick-ass sambal belacan. Its flavour is a cross between lemon and mangga. The best way to know this is to take the fresh ulam raja and pop it in your mouth for a good chew.
This herb or ulam is quite beautiful too when it flowers. It grows easily from seeds (which you will get once the pink flowers die off) and you will always have fresh ulam to eat! Eating this ulam keeps you young (it has anti-ageing properties) and strengthens your bones (due to its high calcium content) and is a breath freshener.
Another ulam I have is one I do not know the name of! If you know the name of this ulam, please let me know. I got to know of this through my uncle. He’s a big fan of ulam with sambal belacan and he had a huge pot of this ulam in my grandma’s house compound. I plucked a few stems and propagated them successfully. This ulam has a different taste and texture compared to ulam raja. Does anyone know the name of this ulam?
Pegaga is also another ulam I grow in my backyard. I have 2 types – the round leaf variety (which you often see in ponds) and the market variety (sold in markets!). Pegaga is quite the miracle ulam, full of good stuff for your health. Nevertheless, do not over-indulge. It makes you woozy if you eat too much! Pegaga growing with peppermint
Below is a photo of the round pegaga which you can use as water plants for your aquarium (I use them in my aquarium anyway) and as food. Talk about versatility! Pegaga – as ornamental plants, as food, as aquarium decoration
Daun kaduk (wild betel leaf) is also an ulam I have though I have yet to harvest and eat this. It is quite precious as it’s still growing and it seems to take forever to grow! (Update 2015: I noticed that if you let daun kaduk grow on the ground, it grows so much faster!).
It is not daun sireh – daun kaduk is softer and you can usually find this when you eat the appetiser, Mieng Kham, in Thai restaurants. This is the leaf you use to wrap the peanuts, dried prawns, chillies and all that yummy condiments. It is also used in Nyonya dishes such as perut ikan and otak-otak. Glossy daun kaduk
I also have daun setawar – I know it’s medicinal but is it an ulam? When I was in school, we used to pluck the leaves and use them as bookmarks! Apparently, it was magic to us kids because the “anak” (or baby plants) will grow from the sides of the leaf. Daun setawar
What disappoints me is that although my chili plants are growing and flower all the time, I have yet to see any real chilis! Any chili expert grower can tell me why?
Last week I made yogurt after a long time!
I made it because Lee Choo, a journalist from Guang Ming Daily contacted me and was curious about my homemade yogurt recipe and process.
She said that many people needed to use a special yogurt maker and yogurt starter to get the yogurt made. When she came across my blog post, she was really excited because it meant anyone can make yogurt at home using the simplest tools and ingredients.
Well, I consider myself blessed because Dada Lalitesh taught me this method almost 10 years ago and I still use it and it has never failed me. Dada was my yoga teacher but we became firm friends as we shared similar interests – books, travel, eclectic movies, all things Chinese. And he’s from South America. Right now, he is in Vietnam and I met him just before he left and we still have that many things to talk about (and yoga wasn’t the topic either!)
So here it is – a step-by-step process via photos. I use Marigold brand for both yogurt and milk. I used to use milk powder and that makes a thicker yogurt compared to packet milk. Taste-wise, it’s still the same.
While Dada used to eat yogurt with fruits and muesli for breakfast, I have other uses for yogurt. I love fruit lassi’s (mango lassi is super delicious but if you can get strawberries or blueberries, they taste yums too!) and I love using yogurt to make cucumber raita. I can also use yogurt to make chicken curry. I also use yogurt to mix with mayonnaise as a not-too-calorie laden dressing for salads. The possibilities are truly endless.
But the end result is: it’s healthy. It’s good for your gut. And you’ll feel more satisfied because you made it on your own. You know what you put into it.
You can use yogurt to bathe – just slather the yogurt over your body, exfoliate with a natural loofah scrubber and then rinse well. After that, feel your skin’s ultra smoothness! Like a baby’s bottom. I always feel like I’m Cleopatra when I am using yogurt in the bath, except that she used to bathe with milk.
You can use it as a face mask too and it helps with blemishes and acne. You see, there’s plenty of ways to use yogurt. You can keep the yogurt for 3 – 5 days in the fridge (not freezer or chiller please). After the 5th day (and you don’t feel like you want to eat any more yogurt), use it for bathing and as a mask.
I haven’t really figured out why Marigold contains the right sort of live cultures (I have tried making yogurt with Dutch Lady brand and it never came out right) but Dada himself said that he uses Marigold only for best results.
Anyway, try this at home and you’ll never need to buy commercial yogurt any more! Only 2 ingredients: UHT Full Cream Milk & natural yogurt, Marigold brand
You can use milk powder too. If you use milk powder, you will need about 6 heaped tablespoons of milk powder. Mix this with room temperature water first before you add hot water. Keep adding the hot water until the milk mixture is warm (not hot please). Pour the 2 packets of milk into a pot. Heat the milk for 3 minutes. Do not bring to boil. Take a tablespoon of yogurt and mix into the warm milk. Milk must be warm to touch, not hot.
Here I must add my two cents. Stick your pinkie into the milk. If you can keep your pinkie in the milk for more than 10 seconds, it’s warm enough. If you find the milk too hot, stir the milk a bit to cool it down. We want to create a warm world for our live culture. We do not want to kill the lactobacillus strains. Pour milk mixed with yogurt into a container. Cap the lid. Wrap container with a plastic bag. Tie the ends tightly. This is the insulation your yogurt needs for the next 12 hours. Put this into a container and cover with an old towel. Again, it's for keeping in the warmth so the culture can get to work fermenting the milk.
Here I use the inner container from an old rice cooker (my old rice cooker died on me many years ago) and I never had the heart to throw out the (still) good inner container. So I line it with an old cloth and use it as my yogurt maker! Set it aside for 12 hours. After 12 hours, your milk has become yogurt. Keep it refrigerated.
How do you know if the yogurt’s done fermenting?
The mixture should not be runny like milk. You can scoop some out and the mass of yogurt stays firm on your spoon. Taste some. It will taste a little different from commercial sweet yogurt. Sweeten this with honey or fruits and you’ll be a happy bear in no time.
This recipe makes 500 ml of yogurt.
I love market days.
This morning, I was at the market and my vegetable lady had some fresh nutmeg for sale. Fresh nutmeg - aren't they beautiful?
Penang is famous for nutmeg juice and nutmeg slices and all sorts of nutmeg balms and oils because nutmeg is grown quite a fair bit on the rural side – in Balik Pulau. I think it’s because we get it so easily we kind of look upon it unkindly and don’t really appreciate the fruit for its medicinal qualities.
I bought a kilo of fresh nutmeg and the vegetable lady taught me how to cook this down into a syrup. I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen so this was just perfect (just like making roselle syrup!).
Plus nutmeg drinks are healthy and contain a host of good stuff for your body. I read that nutmeg oil stimulates the brain and relieves stress. Nutmeg on its own helps with detoxification of the liver. If you have heart problems, nutmeg can stimulate blood circulation. It can increase appetites, reduce joint and muscle pain (that’s why we have nutmeg salve and nutmeg balm), can get rid of gassiness and bloatedness, and help with coughs and colds and general respiratory issues. It removes halitosis, treats menstrual pains and is reputed to be an aphrodisiac! The only contraindication is that pregnant women should avoid taking this.
If you have trouble falling asleep, nutmeg is the answer. In fact, nutmeg is so useful, it’s a wonder why we don’t love this fruit more! Besides nutritional benefits, it seems that pagans used nutmeg as symbols of luck, money, health and fidelity. Nutmeg was so expensive back in 1800s that Europeans wore graters around their necks so they could grate their own nutmeg into their food!
OK, now that you know the nutmeg is such a wonderful spice and fruit, let’s cook the nutmeg.
Wash the fruit under running water, drain and cut the fruit up. Remove its seed. Split nutmeg, showing its seed covered in mace (the reddish stuff)
Inside is the nutmeg seed covered in the reddish skin (which is called mace and very much useful so don’t throw this seed and mace away). Dry these seeds and mace under the hot sun – now’s a good time as Penang is very warm! Perfect for sunning nutmeg seeds. According to the vegetable lady, you can crack 1 nutmeg seed into your pot of ‘tau yew bak’ (braised pork in soya sauce) for extra yumminess. So keep them. Fresh nutmeg, sliced and ready to be boiled down into a delicious syrup
Place the fruit into a pot and add 1 kg of rock sugar. I added 2 large bowls of water and put the pot over a medium fire for 15 minutes, covered. After 15 minutes, turn down the fire to its lowest and simmer for another 30 – 40 minutes (pot still covered) until the syrup has thickened slightly. Cool and store in jars in the fridge. Nutmeg syrup - ready to drink!
The syrup will be of a golden colour. Coffeeshops around Penang do serve nutmeg drinks but I’d sometimes ask if they’re freshly made or boiled. The colour of these nutmeg drinks is whitish and a friend told me why this was so. If the drink is whitish instead of a deep golden hue, it means the skin was removed before boiling. Not sure if this is true or if the coffeeshop people just blended the flesh of the nutmeg fruit! You know, like how you’d make a fresh watermelon ice blended. Just blend the fruit! One day I must investigate or ask why the colour’s different from my homemade syrup.
When you want a thirst-quenching drink, just spoon a few tablespoons of nutmeg syrup and mix with water. Top with ice cubes and serve. For the elderly, you can mix the nutmeg syrup with warm water. It makes a refreshing warm drink!
One more thing, you can reserve the softened nutmeg fruit and eat them, or you can keep them to serve with the nutmeg drink. I suppose you could dry them in the sun and eat them as a snack but I haven’t done that before. To me, it’s such a waste to throw out the nutmeg fruit.
If you have a large enough slow cooker or crockpot, you can boil this syrup overnight or more. I don’t have a big slow cooker so I did mine over a regular stove.
