Ubin

Update 23 June 2012

I thought I can give this topic a miss this year. But with so many internet searches, I better shout a bit louder instead.

Durian season is not coming to Ubin this year.

Blame the weather. Not only durians are affected, even rambutans are scarce this time round. The rubber trees are also silent, when in season their seed pods would burst overhead, dispersing their seeds in the dry weather. Whatever durians that are left on the trees were plucked by monkeys even before they are ripe.

If you are a durian lover, probably the best place to find them are the neighborhood fruit stalls who are now selling them for $2.00 – $6.00 each. I would buy a few and chill them in plastic containers. They are a delicious treat in this hot weather.

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Update 7 May 2012

Durian trees are very sensitive to the weather. The hot and dry months of April and May encourage massive blooming of its flowers, indicating plentiful harvest to be expected in July but not for season 2012. Besides bringing heavy rains, Nature’s fury with its violent Sumatra squalls menace every tree in Pulau Ubin. This time round the strongest are not spared, our favorite durian tree was toppled yesterday, crashing into a house. Not one was injured.

Update 9 April 2012

Durian season hasn’t arrived yet and so are its flowers which are yet to bloom. Please come back and check for updates in June.

Bakchang festival (粽子 or Zongzi in pinyin) falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, which is on 23 June 2012. Rice dumplings or bakchangs wrapped and cooked in traditional bamboo or pandan leaves are being sold at the neighborhood food centres, fetching as much as $3.00 each as the festival approaches.

For older folks bakchang is comfort food, with fond memories of families getting together, preparing them in huge woks. With passing of older folks with the patience and who know how to prepare them, most people have to content themselves with commercially prepared ones, sometimes made and frozen months before the festival, or hope earnestly someone will remember and share their homemade bakchangs or rice dumplings.

Pulau Ubin is probably the last place in Singapore you can see them prepared in authentic village settings, with as much as 300 dumplings prepared for a large extended family.

As an outsider, I came prepared this time. My sisters are excellent cooks, so I ask them to prepare the sought after homemade dumplings as gifts, as what is given away are returned in kind, while giving us also a welcomed chance to photograph document a passing scene.

Giant pandan tree (left) at house backyard

Giant pandan trees with leaves harvested.

Meter long pandan leaves.

Pandan leaves cut in half meter lengths. Compared to bamboo leaves where 2 pieces are used to wrap the dumpling, each half meter piece is sufficient.

It is sometimes distressful to think about fond memories of events and places disappearing in Pulau Ubin. Even healthy trees are not spared, all because they posed some remote danger. This quaint curvy coconut tree bent a bit too much and was tagged with white tape to be chopped down. I just found out the reason why when trees are being tagged in tapes and after finding trees are being felled at a rapid pace in Pulau Ubin.

Dead trees growing!