It is a lovely morning, the sun was shining and there seem to be no sight of the rain cloud, so I decided to do some gardening at the patch behind my house...Well I did plant a varieties of herbs like the basil plants, turmeric, the lime plant that we only use the leaves...We call it ' limau purut' ...this leaves is exclusively use in the making of 'rendang' and the Thai's tom yum...a soup like dish that we Malaysian has got use to..., eaten with steaming hot rice....it is actually a Thai dish and today it can be considered as one of the many dishes that we Malaysian cook daily...a fusion of the great Asian traditional foods...that now has cross its political boarders and love by all especially the Asian...it is hot, tangy...it is a great soup to have during supper....and like any other Malay, I plant the turmeric plants for both its roots and the leaves...the roots or tuber is use as a spices, the yellow color for making curry and often mix with salt for garnishing fish before frying ......Fried fish would not taste that good without this mixture of powder turmeric and salt....it not only give flavor to the fish but also give that dark yellow crisp to the fish when well fried......Great to look and good to eat.. those fried fish.....One of my favorite....The Yam I planted not for the Yam but more for the long stems ....these long stems are cut into pieces and it makes good vegetable for making soup like dishes cook with fish in coconut milk 'masak lemak cili padi'...I did have some local basil..the leaves are use in the traditional Malay soup...Of course I do plant Pandan...how can the Malay live without pandan...it is not always use...but 'nasi lemak' would not be 'nasi lemak' without the pandan leaves...it is often use in the Malay traditional cakes for its green color and the smell of the pandan...it cannot be replace or substitute with other artificial coloring or essence....It is a must in Malay cooking...it would not be a rendang without the pandan leaves.....While doing my gardening we...my neighbor a retired army general who live just at the back of our house...had a small garden too...came out and as usual we chat...he is more adventurous with his garden...one of the plant that he has grown is the Mungai tree...a native of South India...brought by the Tamil when they migrate to this country long time ago...this tree grows tall and bear fruits that resemble the drum stick that one use in hitting drum...so we all call this vegetable Mungai or Drum stick...the tree he has planted has grown tall and because of the soft soil ...the tree began to lean...so a few weeks ago...while chatting....he say that he had to cut it down before it fell and destroy the other plants beneath it...I was rather sad when he said that...well it is his tree and I did not say anything.....after a few day he told me that he is not cutting the tree...because his wife say that the tree has just start flowering....well we look and sure enough there were many flowers...so ... thats it...the plant would soon bear fruit of mungai or the drum stick...the vegetable is one of the best bean like vegetable to cook together with meats when making curry...once cooked it really taste great....and no other vegetable taste as good in curry....Believe me...the next time you see mungai at the market....buy it and cook it with any curry....and if you are a vegetarian just make a 'dalcha' with it together with the other beans that dalcha are cook....it taste as good....not many people know the goodness of this mungai or drum stick...Ask any Tamil people and I am sure they will tell you what a great dish this mungai makes...Ask them how to prepared this vegetable before it is cook...or just write to me and I would be glad to help....It make me hungry already thinking of this mungai curry...Appetizing and real delicious...Well that is Malaysia....bless with all those dishes from it emigrant population...in this case the Tamil from South India....Coming back to the mungai that has since flowers...The Malay use to say that when a plant does not bear fruit ...visit it on a moonlit night and using the back of a knife 'parang' hit the trunk of the tree as hard without really cutting the tree trunk...by doing so the tree would soon bear fruit..and it always works....I think the reason the tree start to flowers and bear fruits is that it did not want to die before leaving behind the seed for a new generation of plants to grow...it is in a way the survival of the plants itself...I am sure there is a scientific explanation why this works for the rural farmers....so in the case of this mungai plant behind our house...I believe it knew that it is going to be cut down soon...Perhaps it sense our thoughts and with the knowledge that it would be their end...It start to bear flowers and would eventually save it species...Clever eh!!! This plant....I guess so...Now it still stand there with it white flowers and soon we would have enough of mungai for our curry pots....Well our old folks have great wisdom and it is this tradition that have kept alive the plant species that we have today...To enjoy....with our staple the great rice...That we Asian cannot live without it...