I was misled....THAT much

My handful of armies, ready for battle

 My weekend report.....

 Do you know this?  Yep, rubber seeds...or what do you call it?  Actually, this wasn't what I grew up with since our crop was palm oil, not rubber.  Anyway, a short period we spent when I was 10 years old, planting hill rice, there was a big rubber tree near our field, spreading quite a significant amount of seeds.  Attractive seeds, that was the first time for me to play with those seeds.  We've got to choose the hardest seeds, hammered against each other (the technique I couldn't show you here, but most of us know how to do it).  The person with the last remaining seed/s will be declared the winner.  Honestly, I have no idea how to choose the hardest and best seed. I just go with the shiniest, then enter into battle with only hope that mine wouldn't crack.  But, lo, this time I lost, big time.

And I thought this could be done with the seeds

Anyway, what is it that I was misled about?  Well, inside that hard shell, there was white, soft inside.  I was told it could be eaten.  And that it actually the main ingredient for tempe, Indonesian traditional food, which actually made from soy beans.  All those years I thought wrong, and was so confident about it. Almost thought to actually gather it and have it for lunch. *Grin...

Anyhow, it was still a fun game, until now, except for age has taken its toll on my palm that I couldn't crack that much seeds anymore, had to ask my opponent to do it for me, and she still won.

The Champion..what a tough shell it had

Afterwards, she went on 'opening' an old coconut fruit, and to my amazement, she drank it.  Ugh, old coconut fruit?  In my experience, in contrary to the delicious taste of young coconut fruit juice, the old ones produce a bit spicy, or gassy juice, which is not to my liking, unless it's a case of emergency.

However, the one thing I like about old coconut fruit is what contained inside.  See below?  I don't know what it is called, but back home we called it 'tumbong'.  I loved to eat it, that each time anyone opened an old coconut fruit, I would be waiting nearby, hoping the fruit will produced the biggest 'tumbong' ever for me to enjoy.  There was once though, I was forbidden to eat it by an auntie, telling me girls shouldn't eat that. Again, I was misled, I was really sure. So I protested the hardest I could, that probably until the auntie had to take back her words and apologize to me.  I was running amok actually.  Well, why else, someone prevented me from something I loved so very much.

Juicy....

Maybe, these things are something that we, children of up to early eighties enjoyed doing/playing/eating.  They are almost just a memory for most of us.  Still, it's a beautiful memory to all of us.