Happy Mooncake Festival 2012

Hey everyone...it's been a long time since I last blogged...by the way, Happy Mooncake Festival! Did you eat lots of mooncakes this year?

Anyway, I would just like to share this peculiar little food that can only be found during mooncake festival season.

It's this thing here:

Water Caltrop

It's called a water caltrop cos I think it grows underwater..(ask Mr Google for more info..heehee)

To eat it, I think we must boil it to cook it first then use a hammer(Yes, a hammer) to break the shell.

Then, remove the flaky insides and insert into mouth. lol. It's like eating chestnuts plus a hammer..more fun right? hheh

I'm pretty sure many have not seen this odd thing that looks like bull horns..am I right?

Anyway, I actually wanted to share with you one other thing that can be done with this odd "plant?"...

My grandmother used to make these into spinning toys for us..

Here's how it looks like:

I don't exactly know how to make this but I know how to play with it...hehehe

All I know is that you dig out part of the insides of the water caltrops to fit a stick in. The stick is actually from the giant incense.

Then, attach a string. (very informative right? hahha)

How to play?

Just hold the lower water caltrop and pull the string fast. The upper watter caltrop will spin really fast and the string will retract.(if you pull properly. I must say it requires some practice and 'skills' ehem.)


Okay okay I know my explanation is not really clear so here's a video of my ugly hand playing with it.. I tied the end of the string to a paper clip. Actually it's tied to a little stick to prevent the string going all the way in when retracting but the nearest to me was a paper clip at that time so I just used it..heehehe

Note: Becareful when the water caltrop is spinning as the pointy edges are VERY VERY sharp.

Why did I blog about this toy? Cos my grandmother tells us every year to learn how to make it so the skill/tradition doesn't die off..and I still have not tried making one...heheh I figured that it's fairly simple to make and if I really wanted to make one, I would be able to. My cousin knows how to make them so there's a representative from my generation right? hee hee lazy me.

Okay, that's all folks!
Tata!
Ps:  Despite being told by certain people never to stop blogging, I havent blogged in a while. I wanted to blog about my  trip to Kuching for the Rainforest World Music Festival recently...but I can't bring myself to. Too many things have happened and are happening lately. Pening kepala. smh.

Have great day everyone! Loves.