Monday, October 11, 2004

A visit at the Coconut Stall

You may recall this photo I posted previously of a feast of Ubin coconuts in a mangrove setting.

This was taken at the coconut stall beside Jelutong Bridge and Jelutong River. It is a drink stall that Pedal Ubin guide likes to take a break after a long morning's ride. I have always visited there every time I visited Ubin but never spoke with the lady owner of the stall.

Last Saturday, I decided to be brave and chat the auntie up! Turns out that Mrs Zhu only runs the stall on weekends and on weekdays, she maintain her own vegetable garden at her home just a stone throw from the stall. She also grows some durian and rambutan which she sells for extra income. She lives alone on Ubin and her grandchildren all lives on mainland singapore and visits her on weekends.

I never knew that there were even residential houses near this stretch of road and she explained that there are no proper roads that leads to her home - only a dirt track. She has been running the coconut stall for over 10 years and her skills at cutting the coconut is amazing. I recorded a video of it. I will post it up once I converted it to a more manageable size.



When speaking of the prawn ponds that my family used to run on the other side of the island, Mrs Zhu excitedly told me that the prawn pond that used to be on this stretch of the Jelutong River used to be ran by her family. So if you notice the sluice gates at the Jelutong Bridge - that's remnants of Mrs Zhu's family prawn pond.

Do drop by Mrs Zhu's drink stall when you're in the vicinity. She and her 3 friendly dogs will serve up some delicious coconuts!

No comments: