Say "Hello!" to Limehouse Lim Ah Huat*, our new (and only) plant-pal!We've always left our balcony "barren". A lush and green one would be nice but the thought of it playing host to them hateful creepy-crawlies makes me think twice about loading it with plants so to earn a spot, the plant has to be some kind of special. And Limehouse is!
He bears Calamansi limes, a citrus fruit that is a dime a dozen in Singapore but so damn hard to find here in Sydney where the boring green Tahitian lime rules. A calamansi lime, with its top end cut off, is a standard-issue garnish/condiment at hawkers' stalls in Singapore - just a squeeze of its tart and super-fragrant juice over Hokkien mee, mee siam, mee rebus and sambal takes these already flavoursome things to a whole new plane! And in that celebratory vodka, lime and soda you see there too! Hee. Those of you who've not had the pleasure of tasting it might think that I'm over-selling the power of this little fruit but I kid you not. You might also not comprehend my excitement and all the squealing when I finally found Limehouse, after years of looking in Bunnings and various nurseries, at the plant stall at our local Surry Hills markets last month!
Anyhoooo, Limehouse seems happy to be our only plant-child on the balcony and I hope he continues to be so I can have enough fruit to make some refreshing lime-ade, lime jelly and lime curd soon. Wooo! Oh, and he hasn't attracted that many insect-pals. Phew!
*We named him after Limehouse, one of our favourite characters on Justified. We thought he should have a ching-chong name too because he is, well, quite Asian. Haha. "Lim" is a very common Chinese surname and "Huat" means "to prosper", also "to sprout/grow" which we hope he does!
2 comments:
I want to be Limehouse's Uncle! I still haven't got over the apparent loss of my Calimansi Tree. It was a neighbourhood star. Everyone picked from it (sometimes I'd laugh at how kiasu one neighbour was, but I could relate too).
Then one day, some clueless people/persons from some clueless dept began chopping it down. But didn't finish the job and abandoned it. I imagine they realised it wasn't as easy a job as reckoned and gave up, or was told: "no! this one is permitted" (some fellas had come to get rid of pots not allowed in certain places).
Either way I came and found it felled like finding a war buddy fatally wounded, gasping, telling me to tell their wife he loved her. Or a horse looking a me hoping I;ll put it out of its mysery. :(
Did I feel like crying? Yes. Did I? Maybe.
... but ooooo psychic coincidence / sychronicity. Till the oither day: I'd forgotton that tried to replant what I could salvage from my calimansi . But while i was out satisfying garden-pottering urges that have been coming on since my er accident: my neighbour told me that this poor old thing I've been tending was a lime. And I had put it in the wrong place, no wonder no fruit all these years. So here's hoping I got that right now. Moved it to the other side of my house. Look out and check on it a storey below as first thing I do in the morning-ish. Ok long story. sorry. Where's me pills
xxx
Of course you can be Limehouse's uncle!
What's the name of your tree? x
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