Moved

It is heart warming to see the donation pools being set up all over the city. Seems like every one in this country is directly involved in helping out the victims of flood that has been terrorizing many provinces in Thailands. In time like this, any form of help is meaningful. Some choose to be at the spot helping out with food preparation and transport, some are involved in the medication and treatment, while others are contributing materials, either food, clean drinking water, medicine, or money.



The management office of our apartment has arranged to collect donations from the residents here. Recommended donation items are clothes, medicine, rice, and canned food. T just reminded me to accumulate our old clothes to give away for this good cause. Rice and canned food are also in our donation list.



Experiencing all this in our neighborhood just raised a question why my office has not shown any interest in extending any help at all. Nothing has been initiated so far… is it because everyone is just too busy and carried away with their duties and projects?



While rain is still pouring all over in various places around the country and there is no sign that it is going to stop any sooner, all we can hope is that more people are moved to help.

Strawberries

If you have noticed, I have never used raspberries or cranberries in any of my baking and dessert. I could drool over their beautiful look in the magazines but their pricing never failed to make me switch to something else. In fact, raspberries and cranberries are considered the most expensive imported fruits in Thailand. Luckily from the presentation point of view, they are replaceable by strawberries which are priced half or one third.



While locally grown in the Northern part of Thailand, Thai strawberries are not in the same quality as the imported ones, either in size, appearance and price. That is the reason why imported strawberries are made available in most of the supermarkets and somehow affordable for almost everyone from all walks of life. On the other hand, raspberries and cranberries are only sold in the high class supermarkets.



Thai strawberries are in the market only at a very limited period of time – normally at the end of the year. I used to feel so happy during those months because I could line up many recipes that involve strawberries and bake to my utmost joy. But unfortunately, my enthusiasm towards local strawberry had gradually diminish over the years as I couldn’t help but notice that regardless its external look was very closed to the imported strawberry, its internal look quickly put me off. Once sliced, local strawberry showed plain red flesh without the tint of white or pinkish shades. This was just not appealing to the eyes when served on the plates or photographed.



Since then I had switched to imported strawberries. And as time went by, I had encountered different kinds of strawberries. Those from USA are big and the most beautiful of all, Australian ones have longish shape which are unique, and Korean ones are cutest due to their tiny and closed to perfect heart shape (displayed in these pictures).

Do feel free to share with me the look of your local strawberries and the kind of strawberry that is your favorite.