Fruits: Pineapple

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One of my favourite fruits – nanas (Malay for ‘pineapple’). It’s a fruit that goes well with cocktails, drinks, jellies, and even dishes like sweet-sour pork. The only fuss about the fruit is ridding it of the spines (which cuts the tongue and sometimes makes eating a nasty experience despite its sweetness). Pineapples are rich in Vitamin C and great if you have a strong stomach.

Pineapple, also 'ong lye' (in Hokkien), symbolises prosperity and you'll find lots of auspicious items during Chinese New Year bearing semblence of the fruit. Perhaps it's the yellow flesh (pun on the colour = fortune or 'wang') that has inspired lots of pastry recipes for the festive season. Recently my mother bought a bottle of pineapple tarts - so lovely they were my husband and I finished them off in 2 days!

My folks often frighten me about pineapples causing painful cramps, corroding the lining of the stomach (causing a ‘hole’) or gastric pains.

As for the myth that pineapples can help induce childbirth, I think it might be true afterall. No prizes for guessing what I drank the night before I gave birth – fresh pineapple juice! I recall being so thirsty I really couldn’t care less as long as I had a cup of my favourite fruit. During pregnancy, there were nights I ate nothing but cans of Del Monte sliced pineapple when I lost appetite. (My mother would have killed me if she had known then!)

Last night, I bought a pineapple along with the ice-jelly and can of mandarin oranges. It costs only S$1.00! One thing I love about being a Singaporean and living on this island is the massive range of fruits readily available here.

After wrestling with the pineapple and trying to cut off the spines...

One portion for a pineapple-lover (me).

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