Short-lived…

I blogged about how happy I was, when in the absence of the shallots/bawang merah (red onions)/chang kia (small/baby onions) from India, I was able to grab hold of some from Myanmar. Unfortunately, the happiness was short-lived as it was not in any way as fragrant, not so nice…and extremely expensive, RM26.00 per kilo, and likewise, the spring onions that I managed to get from planting them were quite disappointing, more suitable for colour and presentation only.

The good news is the ones from India are available again and I wasted no time at all in planting them in the hope of getting some spring onions that I can use with my instant noodles or whatever that I may be cooking. Unfortunately, out of the many that I planted, only two sprouted…

…but there is still some hope. The morning after I took this photograph, I spotted another one breaking through the soil. I quickly picked some more, the ones with longer roots, and planted them. Fingers crossed, these will yield a bountiful harvest.

The whole time when there were no shallots from India, there were no spring onions for sale at the market. If you go and eat kampua mee at the shops, you will not see the usual sprinkling of fried shallots and chopped spring onions on top.

My missis went and bought daun sup (Chinese celery) for use as a substitute. We would use the leaves and the stems but we would leave a bit, those parts close to the roots, intact and I took the ends and planted them. Of course, I was delighted to see that they have sprouted…

…and are growing quite well. My missus did try a few times but no, she did not fare as well.

Talking about what she planted, she bought some sweet basil sometime ago…or at least, that was what she said it was. She also saved the bottom part of the stems and the roots to plant but only one…

…survived and I don’t remember the leaves being this big in the ones she bought.

Well, it does not look like there is enough to cook for one dish. Perhaps we can pluck and drop them into our instant noodles instead.