Weight in gold…

The first time I ate an avocado…

…was sometime in the 80’s when my mum’s cousin, my auntie, that is, who happened to be my colleague at the time, gave me some from Sabah – her sister has a fruit and vegetable garden there.

Of course I had no idea how to eat it then so I just followed her instructions. I had to split the fruit open like this…

…remove the seed and pour in some evaporated milk, add a sprinkling of sugar and eat.

I did not have any already-opened can of evaporated milk in the fridge and I had no intention of opening one so I just sprinkled a bit of low GI brown sugar…

…over the fruit and ate.

Yes, it was very nice and I enjoyed it very much, just that the thought of how the fruit cost RM7.00 EACH kept lingering in my mind and how much more enjoyment I would derive from two plates of kampua mee, with a bit of change leftover.

Indeed, this imported fruit (I think this one is from Australia) is worth its weight in gold! One problem would be how when you buy some home, they would be as hard as a rock – not ripe yet, not ready for the eating and when you think it is about time and you cut them open, they would have turned brown inside, already rotting away and all that money that you have paid for them goes straight into the drain!!! SIGHHHH!!!!

Thankfully, the ones we have been getting lately are all right and we have been buying them to eat just like that or in our salads with our meals. Like what I’ve been saying (and telling everybody), even if we have the money these days, there isn’t much we can do – the idea of travelling somewhere does not appeal to me and no, we are not that keen on dining out at all so if we can afford it, what the heck!!! Just go ahead and buy…and enjoy!!!

For one thing, my girl loves these imported fruits a lot more than our local ones so of course, this doting father will buy for her, never mind the price. She loves these kiwi fruit…

…from New Zealand too, the gold variety which does not come cheap either, RM4.50 each.

These gold ones…

…are sweeter and nicer than the green ones but they are double in price, more or less.

Well, avocados are not sweet so unless I go and add sugar like what I did, they would be perfectly all right for anyone on a low sugar diet. According to this website, a recent study published in the Nutrition Journal evaluated the effects of adding half an avocado to the standard lunch of healthy, overweight people. They discovered that avocados do not significantly impact blood sugar levels.

This website also has a lot of good things to say about kiwi fruit and much to my surprise, this one claims that ponkan…

…is good for diabetics because it is rich in fiber, has low glycemic index and is full of vitamins and other minerals.

In the past, we would get to see these Mandarins or tangerines, whatever they are called, once a year come Chinese New Year but nowadays, they are easily available, these mini ones. The ladies in the house love them so of course, I would buy them regularly for them to eat – these are RM16.00 a kilo and one kilo can yield quite a lot.

Personally, I am not into oranges. nor kiwis, but since the websites say they are all right for those of us on a low sugar diet, I may just help myself to one or two sometimes. Strange how when I googled to read up on our local tropical fruits, bananas, papaya and sweet corn (I guess that’s a vegetable), except for the latter (but I found that I coughed quite a bit after eating that), it seemed that they are all not that great for those staying away from things that are sweet.