It has been ages since I last blogged. Many things had happened over the past 9 months or so, that kept me really busy and occupied – the renovation and moving in to my new culinary studio, busy with assignments and everything else.
In one of my previous posts I talked about the background of my chocolate crafting, that I grew up in a cocoa farm of my late grandpa. This recent Chinese New Year, I went back to Teluk Intan, my hometown, to visit my relatives, and I grabbed the golden opportunity to visit my childhood playground with my camera. I haven’t been back for about two years, since grandma passed away…
To my pleasant surprise, what greeted me at the entrance were blossoms of pink lotus flowers, the most beautiful I’ve seen in a long long time. I’ve always hunted high and low in every country that I go to, to shoot lotus flowers, and now they are just in my backyard!
In my memory, all the streams were planted with white lotus flowers when I was a little girl. I had a lot of fond memories with the streams as I used to catch fish, shrimps, tadpoles and swim in them throughout my childhood.
More surprises were lining up for me…I found out that not only some of the cocoa trees were still alive, they were bearing fruits heavily! I took all the photos I could, even the tools that my grandpa used for fermenting and drying the cocoa seeds.
Cocoa pods on the trees…the yellow ones were ripe and ready to be harvested.
Cocoa pod cut to reveal seeds. The seeds would be fermented and sun dried before being processed.
Tools for fermenting and drying cocoa seeds. The wooden box in the middle is for fermentation, the wooden stands and netting for drying. These are at least 3 decades old…
Not only I got to photograph the cocoa pods, I also managed to taste some durians (king of fruits) and rambutans (same family as the lychee). They were really yummy!
Durian on the tree.
Rambutans in heavy bunches…
All I can say is that I had a really rewarding trip back to my hometown this round. Although I do not live there anymore, it’s a place that left me so many fond memories and will always have a soft spot in my heart, I will hopefully be back sooooon!!!!
Cooking Heals 
Hi CY, We are an advertising agency and are looking to expand our list of food stylist to help set-up shot for photography. Do you accept freelance food styling jobs? If yes, could you contact me and we can have a discussion over it. Regards, Steven