I have this pandanus craze and I am determine to find that special pandanus Autumn Belle has been posting about. Yes that one she uses in cooking and baking. I decided to go seek it out since I have seen pandanus growing wild here on the island. Well I started in the North where I live and came across a Swampy Town sign. In passing I have seen this sign before and always wondered about it. So I decided to explore, just maybe I will find some wild pandanus. I turned left at the Swampy Town sign and continued along this partially paved road.
There were about four houses along this road so I decided to stop and ask some old timers sitting in their verandah. "Hello there " I shouted from the car, "is this the way to Swampy Town"? The old man replied "this is Swampy Town". I asked "where is the town"? He laughed and told me that there was never a town. So I asked "where is the swamp then"? He told me that the swamp was not in Swampy Town. So I asked why is the name of this place Swampy Town, he laughed and said that he didn't know that was just how he came and found it . I thanked him and made my way out and continued looking, for what? Oh! the Pandanus!
this road looks like it had seen better days and there was no pandanus to be seen!
this tall grass looks like sugar cane , young sugar cane it is, but where is the pandanus?
So I decided to go in the opposite direction towards the sea and lo and behold I saw a bunch of weathered pandanus. I looked further and saw more and more. I got out the car and tried tearing a piece to see if it had a smell. The razor sharp spines nearly tore the skin off my fingers, but there was no smell. Autumn Belle.... I am having a problem here.
So I a called a Singaporian lady who lives on the island. Yes she has a pandan plant, however some other Malaysians and Singaporians have asked for plants as well. She had no babies at all, but plan to grow some for all of us. I will ask her to let me just come and get a sniff so that I will recognize it whenever I find it. Tune in same place and same time ....the search continues
