The sea snail: - Balitong

This is a sea snail that I can find from the "Hutan Paya Bakau" not far from my house. some name it balitong, some name it siput sedut. For me, it is "Hang lo lo". Dont ask me why, I don't know, my late father thought me this way. :)

It is always tempting to me and I love it so much. Another food that you can hardly see now a day.

Before cooking balitong, we need to clean it because it will full of mud (of course, it live in the muddy paya bakau). Also need to chip of the tail so that you can suck the flesh out from the spiral shell.

Have you ever tasted this? Do you know how to eat this ? haha...
When I was a kid, my late father always prepared it with sweet potato, curry powder, chili powder if you want it hot, a lot of spices, onion, garlic and coconut milk. Hm... really missed it. My late father was a good cook.

I also can find this balitung in some hawker stall in KL, but most of them stir fried with "Kam Heong" style.

I also had discovered a Malay cooking style :- Masak Lemak. All tasted good but I still missed my late father's cooking...

You need to have the technique to suck out the flesh from the spiral shell. Just like you are kissing your lover. Some may suffer for hours but just cannot eat it... haha....

Shy Visitor

Can you recognised "him"? It is one kind of reptilia living in the water. We name it "four legs snake" in layman terms or "Biawak Air" in Bahasa. Even though it lives in the water but sometime it comes and visits me without prior notice. Just relaxing and sunbathing in front of my door step; Make donno when you look through the window. But once you open the door, it will run very fast, run away from you, run away from human being, run for life.... haha... who knows what human being can do with them? catch and eat? take the skin to make some leather product?

Other then catch and kill, make full use of "him"; under the big name of "development", "Human being" cut the trees, polluted the air, the water, destroyed their habitat...... For the name of development, do we really need to sacrify the nature???

Hardly can see "him" in the city nor even in the kampung now a day.

Missing all those day staying in "Kampung" having "him" come and visit me regularly...

Rafflesia

It was a sunny day on 21st July. The weather was just good for trekking. I had been to a forest that I do not know the name. Even I keep on asking our guide; he can only tell me that it’s a “Low Hill Dipterocarp Forest”. For me, this is not the forest name, for me this is just the forest type. Lol… is he a qualified guide? But he can tell us a lot about the wild life, insects, plans, etc…and I can sense that he loves the forest, he loves the nature very much. I guess he is a good guide.

That so call “low hill dipterocarp forest” located just about 30 minutes drive from Brinchang. Unfortunately the forest had been harvested, Even though the guide told us it is a dipterocarp forest, unfortunately that we cannot see many dipterocarp species. Only noticed a little Keriung, can't see any Meranti. Mostly are Macaranga (secondary special with a fast growing rate; the dipterocarp cannot compete with them).
Below photo taken before we started our trekking. Everyone is handsome, pretty, clean as usual (Anyone perasan he is handsome or she is pretty?)



Here we go......

The night before we went in to the jungle was raining, left us the muddy trek for us to walk…… Hey gangs, but it was a really good experience right?



Big water pond, can keep some fishes there….





I do appreciate the beauty of nature; let’s see the wild orchid we found along the way.




Ginger Flower…. It looks so juicy…



Fungus (or mushroom, but this one cannot eat lah), Fungus plays an important role in the forest, helps to decay the wood, return the nutrients to the soil…



We also passed by a waterfall, the water is very cooling.


We can picnic there if we like. Too bad I did not bring my “sarung”; otherwise we can mandi there.

The main purpose of this jungle trekking is to witness the Rafflesia. I was surprised that we found Rafflesia in West Malaysia. It is worthy to trek for 2 hours to witness the world largest flower:- Rafflesia. Below is the photo we had taken. Lol…. The Rafflesia flower is life in front of my eye.



What do you think what is this ?




Some other nice photo to share:


How you feel when you look at this picture? It is really soothing right?



What about this photo? Amazing, this is a God created scenery that human being will never able to create this.

Haha... I love nature, like to get close to the nature…. But I do like the city life too… how ah ? I hope you enjoy reading a little about our journey to find the Rafflesia?  Have a wonderful day.