Chilli cost $20 per kg

Dear SG,

We went to Avondale Flea Market today. It's like a combination of our wet market and Pasar Malam but on a Sunday morning. Andrew even saw someone eating Curry Puff but he couldn't find which stall it came from. Gosh how he misses Singapore's Curry Puff.

Our most interesting find today is the cost of spicy chilli. It cost $20 per kg!!! Singaporean are well known for eating spicy food, almost all our meals comes with some form of chilli sauce. The hotter the better, as spicy as we can take it. So how do Singaporean survive in Auckland where chilli cost $20 per kg??!?!

Well, fortunately for us, chilli has arrive in Auckland. Many years ago, immigration relax their selection to encourage flow of migrants into NZ. A big influx of migrant from Asia, China and India means that there are now more Aucklanders who likes spicy stuff. Chilli got cheaper. More people are planting them in their garden. More variety are coming up too. There are now choices!!!! The price of chilli can range from a dollar per kg, to our favorite that cost $20 a kg.

Enough said. We chose instead to go for the next best buy for today. We bought a chilli plant that only cost us $5 bucks. This gem will produce many $20 per kg chilli for us for the rest of its meaningful life.

Andrew and Ann deciding on a spot for the chilli plant. One of the chilli plant (another variety) at the other end of the garden was recently killed by Victor's soccer ball.

Joseph taking our precious plant out from the carrier.

Andrew starts digging.

Ann place the plant carefully into the hole. The hole fits perfectly! Good job Andrew!

Our new chilli plant! This picture was taken after Joseph water it.

Can you recognize this type of chilli? It's Zi Dian Jiao! The legendary "Point-at-sky" chilli! Super hot and spicy!

Before we bought the chilli plant, Andrew thought that the chilli has turn bad because they are all black. But according to Ann, they are suppose to turn black just before they turn red! Isn't this interesting? I hope they turn red soon.

with love from NZ,
J

PS. I did help out with the planting! I took pictures, give some suggestions and pat the chilli plant down. But I had to be careful not to dirty my hands because I was still holding on to my camera back then!


Spot the differences:

In SG, chilli are fairly cheap.

In NZ, certain variety can cost up to $20/kg!

In SG, we don't bother to plant our own chilli

In NZ, we plant almost anything that we would like to eat.