Chinese Radish and the Late Mr. James Foh

I am definitely growing to become a little more sentimental these days.

Every bowl of lobak or Chinese radish soup would remind me of the special teacher who taught us how to grow vegetables in our school. The Late Mr. James Foh.


Imagine 1960's Tanjong Lobang School - a school on a promontory washed by the sea on the west and blown by cold sea winds at night. those of us having a thin blankiet could only shiver and think of warm blankets. Electric blanket was not even in the books! I would wear an extra cotton shirt to sleep in. And the mosquito net probably helped many to be jnst a little warmer.

And more often than not as we got awakened by loud snoring around us we could even hear our friends' stomach rumbling. We could be really hungry in those days.

Thus in the day time you could see us working extra hard to bring extra vegetables to our dining table.

This photo I copied from the Internet could be a likely scene of our dear Tanjong Lobang of the 50's and 60's.


We used to work like this under the mentorship of the late Mr. James Foh. He was the one who taught us to grow vegetables the Chinese way. (or the proper way)


In my blurring memories probably all my friends and I grew our vegetables as beautifully as these. Many of my dear Tanjong Lobang photos were burnt in the fire that razed my longhouse in 1983.


This was the favourite and easiest to grow radish or lobak.



Thanks Mr. James Foh!!