Eco-System In A Bottle

 

Wanted to check out Typo today and I passed by the Totally Hot Stuff pop-up store. It was having a moving out sale and was giving a twenty percent discount on everything, and I spotted some salt and pepper shakers. While walking through the store, I saw one last bottle which has some tiny red shrimp in it. I have been eyeing this for a long time and with the discount it was at a much better price. I probably emptied my bank account, but I am happy about what I spent my last few dollars on.  

Creature Spotting

Went oyster hunting with the family today. It has been a few months since our last outing and we had stopped when it was time for the oysters to go forth and multiply. At the same time, dad and I had travelled to Australia, and after we got back, I saw a news article about some contaminants in the water. So after seven-month hiatus, we went out to see what we could pick. 

Today we managed to get quite a number of huge oysters which we decided to open right away. We also found some prawns trapped in the shallow pools of water and decided to feed them with the muscle stuck on oyster shells. Dad also found some agar seaweed and showed the rest of the family which ones to pick. The most interesting find was the horseshoe crab which I was excited about, until I learnt it was dead. Hopefully I'll get to see some live ones one day. 

Time to head back to make some fried oyster omelette. 

Picks From The Sea

Went to the beach yesterday to see if we could get some goodies from the sea. I saw some oysters but it doesn't have as much oysters as where we usually hunt. This area was where my grandfather and dad used to go for prawns. It probably still is a good hunting ground as there were a lot of people there during the weekend with nets and buckets. However, the weather these days have been pushing the prawns into hiding. The crabs don't seem to care though. They were out and about, and this time, Adi and my dad caught these 3. 

Another Newbie

Today was another oyster hunt with the family and we another inductee into the group. This time it was my uncle Raymond, seen upfront and centre in the group photo. To think that this whole thing started with just me and my dad looking for any good fishing spots and I happen to find a nice sharp rock and knocked a few oysters out. Then uncle Dennis came along with Denise (the security guard along with Barkley) and Ian. Denise never really got down to any oyster collection, but she helped by watching our bags while enjoying the sea breeze with Barkley. 

After that hunt, my aunt Jeannie, cousin Criszean, and Adi got in on the action. Between hunts, dad and I managed to find another location and that became the hunt with the biggest group thus far. This is the fourth, with Criszean out of town, and Adi having to work. Seems like there might be more people coming into the group, but for now the hunting season, according to oyster experts, should stop as it's time for the oysters to go forth and multiply. 

Anyway, this hunt was a good one, with huge oysters and even some mussels on the side. There was an oil drum in the water and I didn't see anything on it. However, it turned just as my uncle was looking at it and all the mussels decided to show themselves off. Good thing they were just easy to pick off, unlike the last haul where we had to really dig them out. I decided to pair the mussels with some special seaweed we got from Japan that give an interesting crunch, with a slight saltiness to pair with the sweet mussel. 

As for the oysters, it was the usual oyster omelette request from my cousins, while I will take the huge  ones to pickle. 

Beach Combing

The tide was really low and we went to Changi beach again to check out what yummy gems we could get. Other than the edible stuff we got, there were a few cool finds hidden in many spots across the exposed seabed. Fat starfish, skinny starfish, lots of hermit crabs, corals, weird weeds n anemones. Cool to know there's a good amount of sealife even with the traffic in our surtounding waters.