How does a bottle of preserved vegetables become a toy? Necessity is the mother of all invention, and thus I am always amazed at the ingenuity of kids to (literally) make do with toys. Chun See blogs about a childhood game derived from, of all things, a bottle of preserved vegetables (tong choi). His account reminded me of some Filipino street kids I saw a few years ago, whose prized toy was not a playstation (no electricity), a ninja turtle (no tv) or even a remote controlled car (no batteries), but rather a hand-made toy using a tin can and a stick. But back to the bottle of tong choi:

I have been wanting to blog about this ‘toy’ for a long time because I think many of the younger readers would not know about it. But I was unable to find such a bottle at our supermarkets like NTUC Fairprice and Shop n Save. In fact, I couldn’t even find it in Ipoh. But recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in a neighbourhood mini-mart in Bishan and promptly bought a bottle. It cost only $1.20.

My problem now is: How to finish the whole bottle of tong choi alone, as no one else in my family eats the stuff.

How does is a game using a humble bottle of tong choi played? I’m not going to reveal the answer here, you should read his account yourself! Although, I wonder if Chun See managed to finish all the tong choi.

Tags: Good Morning Yesterday, Hand-made toys, Preserved Vegetables