My grand aunt, Chang Yuk Ging, whom we called Goo Poh was a very frugal primary school teacher. She lived in the 50th Anniversary Methodist Building on Island Road, within the Methodist Primary School almost the whole of her teaching career, spanning more than 30 years of her life. She lived there even after her retirement until the building had to be demolished.
Behind the building was a small plot of land, which the teachers shared and cultivated some vegetables. I remember Goo Poh loved to grow long beans because they did not take much space and every day she could harvest enough for either lunch or dinner. In order to save more money, she also dried the long beans partially and then had them pickled in red wine lees.
I would always remember how cleverly she cooked long beans in so many different ways . Foochow Curry with Chicken and mixed vegetables, Fried Long beans with Tou Cheong, Fried long beans with some belly pork like in the photos, fried preserved long beans, long bean soup and plain boiled long beans.
As a young student, I really felt that everything cooked by Goo Poh was nice.
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