The Sweet Potato or Kumara.

I didn't buy Kumara for a long time. Recently my son said he liked them, and I started buying.

In the early 1960s, Grandfather Chan always came with a small bag of sweet potatoes, We semiboiled them and it was nice as a snack at 3 pm.

Then Mother bought a huge gunny sack of them from an aunty. Mum said it was better than the loaf of bread we had for breakfast. This aunty wasn't like Grandfather who brought us nicely washed potatoes.

The potatoes she sold us were covered with dirt. Yes, dirt, and it wasn't even brushed. She told mum that her potatoes were not washed, because if they were, they would go rotten.

Every morning, when I woke up to help Mother scrub the thick hard soil coated Kumara. I complained every day. And I hated them.

By the time we finished the big sack. I can't remember if Mother bought another sack, because all of us were sick of eating, or did Mother feel ripped off too, paying for her full of dirt kumaras.

When I moved to Singapore as an adult, Sweet potato is touted as a very healthy food, they caused a lot of money especially if they were imported from Japan. I told of that particular auntty with her giant sack of potaotes covered with dirt like a scotch egg.