Strawberries

It’s your usual midnight blog post; when you got yourself stay awake in the middle of the night and social media is too weird (and too angry) for you to check.

I suddenly remember the times when I went to Florida, USA, for Automattic’s Grand Meetup back in 2019.

Specifically: Strawberries.

For me personally, it was one of the highlights.

We have strawberries here in Malaysia — we even have some locally grown.

The local ones are nice, but to have the good quality ones — I called it Driscoll’s quality — is really hard and expensive. 250 grams (one medium pack) of Driscoll strawberries cost you 50 MYR (11 USD-ish). I rarely buy them, and when I did, I always hide it from my kids. The strawberries look like the ones you see on TV and magazines. Plump, round, and really sweet.

During GM 2019, we stayed in Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista — and I found out they have a minimarket inside the hotel (shoutout to fellow Automatticians for showing me around when I arrived at the hotel.)

I passed some shelves, looking for cup noodles, when my eyes saw the fridge area. There they were, stacked neatly, boxes and boxes of strawberries. Plump, round, and sweet strawberries.

I checked the price.

2 USD.

In Malaysian Ringgit, it would be 8 MYR.

It took every fibre on my being to not put out my arm up front and push all the boxes into my shopping basket.

I got two boxes, and I think I skipped on my way to my room, feeling happy.

Also, much to my delight, I noticed strawberries are part of daily breakfast menu during the GM. I always made sure I took some strawberries on my plate before I got myself pancakes or toasts with jam.

TIL Strawberries are not berries

… eggplants, tomatoes and avocados are botanically classified as berries. And the popular strawberry is not a berry at all.

— The Strawberry: A Multiple Fruit

Also, I have been eyeing this… Japanese strawberries. Super expensive. Mega expensive. I’m so tempted to buy it, but goshdangit, does it worth it to fork out RM 100 (24 USD) for one pack? ?