I was at the supermarket yesterday for my weekly marketing. I was planning to cook pork afritada sometime this week so I was looking for tomato sauce. At Giant (the supermarket I go to), the only label they carry is 'Hunts'... they probably have other brands but they're all in Chinese, and although the labels have pictures of tomatoes in them, I'd really rather be safe. I went down the aisle and scanned the shelves left to right, top to bottom, but I can't find a single can of Hunt's Tomato Sauce. It was probably out of stock so I started to leave the aisle. At the corner, I spotted a clerk passing by and, wanting to try my luck, I asked where I can find tomato sauce. He led me down the same aisle I've been in and vaguely waved me to the shelves of tomato products.

Okay, so it's out of stock. I turned to leave the aisle when an 'auntie' (auntie and uncle are how elders are called here in SG, unless they're your parents... hehe) tapped my arm and thrusted a bottle toward me. I looked at the bottle, the label was 'Maggi', it had a picture of a big red tomato on the label and the word tomato underneath, in red. I almost took the bottle and prepared to say 'thank you' when I read further down and saw the word 'ketchup'. So I shook my head, smiled and said, 'No Auntie, I want tomato sauce. Thank you.'

She pointed to the word 'ketchup' and said, 'This... Chinese term for tomato sauce.'

I thought she was bluffing but I don't think old Chinese ladies did that with strangers and she did look serious, so I shook my head and said, 'No Auntie, I'm sorry but I don't think so. 'Ketchup' is English and it doesn't mean tomato sauce, it's just ketchup. But thanks anyway, it doesn't matter.'

Having said that, I turned to leave the aisle for the third time. The old lady followed me, tapped my arm again and said... 'Maybe Malay term?'

Aii-yo!