The Food Situation

Somewhere around week 6, I started developing a great aversion to food. Mainly because everything tasted like crap, and the smell of food was practically unbearable - nauseating. Ironically, it was also at this time that my appetite went berserk and I had to eat every 2 hours or so.

I couldn't stand the thought of anything relating to food - I actually had to switch channels if a cooking programme came on. Couldn't cook, for sure (just thinking about raw meat made me shudder), couldn't stand having to even look for food to eat. I wanted to have as little to do with food as possible - except obviously when I had to eat. So dear Kisu would faithfully come home everyday, toting lunch. Usually from nearby Great World City, or some place near his office.

Initially, he would call home to ask me what I would like to eat, but after some time, I just told him to not ask me that, but to go ahead and buy something, anything. Just thinking about food made me feel sick. And so Kisu had to second guess me and try to find something that I would be able to stomach - he did very well actually! Poor thing, I knew I put him in a spot, but I was so miserable I couldn't think of anything else.

After a couple of weeks I felt really bad about him having to rush back everyday, so I decided to get food catered instead. This would solve my problem - I wouldn't have to think about what I wanted to eat, since the menu is fixed, and someone would deliver it right to my doorstep. I signed on for lunch AND dinner.

The food was - BAD. Yup. Rather like bad quality economical rice dishes. Soup was tasteless. I especially couldn't stand the curry dishes. But I stuck with it because there were no other alternatives - I wasn't up to cooking or scrounging around for food each day. I figured I would keep it up for a month - and hopefully be OK enough to cook from the 2nd trimester onwards. It was pretty bad - one day Kisu asked me, "So how long has it been since you started the catering?" I said - "I think about a week and a half". Kisu thought about it a little and then said "Wait, didn't you just started this Wednesday?!!" That was 3 days ago - I actually thought it was much longer! And although dinner was catered for 2 persons, Kisu had it all of 2 times! I would tell him to buy his own dinner - I felt so bad making him eat the yucky food. Somedays I would ask him to "rescue" me by bringing me out for dinner! And I was happy when it was a public holiday - 'cos there's no delivery on those days!

Anyways, all of that stopped last week. Evelyn showed me this book, The Chinese Pregnancy & Confinement Cookbook by Ng Siong Mui when I was at her place last week. She had tried some of the recipes and thought that they were pretty good - there are also notes on each dish, benefits etc. Surprisingly, as I was looking through the photographs of the food, I found myself salivating and thought to myself - I can do this! The recipes looked simple enough to replicate. I think that was the point at which I started redeveloping a positive attitude towards food.

Inspired, I went home and looked over some of my other recipe books (which belonged to my mum). I found dishes that she used to cook and started thinking about all the foods that I would like to cook and eat.

Right that weekend, I popped into Times to get the book (it's not found at all the bookshops) and told my caterer to cancel the rest of my meals. I spent Sunday shopping up a storm at Cold Storage for a weeks' worth of groceries.

This past Monday, I made mum's fried bee hoon. I grew up thinking this was mum's special bee hoon, but then later I realised that it's a pretty generic dish, albeit with some slight variation depending on whose mum makes it! It's bee hoon with the Narcissus stewed pork legs - very porky and very yummy!

Monday was a very busy cooking day for me, because the condiments (at least in my home) for the bee hoon include fried hae bee (dried shrimp) and homemade belachan (shrimp paste) chilli. There was a lot of grinding and frying to do, besides cooking the actual dish itself. I decided that I must be feeling much better because I could actually tahan the smell of belachan toasting! But I think I tired myself out a little because sometime in the afternoon, when I was cutting up the chilli padi, I suddenly felt exhausted and I actually had to abandon my bowl of half cut up chillis (it's never my habit to stop food preparation midway) and go lie on the bed!

Feeling much better later, I whipped up a giant pot of bee hoon (it's tiring trying to chow the bee hoon - damn heavy) for the two of us, using the largest pot in the house! Kisu loves the bee hoon and I think he's missed having home cooked for a while - here he is with his plate! As for me, I think it tasted extra good because it wasn't catered!

*Rest of the Dishes for the week: Macaroni Con Carne (disasterous for me 'cos of all the dairy products in it - butter, cheese, milk - everything came flying out after dinner), fried meat patties (yum!), pork belly and salted veggy soup, fried bee thye buck.



Stewed pork, mushrooms, cabbage, shrimp, sambal belachan, yum!



At Esther's request: here's the recipe (a lot of aga-ration and approximations involved. I learned how to cook this by watching my mum and also judging from the look of the bee hoon, so I don't know the exact measurements) Try it! It's really very yummy, especially if you love pork, like me!

Fried Bee Hoon (Serves 3 to 4)

Ingredients:
+ 1 packet dried bee hoon - I use one which has 2 chillis on the front, can't remember the brand
+ 1 head of chinese cabbage, sliced into long strips - the correct one is round, has tightly packed leaves and is whitish
+ A handful of dried shrimp, rinsed and drained
+ 3 - 4 cans of Narcissus Stewed Pork Leg with mushroom - this is very fatty, so I use more cans because after removing the fat, skin and bones, there is barely anything left! You can also use Stewed Pork (same brand) whiich yields more meat, but it's leaner and not as tender. Keep the gravy in the can! Very important!
+ Some chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft and sliced
+ Chopped garlic
+ Sliced shallots
+ Seasonings: The gravy from the stewed pork, oyster sauce
+ Optional: Fried hae bee (see recipe below)

To cook:
+ Soak bee hoon in cold water till just soft (you don't want it to be too soft because you'll be cooking it further). Drain and set aside
+ Heat oil in wok. Add in shallots, fry till slightly translucent and fragrant, then add garlic (keep to this order because garlic burns much faster than shallots). After this, add the dried prawns and fry till fragrant. Make sure the stuff doesn't burn.
+ Add in cabbage, and fry till it wilts slightly.
+ Add in bee hoon, and toss to mix with ingredients in the wok.
+ Season bee hoon with the gravy from the pork, and oyster sauce and toss to coat evenly. End colour should be a light yellow. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. You may also need to add extra oil along the way.
+ Add in mushrooms and pork and continue to fry the bee hoon - keep it moving or it may burn! This may take some time as you want the bee hoon to dry out a little bit. I usually fry till some of the bits of bee hoon at the side of the wok start turning crisp.

Ready! Eat with some fried hae bee and belachan chilli.

Condiments (makes all he difference in the dish!)

Golden fried hae bee
1 bowl of dried hae bee - go to the wet market for this, and buy the light coloured ones that come in whole pieces, and not broken up.
Rinse and drain.
Grind till hae bee is very fine, light and flaky.
Fry this in a pan with oil (you'll need quite a lot, but the end result should be that the hae been is quite dry) so that you get a nice golden brown and light and crumbly texture. You should smell a very nice fragrance too. This can be bottled (store in fridge) and used for cooking with noodles, in addition as a condiment to the bee hoon.

Belachan Chilli
1.5 - 2 packets of Chilli Padi - I buy from cold storage. Approximately 3/4 of a largish soup bowl
Small knob of belachan - approx. 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon.
Grind/ pound chilli till fine.
Toast belachan in a frying pan till fragrant.
Add in ground chilli padi and mix well with belachan.
Cook over low heat, add some oil to improve the consistency of the chilli texture.
Done when the chilli turns a shade darker. Instead of a bright red, it should be a dull red. It won't be pastelike - you'll end up with something that looks more like clumps of chilli.
This chilli is great with any sort of noodle dish - in fact, I use it practically for everything! Also, be warned - since it's chilli padi it's very spicy. Those who know me will know that I love chilli, so I'm fine with this. Please test a little bit first before stirring a whole spoonful into your bee hoon!