Make fun food

 

I just love cooking. Coming up with different ideas, combining food in new creative ways, taking a risk and relishing the delicious results…But of course I’m no chef, and I take the most delight out of the most simplistic meals made out of basic, cheap ingredients, but I try to “play” with them, turning these ordinary items into a dish that is fun and innovative. I also love to recreate dishes I loved in a restaurant and putting my own touch into it at home and making them more nutritious.

Take yesterday’s lunch, for example. I was really craving eggs. Big surprise, huh? But I decided to do something new with eggs, so came up with the idea to fix up a simple egg salad. But instead of just the usual mayo, I whipped up a mix of cucumber-chive cheese spread, plain yogurt, mayo, and parsley, seasoned the whole thing with salt and pepper.

But I didn’t feel like having this on some dry toast. So I baked a purple potato to go with it. So lunch ended up being three bowls of stuff: one of cooked veggies (not pictured), another of the egg salad, and the last the potato and some chicken cocktail hotdogs:

I really like having many bowls in front of me rather than just one whole pot. I like being able to mix things up to my own taste, so that every forkful of bite is different. One bite would be just of the baked potato. Another just of the egg salad to cool the tongue and stir up my appetite with its garlicky, cheesy kick. Another with both potato and egg salad. And another with the hotdog, and so on and so on. It’s so much more fun this way!

Here’s a bite of all three: egg, potato, hotdog!

And another with just the egg salad and hotdog…

But then there are time when you just need a fixed, repertory meal, especially on days when you are on the go and don’t want to fuss too much over what to eat. I had discipleship training meeting yesterday night, and on days like this I always usually have the same stress-free meal: veggies, yogurt with fruit, and sweet potatoes.

That way, I can be sure I won’t waste any time planning, can prepare everything beforehand, and at the same time be sure that I’m hitting all my food groups and getting all the required nutrients. 

I had a bit more leisure to try something new for lunch today. For some reason I thought back about something I had eaten the first day I arrived in Singapore: century egg congee. I remembered ordering it with anticipation, only to be disappointed at how stingy the congee was with the century egg, and how it was just mostly plain white rice gruel with barely enough seasoning to make it edible.

 

So I decided to make my own century egg congee today for lunch, but of course fix it the way I want: more century eggs, lots of good seasoning, and more nutritious and filling!

Instead of plain white rice, I used rye flakes for the extra protein and fiber and chewy texture. I also used chicken broth to cook up my rye flakes, with a drop of soy sauce. And then the condiments:

Two big-ass century eggs, lots of fresh cilantro, and a side of cooked veggies.

I put everything in separate bowls and added the condiments into my rye “congee” bit by bit as I ate.

Yum! So much better, so much more satisfying, so much more nutritious than any other century egg congee you’ll find outside!

By the way, century eggs aren’t really a hundred years old. Who can wait that long? This is what wikipedia defines century eggs: Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, and thousand-year-old egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months… After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavour or taste.

If you’ve never had century eggs, I highly recommend you to put it in your “to-try” list. It’s simply one of the things your should definitely try some time in your lifetime before you die (along with durian, mangosteen, jackfruit, squid…) Sure, you may probably be weirded out by its unique flavor and texture, but what’s the fun of life if there isn’t a teeny bit of excitement and adventure?

So on that note, let me leave you with a question: What are three things that you want to try before you die? (don’t have to be food, can be anything!)

My answer:

1. Complete a marathon
2. Eat and enjoy a 7-course (or 8! or 9! or 10!) fine-dining meal at a high-class restaurant
3. Perform in a musical