So today I'm gonna talk about.........food! Oops, sorry to disappoint you (if I did), me is not going to talk about American food but food that I miss from home!!!!
If there's one thing I miss the most from home (besides people), it has to be the food. It's not my cozy bed, not convenience of public transport, not anything but food.
Few weeks ago, I went to a Friday night dinner with International Friends (Christian Organisation of UNC that has people from all around the globe). The American host (damn it I forgot his name the 2nd time. I think it's Brian?? Maybe not.) from the organisation sat at our table, filled with other 7-8 Singaporeans. To kick start the conversation, he asked, "So, what's your favorite American food?" And guess what? This question was followed by a moment of awkward silence.... I feel that everyone thought about the question seriously but it just seems like no one had an answer.
I am quite sure 2 things flashed through our minds:
1) What are the authentic American food?
There're tons of Mexican restaurants, Americanized asian food, pizza outlets (countless of them omg), and needless to say, fast food restaurants. We know pastas/pizzas are probably not local food. Are burgers and fries considered as American food??? Or salad?
2) No matter what constitutes as American food, it seems like there isn't a favorite for us.
We eat pretty much the same things over and over and over - pizza, burgers, fries, chicken thigh, mashed potatoes, SALAD (really makes me feel like a cow) etc etc.... Every meal just has to be so meaty. :/
3) We also get freaking burgers/fries/salad/pizza/donuts at home!! They may not always be good ones but you we always easily source for the good authentic ones at home! Well, it is kind of expensive to find really authentic food but our regular meals from hawker centres/food courts/canteen cost around 30-40% of what we pay for a regular meal here. So I guess it makes it ok to have expensive authentic food once in a while? Regardless, American food is definitely not new to us!
I lost track of the number of times we talk about the food back at home. Every time we start a conversation like that, it usually goes on and on and on until someone thinks it's getting out of hand and we're going to drool in our dreams, then we move on. And you might think this is ridiculous, but this conversation started as early as the first week of us being in Chapel Hill!
So what food from home do I miss the most? Countless. I've (pain-stakingly) narrowed it down to the top 5 food I miss from home!
No. 5 Ba Chor Mee
Photo reused from my old instagram post.
Just in case non-Singaporeans friends are reading, ba chor = minced pork and mee = noodles. So this is called Minced Pork Noodles!! I know most people likes ba chor mee ta (dry). But I prefer the soupy ones. I just have a thing for soups. And you will also see that in the later part of my post.
Anyways, I've been talking about ba chor mee since the week I arrived. I'll always order either mee kia soup or mini wok noodles when I patronize a ba chor mee stall back at home. Oh except the Koufu at Rivervale Plaza, their mee tai mak soup is the best! It's not super tasty or flavorful but it serves as a comfort food for me which I don't think I'll ever get sick of.
Ironically, my boyf's dad sells ba chor mee but I've never tried his noodles before. Hmm.... @Kw, you have about 2 months to research on good ba chor mee to bring me to!!! :D
No. 4 Cheng Mun Chee Kee Pig Organ Soup
I've eaten this umpteen times but I still love it!! I love to call this the best pig organ soup I've ever. I'm not a foodie so it's not like I've had a lot of pig organ soup that I can judge. But till then, THIS IS MY FAVOURITE PIG ORGAN SOUP. I still remember how I would diligently walk from my ex-workplace at Race Course Rd all the way to Foch Rd to dabao this as lunch. And also how many times I've eaten this with my dear @chewhuimin!
I'm cheating a little here, my no. 4.1 most missed food is the pig stomach soup from 老火汤! Their pig stomach soup is super peppery and flavorful!! When I eat both of the above food, I will never fail to 加汤! *slurps*
No. 3 Tom Yum Soup
Photo taken from the internet (because I don't think I've taken a proper picture of even 1 tomyum soup I've had)
Why do I say that?
Well, there are a handful of restaurants around here selling Asian food as I've mentioned. But.........they're always Americanised and disappointing. Try walking into a chinese restaurant here and order kung pao chicken and you'll know what I mean. It's not just that. During our trip to Richmond, Virginia, we sourced for a Thai food on Yelp and we chose one that had really good reviews! Many people raved about how good the food was etc etc. And of course, we had to try tom yum soup right?
It was of course, disappointing. I can't really remember the taste anymore. I think it was still spicy and sour but the taste is just off. And instead of the regular straw mushrooms, they used white mushrooms. :(
Despite having some bad Thai restaurants in Singapore, you can still easily find handful of good ones! And the same thing applies to good japanese food, good ramen places, good pizza places etc etc.
This is why I really appreciate the diversity in Singapore. We have food courts, hawkers and tons and tons of restaurants that you can choose from. Be it local or international cuisine, we've got it covered. So folks, be grateful.
One more reason to miss tom yum soup is also because of the lack of spicy food here. Mad.love.spicy.food. Although many a times I would get a bad stomach and end up having diarrhea...it's worth it!!!
No. 2 Steamboat
Photo of one-of-the-many-times we had steamboat at home
This is also (in my opinion) considered as cheating. Hahaha. Because it is not really a food-dish. But this is also my all-time favourite! You get anything you want and dump it into the soup which might be tasteless at first, but behold, the soup at the end of every steamboat session - is heavenly.
What can be better than having steamboat at home, with your family members crowding around the table and cooking the food together while chatting the night away? And you will always get your favorite food!
Hate veggies? No problem-o! You can have shabu-shabu meat slices, prawns, fish, meatballs and even abalones!
For me, everything is just awesome in steamboat! Seafood, meat, CHEESE TOFU, veggies, meatballs, sausages, anything and everything! Before flying to Chapel Hill, I had steamboat 4 times in a span of 1 month! Nope, not sick of it. Just a bloated stomach from the food choices and soup and a happy me. These 5 times included the one I had with @Kw, some shabu-shabu japanese buffet, one with my longest-time treasured friends a.k.a. my secondary clique, one @ home with my famz and also my first mookata experience with my awesome progs committee!!
I also had it here once @ Duke during mid-autumn, courtesy of SSA.
The cold weather here makes me miss steamboat even more. It's freaking 2 degree celsius outside now! If only I could have a pot of steamy soup with assortment of ingredients laid out in front of me in this freezing weather...........
What could be the food I miss the most most most after talking about how much I miss the food mentioned above?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yes, you've guessed it.
No. 1 Home-cooked Food
Spread prepared by love's mum months back! (Also happen to have my v. v. v. favourite dish that his mum makes, pork with szechuan veg @ bottom of photo! When are you going to master the skill of cooking this and cook for me? @kaleyeokianwei???)
I want to be biased and say specifically that I miss my bf's mum's cooking but that'll be mean to my mum so......pretend I didn't say that ok?
My mum's always about healthy food, no salt no oil no sodium. She loves cooking things like brown rice (sometimes porridge with brown rice wtf) and add like 2% of salt in food she cooks. It's for us I know because the food we eat outside are almost like poison with those MSG and salt. But....sometimes it gets too bland. And the worse thing is when she forces me to drink the weird beverages she grinds for e.g 七古糊 (I'm sorry if you cannot read chinese because I cannot translate this. It's basically blending 7 kind of healthy grains into something with a thick consistency) and almond paste (trust me, it doesn't taste like those things you eat in chinese dessert shops) and barley paste.
I do not miss those.......................although I know they are healthy beyond description. BUT, I still love you mum, and I still love some things you cook like mee hoon kuay and minced pork with pickled lettuce etc etc!!! I'm also glad you can't read english and probably cannot read my blog. HAHA.
On the other hand, b's mum always cook super appetizing stuff. It's usually 3 dishes + 1 soup when I'm there for food. :D Ok to be fair, my mum works in the day from 2-12pm, so it's no wonder she cannot really cook such spread for us so we tend to have simple fare at home. And also, b's mum is also more about flavor of food than health benefits. Sigh......the more unhealthy option always tastes better..............
Am I digressing too far? Ok I am.
Well, what is there to explain? Who doesn't love home-cooked food? Food that is always healthier and heartier than the food outside.
And I'm just counting down the days till I can eat my favorite food again.
P.S. I also miss Japanese food (SASHIMI SUSHI AND CHAWAMUSHI!!!!!) tons! It's probably ranked in Top 5 but it's Japanese food so I didn't include it. Blah.
P.P.S. My stomach's growling now. Dangggggg!
No comments:
Post a Comment