wet market – 好心人

Wet Market Reflections (Musing)

October 28, 2014 by Ho Lang

Wet Market Reflections (Musing)

The day started for me going to the wet market to buy a fresh and lovely sea bass for $6. This is for the Thai style steam fish recipe that I recently learnt from “Hot Thai Kitchen” via YouTube. The Thai sauce completely complements the flesh of the sea bass. The one that I bought today was just perfect. Its eyes were clear and not cloudy, and the scales slimy and moist. Fresh and lovely.

I also got half a loaf of Chinese cabbage for a potential dish that I wanted to re-create tomorrow. Chinese cabbage with black fungus and tang hoon (flour vermicelli) is really nice, and I love eating it. I think my wife will love it also. More importantly, I think

Now all that is left is for me to buy 1 kg of fresh pork belly to prepare the meat stock for the dish. That in and of itself is a recipe. The meat flavour is the real key to the success of vegetable dishes. It is the difference between nice vegetable dish and great vegetable dish. From now onwards, I will employ the use of the meat stock extensively for the cooking of my vegetable dish. The best part is that the stewed pork belly can be used in the same vegetable dish or it can be eaten on its own. It is very versatile.

Can’t wait.

New Dawn (Musing)

July 12, 2014 by Ho Lang

New Dawn (Musing)

It’s a new dawn. Not the twilight sexy good looking kind of new dawn with werewolves running around in their skin tight furs. My parents are moving house, and that presents a couple of issues for us that we have taken for granted till now. If there is someone that says “you are taking your parents for granted” – then let me be the first to admit it. You don’t have to say it. I have always knew from day one that the current arrangement while being perfect for us, was really not a solution in the long run.

Ultimately we have to manage on our own how we are going to do this.

So I have decided that I would do the cooking from now on. I know I have been doing most of the cooking anyway. But going forward, it is now a matter of survival. I won’t be cooking for leisure or pleasure, this is the gritty stuff. I have to be determined to cook my way through. So the next thing is to embark on a plan. Yes, we are going cold turkey from next week onwards and how we balance it will show.

I woke up this morning and I had a severe case of heart burn. Possibly it could be reflux from the ginormous amounts of rainier cherries (I should do a post on that) my wife and I had consume the night before. And in between then and now, I had massive LS and multi-fartilosis. It was bad. You won’t want to be within range.

Anyway, so the heart burn made me really uncomfortable, and I knew the reason why, so I wasn’t so disturbed by it. I went to the wet market as it is my usual practice and this time around, I knew I had to refresh my kitchen condiments and stock up for the week. I wanted to stay within budget so the strategy for the wet market on saturday morning was to really buy the basics and then buy the rest of the items throughout the week. That way I can pace myself with what I want to cook. At the moment, my mind draws a complete blank. It is hard to think when you have heart burn.

I purchased my four best friends – sea salt, olive oil, thai fish sauce and light soy sauce. They have been with me for so many years, and I knew that I could always depend and count on them for flavour. My wife’s a picky eater, so I have to be very careful when I prepare my dinners. But really, food is to be eaten.

So my total marketing for the following groups today is $57.60. I got chicken, pork, fish and vegetables. Not bad for starters.

Now the problem is thinking what to cook and to do it efficiently so that it fits into my time schedules.