I used to be able to blog daily until I started my home tutoring job. Trying my best to juggle between two responsibilities; a manager at home and so a home tutor, I found myself wanting to wind down and rest my brain at the end of the day — staring at my notes at phone, but no words came out. Hence, I missed out blogging about my Aunt's food on a few Saturdays, to be exact, 3 Saturdays. So, let me compile them here into one blog.
Today — Saturday 1.0
I made it a point to visit my Aunt despite feeling really exhausted after few days of insufficient sleep (oh yes, my youngest son is having some partial bowel obstruction again and needed to be tube-fed) so that I could ensure she was alright, knowing that yesterday night, we had some unusual boisterous windstorm. And yep, she was all fine. Let's cut the chase and let me show you what she cooked today!
Pork Slices with Beansprout
She told me she stood at supermarket, scratching her head thinking about special dish to cook for us. She felt she had been cooking the same style over and over again. Looks like not only me having the same challenge. Lol... Then her eyes set on a bunch of healthy fat beansprouts. She thought to herself, "Let me try put some beansprout into my stir fry pork. Like weird a bit, but no harm trying." She literally shared out her thoughts to me as it was. It turned out delicious. She added some fermented sweet soy beans into the dishes, making it super appetizing, somehow tasted like Korean Gochujang, but without the spicy feeling. Yummy!!!
Mixed Vegetables
She said we could eat all of these because she was tired of eating this dish. She cooked it quite often. So, looks like I am not the only one tired of my own cooking. Haha! We love this dish. It was like all-in-one, highly nutritious and with good amount of protein too. Taste wise — it tasted just like home. My mum cooked the same way too, probably because they are both Hakka people. Or perhaps, this is the general Chinese style of mixed vegetables. However, mine tasted different. Just don't have that sort of kick because I am so used to my own cooking taste.
She treated me like her child, advising me what to do during thunderstorm. She advised me to close all windows and doors tight, and to immediately go lie down on the bed, curled up and prayed. Sound adorable to me, but she looked so serious when explaining. 😊
Saturday 2.0
Couple of weeks ago, she cooked these for us. Fried rice with fried prawns and lettuce fishballs noodle soup with cherry tomatoes.
Fried rice with fried prawns
I love her fried rice, but my sons did not really fancy it because she added cinnamon while boiling her rice. She used the cinnamon-infused rice for making fried rice and I thought it was brilliant. However, I know that not everyone loves cinnamon. I love it. So cinnamon-infused fried rice tasted great to me. Her fried rice was loaded with a lot of mixed vegetables, pumpkin and lots of fried egg. This time, she also fried some prawns to go together with the fried rice. Very delicious. I ate a lot since my children did not fancy, so sort of like I ate more on their behalf. The prawns were so fresh, nicely fried, crispy on the outside, soft fresh bouncy on the inside.
Lettuce soup with fishballs
She had some leftover fish bones, which she used to boil some broth to make this soup. She added a lot of fish balls into it, added lettuce and then added glass noodles. And since there was not any red-coloured dish, she served the fresh sweet cherry tomatoes for me. The boys don't eat cherry tomatoes, so all for me. I hope I got the natural blush cheek coloring after I ate this. Aunt said I looked rather pale. 😂
Saturday 3.0
This was one of the Saturdays last month. She cooked so many types of dishes for us.
Pork slices with long beans
This was her usual way of stir frying the pork slices with some basic sauce as oyster sauce and soy sauce. She added long beans, making the whole dish tasted different with some earthly long beans taste. Delicious!
Stew potatoes with chicken
Also, basic stew using soy sauce and some sugar, with lots of onion garlic oil, slow stew. She loved everything softer in texture. Well-balanced dish. The boys always love this potatoes dish.
Noodle soup
She cooked this noodle soup using the glass noodle, and anchovy broth, added in many fish balls and luffa vegetables. I love love this dish, I could eat just this for my lunch. For whatever reason, when it comes to glass noodles, I could eat a lot of bowls of noodles. Luffa is one of my favourite vegetables too.
Luffa in mushroom soup
She said she bought too many luffa vegetables and not knowing what to do with them. Noticing she still had one can of mushroom soup, she added the luffa into the soup. Another dish done!
She also steamed some red dates for me. Occasionally, she steamed this for us and specifically mentioned we should eat this often to replenish some vitamins and minerals to the body, as well as for blood nourishment after women's period cycle. A very thoughtful Aunt!