Eat to live and not live to eat.
How much truth does this sentence behold?
If a person should not live to eat, then we are throwing away the basic instinct of man.
If a person should not live to eat, then we are throwing away the basic instinct of man.
"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."
- George Bernard Shaw
There is nothing wrong in living to eat; in fact, I consider
it as one of the best ways to live. Anything in excess is dangerous. But by living
to eat, I have the whole life in front of me to enjoy all the culinary
delicacies. So, I can see the moderation that will be present throughout!
In each part of the world, there exists delicacies which are
waiting to be tasted by me and I don’t want to disappoint them.
Now, here I am going to say about my journey to Singapore. I
would rather call it a food tour!
Come on! Let me take you through my journey.
IMAGE SOURCE: HERE
As soon as we landed at Singapore, I wanted to eat. The journey
was not tiring and it was definitely not going to prevent me from tasting those
wonderful delicacies.
I have heard so much about those wonderful hawker places,
and I wanted to visit the one place which was recommended to us. It was in the
airport road, and I convinced my sister and my best friend to consider that as
our first site of visit.
When you are travelling, your companions are more important
than the place you are travelling to. If they are just the exact opposite pole,
you will end up being loggerheads with them in deciding the place.But I was
just lucky enough to have my beloved sister and my closest friend as my pillars
of strength throughout the travel.
When I proposed to go to the Hawker’s stall, they gladly agreed
with me and, off we went to the place.
It was like a food court, where you have all the food stalls
at one place. You can get your favourite foods from any stall, and enjoy eating
them together.
We were at loss at what to get and what to avoid. But the
people there were friendly enough to answer our queries, and we found it easy to
communicate with them in English, and to some in Tamil.
Based on their suggestions and our instincts, we bought
ourselves a huge sumptuous meal.
The Singaporean foods consist of a large variety of sea
foods. Most of the popular dishes there were made up of Crabs, Prawns, Shrimps,
and Oysters and of course, the fishes!
IMAGE SOURCE: FROM MY SKETCHBOOK
We enjoyed eating the very famous Fish head curry with plain
rice. It delighted our taste buds for the fact it was close to our south Indian
dishes. Next we shared a plate of Chicken Rice. The rice had the flavour
of chicken and, the chicken itself was so soft. We also got Nasi Padang,
which came along with a huge variety of dishes in itself. We were pampered for the
day and we left the place with the sadness that burned our souls, because we were leaving with just one or two dishes.
" We all eat and it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat
badly."
--
Anna Thomas
IMAGE SOURCE: HERE
That sadness was not to last, because, we found ourselves
going back to the place, the very next day.
The next day we delighted ourselves with the Chilli Crab and
had our fill of noodles with Hokkien Mee. We also had Bak Kut Teh, the very
clear and tasty soup. We also tried the Rojak, the Oyster Omelette, Nasi Lemak,
Laksa and Char Kway teow. We really experienced the food paradise there.
We returned after a few days, but our thoughts were
lingering among those noodles and prawns.
When you go to a new place, the first thing that strikes you
is the food. Even when you are travelling, you will have to eat and, food is
what you first understand in a culture. When you are migrating to a new place,
the food culture is what you get used to first, and everything else follows next. Because
food has a very high place in the deepest part of our souls and minds, and, it
enjoys the best intimacy with the soul.
Singapore is a place where, you can see multitude of
cultures, living harmoniously. The food too has evolved along, and, it has strong
roots in different cultures of the world.
So, after leaving Singapore, only one dish took a place in
my heart and that was Hokkien-Mee.
I like eating curry, I love eating seafood and I am a
die-hard fan of Noodles. I just love slurping those. And as a result my
favourite food is Hokkien Mee.
IMAGE SOURCE: FROM MY SKETCHBOOK
" Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are."
- Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
It is a dish which has noodles as its base, along with the
little bit of flavour, and a little of prawn. You can find different variants of
it in different countries. But I loved the variety, which had prawns in it.
As for any dish, there is no generic preparation. Some
follow their own recipes which must have been passed down in the families. Some
just adapt the recipe to their own tastes and desires.
"Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the
soul.''
- Dorothy Day
You have to first cook the noodles. Egg noodles are the
preferred ones and I personally prefer some brands over the others. You can add
some rice noodles too, if you wish. But I like the one with just the egg
noodles.
Garlic is an important component of this dish. You should
not miss this. Garlic, when taken alone or when added to a plain dish, it gives
a pungent taste. But it has huge health benefits and for one, it reduces
cholesterol.
For this dish, you have to add the garlic. You can add 5 -6
cloves of garlic. But you can reduce it or increase it depending on your
personal preferences. Sauté them until they become crispy golden brown and then
add some chicken or prawns and the sauces.
Coming to the sauces, they give the taste that the dishes
need and you have to be careful while adding them. You can add Oyster sauce and
few drops of Soy sauce. No dish with Chinese roots will be complete without
adding the soy sauce, but you have to add only little of it for the dish to
taste better. After adding the sauces, I usually add eggs and finally pepper
and salt. You can also add chives, anchovies and as I had said already, a
successful recipe results out of your personal experience.
Now, the third part of the dish - the broth. You can buy it
from the stores or you can make it yourself. I usually add chicken broth to it.
You can also add prawn to it.
I boil some pieces of chicken along with pepper, salt and
garlic for the broth.
When all the three components are ready, the expertise left
is in adding all the three to create a wonderful one.
Add the broth to the mix of the prawn, sauces and garlic. Wait
for a few minutes and add the semi-cooked noodles. Once the noodles get cooked
completely, your dish is ready!
I got this recipe from various cookbooks, cookery shows and
of course, from various food blogs. Each one had expressed their own recipe and
after years of trying, I have found my recipe. What I have given here as a
recipe may not be suitable for some. So, the best way to perfect your recipe is
to experiment with it.
But keep those experimentations to minimal when you have to
feed someone else other than you. Add a bit of something, more of something
else and you will find your perfect recipe.
Hokkien Mee is what I loved from the land of Culinary
Marvels!
"People who love to eat are always the best people"
--
Julia child
No comments:
Post a Comment