The Food Canon

Dear Food Team

I thought we cooked a splendid dinner tonight.

I will jot down some notes here for our future remembrance, which means, please do cook this again.

Planning a meal is about matching various dishes together. If you serve a meal in a buffet spread, our guests will be piling food on their plates. The sauces are going to mix. Think of how sambal belachan will mess up delicately steamed pork ribs. Or how the pickled salad sauce will affect how a "Chai poh nung." So when you plan an Alpha meal, think of what will actually go on the diner's plate, how it will all come together.

Tonight's meal is almost a perfect combi. Food traditions are seldom wrong.

I am learning to enjoy good veg these days. Cooked the right way, it is just delicious.

Nope, I should correct myself and say that good veg can be eaten au natural. If you want to be able to judge some veg not just by how it looks, have a little snack.

It is not possible to do this in a super mart (for reasons like your conscience, CCTV cameras, you may bump into a friend, God is watching...).  For this and some other reasons, I buy most of my veg from my favourite stalls in the wet market.

Ed notes: In this post, I have done a major update of the recipe and rewritten the cooking notes since I first published it two years ago. I have also written a series of posts with more photos, the "science" behind it and how to cook this for a large party. Check out the series of posts through this link. I have also worked out a smaller portion recipe. 

My mum's Hokkien Prawn Mee was one of her 'signature' dishes.

It brings back many fond memories.

Annually, on Teachers' Day, she would cook for all the children teachers and helpers in my church's Super Powerkids Ministry. That tradition has of course ceased the year my mum passed away.

When news got round that she is cooking this, family members and friends will gather in anticipation.

And this is the dish she cooked for a a group of friends before she fell seriously ill. It was her last celebration. I still remembered how I visited my friend's place to enjoy it. When we meet, we still reminisce about this.

What is in a name, you may ask? Haven't you noticed how restaurant dishes are named?

Name it right, and you can increase the price or make your menu sound more attractive.

Kalamansi instead of just lime.
Arugula instead of rocket.
Pullet instead of Spring chicken
And yeah, Spring chicken instead of frog meat
Onsen eggs instead of soft-boiled eggs

And the list goes on.

Every cuisine has her own favourite noodles.

We associate a good bowl of it as a signature of the cuisine.

Penang-nites can be proud of their Assam Laksa and Hokkien Prawn Mee.
Thais their Pad Thai (strictly speaking, served on a plate).
Malays their Mee Rebus.
Indonesians, Mee Soto.
Vietnamese, Pho.

This is a short post to inspire you with some ideas for your daily dinners.

If, like me,  you can only cook after you are back from work, learning to cook quick dinners is not an option. And tonight's was cooked in about 40 minutes.

The corn went into the microwave, high for 5 minutes. Added some salt and butter. Shake. Ready.

The boneless chicken chicken breast was Sous Vide-d for 28 minutes at 63C. Pan seared. Then some salt and drizzled with lime.