Eat it…

I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of eggs. Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks.

I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied, ‘Because the egg yolks are terrible for you. That’s where all the nasty fat and cholesterol are.’

And I replied, ‘You mean that’s where all the nutrition is!’

Oyster omelette: Camemberu’s photo
from http://www.flickr.com

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG! By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg.

The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients…: it’s not even worth trying to list them all. In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolk. Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available, not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids. Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain all of the fat soluble vitamins A, E, and K in the egg, as well as all of the essential fatty acids.

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…’But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof!’…No, this is FALSE! First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates its internal production of cholesterol to balance things out. On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of important functions in the body.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry. And…high cholesterol is NOT a disease!  Heart disease is.

espion’s photo from http://www.flickr.com

So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body…and actually whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites. Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farming just don’t compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet. I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free roaming and healthy. Most people don’t realize that there’s a major difference because they’ve never bought real eggs from healthy chickens. The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs had deep orange coloured yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids.

Free range eggs: smallar and paler but nicer taste. 80 sen each at the shops in Sibu, 60 sen direct from supplier

One more thing about eggs…I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel based breakfasts.  The results of the study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier bodyweight, while the cereal/bagel eaters gained weight. It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would be more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.

Disclaimer: I received the above from a friend via email, so I am in no position to claim it to be gospel truth. As always, it’s your body and you decide what you want to stuff in it.

Simply the best…

People around KL would swear that they have the best bak kut teh at some place in Klang. Well, I never had the chance to sample that…but those that I had tried elsewhere were very nice, though not very different from what we have here at Ba Sen Ba Ku Teh along Kpg Datu Road in Sibu, which would come as no surprise for around the time when it first opened, I heard that the chef originated from West Malaysia.

Well, Huai Bin had a post on this place a few months back, so you all can hop over to his blog if you want to see nicer photos. (I’m not trying to increase his traffic here but I do notice that I get quite a number of visits each day via his blog! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… LOL!)

I had some errands to run yesterday so my daughter and I had to have lunch outside and she wanted to go there for Bak Kut Mee (literally translated, meat bone noodles). It was served in a claypot and priced at RM4.50…

But you may opt not to have the noodles, in which case it will be priced at RM5.00…and you can request for the side orders of rice and yew chia kwai.

One thing that I definitely will have to concede is that our satay pales in comparison with those in Kajang. They are small…and the sellers are very stingy with the gravy…and we only have two choices – chicken and beef, or should I say one, because the other day, when my missus went to buy some at the stall at Taman Selera Muhibbah, they did not have any beef ones. I guess this has got something to do with the Sarabif monopoly in the state over fresh beef…and Australian and NZ beef is getting way too expensive.

In Kajang, the sticks of satay are huge and they will give you the complimentary gravy in big bowls and they will refill, once you run out. Other than chicken and beef, they also had lamb…and my daughter loves those!!! Other than than, we don’t have ketupat here; I don’t know why they don’t make those anymore…but I really love having some with my satay.

Well, I haven’t come across any kampua in KL (though I’ve tried two semi-authentic Sarawak kolo mee there) but those in Kuching, KK and elsewhere are definitely nothing like what kampua should be. But anyway, my main intention in including this here is actually to disprove kpenyu’s criticism that the slices of meat are paper thin and will fly away once you switch on the fan…

See…my kpenyu law-eya!!! They’re definitely not as you claim them to be so you’ll have to retract your statement now or else all the Sibu kampua sellers will take legal action against you for defamation of their good reputation. LOL!!! Well, in my case, I will always ask for pian-sip/kiaw/wantan instead of those slices of meat anyway…and incidentally, what you see in the photo is the flat mee pok done kampua-style…and these few days, I wonder if the price has gone up from its usual RM2.00/Rm2.20. I haven’t heard anything regarding this and as they say, no news is good news!