Used to…

If you may recall, I mentioned in my post a while ago that I bought a bag of mee kua or mee sanggul. We used to eat that tossed in soy sauce and msg and lard…and I loved it a lot. I used to wait and hope that my mum would cook some for us but sometimes, she might cook it differently.

I’m not sure if this is Foochow or not but it is definitely very simple and plain and yet so very tasty like most Foochow delights. You just simmer some pork bones or ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and a few cloves of garlic till the flavours have gone into the stock and add bayam (amaranth) to it. Then you boil the noodles and serve them in a bowl in the nice clear soup.

Well, it so happened that my missus brought home some wild bayam that my sister-in-law had in their garden and I decided to cook the noodles this same way…but with a slight twist. In place of the usual items for the soup or stock, I used some fresh scallops that my niece brought home all the way from Singapore instead. I boiled those with garlic and I did add a slice of ginger as well. We usually do that when cooking seafood especially in soup to get rid of the fishy smell. Then, I added the seasonings and bayam and the soup was done.

I boiled the noodles and placed them in a bowl and then, I poured the soup over them and served with some of the scallops and the vegetables, adding one poached egg to it and sprinkling some chopped spring onions all over it as well…

It was very nice but I remember that when my mum cooked that, it was very much nicer. Maybe it was because she used meat stock…or maybe she fried the garlic in a bit of lard first to cook the soup…but it was nice enough this way and I enjoyed it for my breakfast that morning.

I did not think the scallops tasted all that great though…

I would very much prefer prawns or fish fillet or even fish balls but if I’m not mistaken, these fresh scallops are very expensive and we can hardly get them here even. At best, we would have those coated with breadcrumbs that we would just fry and eat like chicken or fish nuggets. I guess there is this snob appeal attached to certain things and in fact, that is what attracts people to them when they do not really taste all that nice…or perhaps, it is an acquired taste, I wouldn’t know but no, if it is expensive, it is something not for the likes of me. I would much sooner go for something more affordable and nice, call me a cheap skate if you want – I am just being realistic and I can’t jolly well be extravagant on my measly pension.

Anyway, getting back to the noodles, I still have a lot left and maybe one of these days, I’d cook some with bayam and pork bones, the way my mum did and see which one I like better…