Any way I want…

I had some leftover stuff in the fridge the other morning so I decided to fry some bihun for breakfast.

No, I did not want to use my stock of canned clams in soy sauce. My girl used one can to fry her pek koi and when I fried the same the other day, my way, somebody commented on Facebook that I should have used those clams. Honestly, is there a fixed way to cook something – there’s no law that says something must follow some specific recipe, is there? So why can’t I cook it any way I want? Who knows the end result may be just as nice…or even nicer!

I said that I was not about to use up mine as they were difficult to get and he said there were a lot at a supermarket on the other side of town. For one thing, it is located very far away and for another, there was a COVID-19 case not too long ago, a student home from Indonesia, negative throughout his quarantine in Kuching and tested positive when he got back here. Word went round that he dropped by there and the other place right across the traffic lights junction. I do not know if there was any truth in that but I sure would not take the chance and would stay far far away from that area.

Besides, the thing with those clams, when you see any, you’d better grab as many cans as you can. Give it a few days, it will all be sold out and it will take a few months before any new stock will arrive. I bought mine from that food and fruit shop near my house and the  next day, I noticed that they had moved all their stock to the shelf in front (customers are not allowed in the shop and will have to make their purchases over their makeshift counter) and since then, I have not seen any – all sold out, obviously and no new stock has come in yet at this point in time.

Anyway, back to my bihun, I had a lot of celery left from what my girl used for her cottage pie and I also had half a can of luncheon meat after using some of it for sandwiches so those were the ingredients I used…

…and chopped garlic and some of my missus’ blended chili even though there was not much left. For the celery, I picked the stalks with all the leaves and I cut the stalks thinly, leaving the leaves whole. They would all shrink when fried, anyway.

I soaked the bihun in hot water to soften and tossed it with the blended chili, a whole lot of pepper and some leftover seasoning from the instant noodles that I had not too long ago – I only use half usually as I find it a bit too salty when I use the whole sachet. I guess if you do not have that, you can substitute it with those chicken stock granules or salt and msg.

I fried the garlic in oil till golden brown, added the luncheon meat and the thinly-cut stalks of the celery before putting in the bihun. It looked kind of pale so I added a few drops of dark soy sauce…

…solely for the colour before throwing in the celery leaves.

Lastly, I added two eggs and once fried enough, I dished it all out…

…and sat down to enjoy the fruit of my labour.

Yes, it was very nice and obviously, my girl loved it – normally she does not eat that much in the  morning but that day, she had a second helping. There was some left so I finished it all off for lunch. As always, nothing went to waste…not if I could help it!