COMFORT FOOD
Thursday, December 13, 2012
There are foods that I prefer to eat over other foods during certain times in the year.
Every winter season, the hotpot burner just begs to be used, to have a pot full of flavourful broth and foods boiling over top, and to have a crowd of people hovering around, cooking raw food in little baskets or clamped between their chopsticks.
Beef, veggies, fish balls... waiting to be eaten
You may have eaten many different types of tofu for hotpot, but have you tried frozen tofu? Just freeze a container of soft/medium tofu in the tofu and defrost it before hotpot. After it has froze and defrosted, you get a spongy texture that yields a more substantial bite that smooth tofu :)
Frozen then defrosted tofu
Another thing I really love to eat for hotpot is oysters. Although I'd love to eat it any time outside of hot pot as well.
Eating the foods right after you cook it in the soup can sometimes get a little bland, especially when it's piping hot, so a nice sauce (or combination of sauces: soy, sesame, chilli, XO...) is always needed:
I don't recall what was put into this
Another food that gets me all cosy is Japanese pumpkin/squash, or Kabocha. I just cut it up and steam it (with the skin - the most nutritious part!), then make my yummy sauce to go on top.
This is awesome with a bowl of white rice
With some nasu dengaku
I also really like eggplant, and sweet stuff, and baked/grilled stuff. So when you add that all up you get the Japanese food, nasu dengaku, pictured above with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
To make it, bake both sides of an eggplant cut lengthwise (3 minutes each under the broiler mode), then spread the cut side with a mixure of a spoon of miso paste, half a spoon brown sugar, half a spoon of cooking wine. Then broil it fore 3 more minutes.
I really like vegetables, but lets just talk about the way I think green beans taste best: when they're sliced diagonally. I think it makes them look so much prettier too... don't you think so?
With chicken breast
My dear Aunt goes overseas for vacation often, and always brings me back some souvenirs, which is mostly food/snacks.
On her recent trip to Germany, she brought back the Ritter Sport chocolate I love, but in a much different form from the typical square bar we get here in North America.
It comes with four different flavours!
My favourite is the cocoa nibs one, and the praline with hazelnuts.
I don't like chocolate-flavoured foods, specifically milk chocolate. But when it comes to filled chocolates, pralines, truffles, any white or super dark chocolate, I can't say no :)
Hello brunch~
I also can't say no to dimsum. I was so used to eating it once a week that sometimes I feel kind of empty without the loud dimsum atmosphere.
Hence whenever I'm back in Mississauga, I try to always make a trip to a Chinese restaurant. Last week I went to one that I typically don't go to - Sam Woo. It was the kind of dim sum where you check off what you want from a sheet of paper and they steam it fresh for you, but they also have several waiters walking around, hard-selling the already made dishes:
Mango glutinous rice ball, with mango and cream
Fish-cake stuffed, then fried, eggplant and tofu (background)
But of course, there are a lot more comforting foods I like. I'd tell you, but I'd just end up listing all the foods I eat. But for these few months, dimsum, kabocha, and hotpot were my favorites.
And the best thing to have with hotpot is the best thing that you would have with deep-friend food, which is beer:
Heineken
I end today's post with what I ended my hotpot with, along with some festive holiday spirit since Christmas is coming up soon! *cheers!
All ready to go on the trees outside!
X
MUAH MUAH MUAH
VICKI CHOW
P/S
The holiday decorations in my house are all done! My dad and somehow managed to hang Christmas lights on the outside tree which has grown immeasurably tall over the years (how have I not noticed this?).
Maybe it's due to my lack of sleep nowadays: due to the exams, alongside my awesome procrastinating capabilities, and studying extremely last minutes with my other friends who share these similar characteristics with me *feels less lonely*
This is how I look like in the mornings - lacking sleep, and with bubbles coming out of my nose.
Maybe it's due to my lack of sleep nowadays: due to the exams, alongside my awesome procrastinating capabilities, and studying extremely last minutes with my other friends who share these similar characteristics with me *feels less lonely*
I'll have to make this post short and stop now because the future of my computer science grade is heavily reliant on the next few hours.
Wish you well do well (physically as well as being mentally prepared) on your exams!
