Gnome: Today: It’s Guy Fawkes today. Don’t have fireworks and can’t burn the mattress yet. Watch V instead, for consolation.
Munchkin:
I want to talk abour Ramen Noodles and give it the appreciation that it deserves. Firstly, I would like to share a chidhood memory; I grew up in a Chinese family and in those days, we called them “dolly hair noodles” in Chinese. I do not actually know when the “ramen” word became popularised by marketing but I was not aware of that name in Chinese. I am sure some very bored people can filter through the Internet to find out the origin of this name. I remember, in my primary school days, walking home for lunch and feeling hungry. Lunch-time was an hour, it took about 10 minutes to walk to the house so there was not much time to fit in the cooking and eating time. My mum would usually quickly rustle up a bowl of dolly hair noodles with boiled chinese greens. There would be some kind of meat, fish or even egg floating about in the soup. It took her only about five minutes to make and I had enough time to enjoy the meal slowly. At the time, I appreciated it as a cooked meal as opposed to all my friends eating cold ham sandwiches for packed lunch. Now, I appreciate it because it is such a quick, easy meal to make when you have no time or when you are in a rush or you are too tired to cook a proper meal.
So, I would like to give Ramen noodles an appreciative thank-you because too often, I have noticed that foodies or “gourmet wannabees” give me such derogatory side glances when I even mention that I eat Ramen noodles! The reason why it has such a bad reputation is that most people do not know how to eat them properly. I, too cringe at the idea of sticking it in a bowl and microwaving it for 60 seconds! Please, let us be a bit more imaginative and civilised about a bowl of noodles.
Of course, today’s lunch of the day has to be Ramen noodles with veggies. I did not include any meat but I will give you the full version in the recipe page. I was in town all morning with shopping and deliveries and when I finally got home, I was starving! I quickly cooked up noodles with greens and I had my meal ready in five minutes. I am writing this article whilst enjoying my post-prandial digestive phase.
If you are interested, here are a few hints on buying Ramen noodles since I have noticed that there are many brands in the supermarkets. I live near a wee town called Punta Gorda which has a population of between 5000-8000. Here, there are generally two brands to choose from: there is one imported from the States and there is one from Guatemala. I have tried both and I prefer the one from Guatemala because it is closer to “Chinese” noodles rather than “fast-food” noodles.
If you live in a more developed area, you will have your pick of brands of noodles. One suggestion is to surreptitiously find out what Chinese people buy because they always know which one is the best. The following is an example of a premium quality packet of noodles which was sent to us from Singapore. The noodles are actually steamed air-dried which shows the obsessiveness of Asians in knowing their noodle quality.
So, in conclusion, when you have been running around all morning and you are hungry and tired, try not to reach out for the cookies or the snacks. Make a meal in five minutes, sit down and enjoy it, with-out the feeling of just grabbing the first thing you can find to stuff your face.
Gnome:
A day for setting things up. The change-log for the site today would be:
Not ready yet to include the day…did make a batch of soap, incidentally but will get to such things in the future.
Munchkin:
We made a batch of chocolate artisan soap together; gnome did all the mixing whilst I assisted with the weighing of chocolate powder and cut-up soap pieces. This type of soap is what I call a “Soap Story” which includes odds and ends of old soap, cut up into pieces, which is mixed into a back-ground of opaque (in this case, chocolate) soap. Each soap we make has a “story” or a “description” as you will see later in more detailed blogs and so the visual appearance of these soaps end up as “soaps within soaps” or metaphorically speaking: “stories within stories”.
If my shop were working…this is where I would send you.
I weeded the vegetable beds today and also took the opportunity to gather the greens for eating today. See below, a huge basin of green leaves which are weighed exclusively for this blog: 420g ie. close to a pound in uncooked greens. Earlier, I marinated chicken breast with soya sauce, yellow ginger, cumin and salt in preparation for an “indian-style” fried chicken on a bed of steamed greens. No carbohydrates tonight.
The greens which I picked today is a vegetable known as “Avuvo” in Nigeria. The seeds were given to me a couple of years ago by a lady who wanted to start a pilot project on growing Nigerian vegetables in Belize with a view to an export market in the US. I had been given a plethora of seeds, perhaps about a dozen including vegetable greens, many types of egg plants and hot chillies. Since then, only two plants have survived: one is the Avuvo and the other is a domesticated type of Purslane. I will write more about purslane another time. Avuvo tastes like a spinach and produces a spiked “teasel-like” flower; it grows prolifically like a weed and takes over everything! That’s why I love it so much because it requires very little maintenance and the leaves remain pristine as no bugs seem to eat it. Contrast this with the callaloo here in Belize which is usually riddled with holes.
Below is a picture of our Meal of The Day:
Contrary to popular opinion there is an art to cooking fried chicken even although it is seen as major junk-food in this country. The chicken is removed from the marinade and dusted with white flour. Have a heavy cast iron skillet ready with vegetable oil filled up to 3 millimeters depth; put the flame on a medium to high heat and brown each side of the chicken. Then, turn down to the lowest flame and cook chicken for 10 minutes (may take less or more time depending on thickness of breast). About 2 minutes prior to this, flip the chicken over so that it is evenly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Steam the greens for 1-2 minutes and arrange on plate with the fried chicken. This goes well with a glass of mead (we make this too!!!).
If you wanted the recipe…I would send you here.
