Cravings

I had only been away for 10 days, and not 10 months or 10 years, yet I have loads of cravings for our local food. And I have been so sleepy since I returned. What beats me is, the trip was only 10 days. Last time 3 weeks in Europe and back, I was perfectly fine and kicking *scratch head*. And I had plenty of sleep in Dubai as it was supposed to be a free and easy trip. Luckily when I returned, I did not gorge myself silly with all our local food I was craving, because I was busy sleeping away. I was craving for Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee, Kway Teow Soup, Satay, Mee Rebus, Nasi Lemak, Hainanese Chicken Rice and even porridge ..... the list goes on. The best substitute I could find in Dubai was a Thai stall in a foodcourt selling kway teow soup. Elsewhere you could not find any Chinese soupy stuff except the western soups. And then on the last day in the airport on my way back, I found Phad Thai in the foodcourt inside the DFS area. That was the best fried kway teow I had. Haha.

So today for lunch, I just had the splendid Hokkien Mee from the coffeeshop nearby. It is not the Hokkien Prawn Mee we are used to. It was a different typical Hokkien style used in Tze Char stalls. The noodles was stir fried with dark sauce. The ingredients used are normally prawns, pork slices, fish cake slices, cuttlefish slices, cai sim veggie and PORK LARD! And as sinful as it is, I regret to say I LOVE pork lard! The original yellow noodles after stir frying turned dark and a little starchy. The taste of the yellow noodles together with the dark sauce and ingredients made up a really unique taste which I grow up with. My family has a love relationship with this Hokkien Mee. My grandma used to love it, my parents love it, I love it and even my niece loves it. My mom's version is normally not so dark.

My friend in Dubai was craving for Popiah, so we brought up 3 big turnips and together with all the Popiah ingredients like popiah skin, crushed peanuts, crushed chips, black sweet sauce, crushed garlic, chilli paste, and even Kueh Pai Tee cups (the cooked turnip can be used in these cups too, another dish)! We were able to make our own Popiah.