Just filling the stomach

Day 5 of my vegetarian diet - I am doing very fine! These were my lunches.

Ordered the Sheng Mian (crispy noodles) from a veg stall in Albert Market. Did not enjoy it because the noodles were not the least crispy when served and it was a little watery for my liking. The vegetarian ingredients were kailan, young corn, mushroom, mock pork. The mock pork spoilt the dish as it tasted weird. I would not have minded just plain veggies and mushrooms. Anyway, it was just something to fill my stomach. Today had the fried black carrot cake for lunch. It looked gooey and dark but it was delicious! Very simple local dish with just rice flour fried with egg and garlic and black sweet sauce, and sprinkled with chopped spring onions.

Undeterred by lunches, I whipped up some veg dishes for dinner on some nights. Home-cooked food has no MSG which would not make us thirsty. I stir-fry chye sim with 5-spice tau kwa (fried beancurd) with just garlic and salt. Although it was called 5-spice tau kwa, it tasted not much different from the usual ones.

I love mushrooms. I prepared an assortment of 3 types of mushrooms for this dish - king oyster mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and enokitake mushroom. I used soya bean paste to cook this. I need to try this dish again as the seasoning was not done right but it was edible.

I love cauliflowers. Mixing cauliflowers with young corn, carrot, broad beans and button mushrooms made a nice combination. I did not even need to add any salt after frying the chopped garlic. I just added a teaspoon of mushroom stock concentrate and it was done and delicious!

I do not really like long beans. I added soya bean paste as the seasoning together with sugar, soya sauce and garlic. I added and stir fry minced pork and dried shrimp. I prepared a separate portion for myself, without the meat. I am temporary vegetarian, does not mean my family has to be herbivores as well. Heehe, lest niece and nephew give me that "why all vegetables?" look.

And I also prepared this dish which I did not even taste. It was braised pig trotters. I used a recipe I found from the internet. I told mom to taste and gauge the tenderness of the meat for me while I cook. The gravy was too watery she said. And I should have added the usual chinese mushroom and star aniseeds so that it was more fragrant.

I really need to start another blog to store my food creations and other discoveries. Then I can post up all the recipes for my own guide next time. I find that my "agaration" (estimation) of food seasoning is still not that consistent. So I must perfect that.