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One thing I missed a lot was wholesome home-cooked food when I started going through the first trimester of my pregnancy. I missed my mom’s stir-fried veggies, be it cauliflower, spinach, kailan, kangkong, beansprouts, the list goes on. I used to have heaps of these to go with steamed rice. They were all very good.

Since cooking smells have become nauseating to me, it was a challenge to cook anything at home especially where oil is required. I tried to fry an omelette and stir-fry spinach for lunch today, but I don’t think I can tahan doing it the second time. Sometimes I envy my colleagues who stay close to their parents as they would always hop over to their parents’ place to have dinner. Our place is in the middle between both our parents’ homes, and not very near both ways.

Recently, my in-laws bought me loads of ‘yan wo’ (birdnest; a Chinese delicacy) and ’pao sheng’ (Chinese herb) for my pregnancy in 2nd and 3rd trimesters. I was very touched. My mother in-law taught me how to prepare this delicacy. She even supplied the crockery for the very purpose!

There have been conflicting reports on the pros and cons of consuming birdnest for pregnant women. On one hand, it is reputed to give smooth complexion and healthy lungs for both the mother and baby. On the other hand, it may cause ailments such as asthma. Some say eat in moderation. So far, birdnest soup has not given me any problems. I hope it will not as it is such a wonderful yummy soup.

Last night’s anniversary celebration was a success - with the host of VIPs, ex-principals, alumni, current students, ex-teachers and current teachers all attending the occasion. I’m glad that we finally pulled it through after months of preparation and rehearsals.

The choir put up a good show and though the songs performed were not technically demanding, they were crowd-pleasers as such occasions require. I felt that the new choir gown is lovely but some of my girls would tell you that it looks very gay. Well, its the overall stage effect that matters at the end of the day. This purple fabric has a electric blue tinge at a certain angle and has that royal feel which in my opinion is uncommon and attractive as compared to other school choirs’ gowns. I admit that the design is nothing to shout about though … we were constrained by time and budget.

Anyway, I’m happy that the headache of sourcing for the tailor, gown design, fabrics and budget is all behind me now. :) It was quite an undertaking.

The name of the drink is quite a misnomer for there’s no tea content at all.

Boon Yee, my dear ex-colleague, shared with me this antedote to ‘morning sickness’. Her mother in-law made it for her during her difficult first trimester and it was effective in toning down the nauseous sensation. It is the ginger that does the job. The rest of the ingredients make the drink really palatable.

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

10 Red Dates (soak for 10 mins. Brush away the dirt trapped in the creases of the skin)

16 Dried Longans (Rinse. I used ‘AA’ quality from Thailand)

Peeled and crushed 2″x 2″ ginger (Old ginger is more potent. If using young ginger, just add more)

Rock sugar (amount according to personal preference)

Method:

1) Bring 5 cups of water to a boil.

2) Add all ingredients and simmer in moderate heat for about 15 mins.

3) Serve while hot. Can be drank chilled as well.

I was informed that this drink is commonly prepared for women during their 1-month confinement too. The red dates are supposed to be good for iron supplement to make up for blood loss during delivery.

Oh ya, I booked my confinement lady liao. Hee hee. :)

Today’s the fifth day of my fever and cough but it feels like I’m trapped in a time-zone. When will my misery be over?

My gynae told me on Tuesday that I have nothing to worry about even with all this cold symptoms. Of course, being a first-timer, I worry anyway. My coughing has become more violent over time and this morning, I vomited part of my breakfast of chee chong fun and bng kweh. Did I also throw up my vitamin pills too? The mess was too disgusting for me to check. I quickly washed the vomit down the sink.

To make matters worse, I’m moving towards the peak of ‘morning sickness’ of the first trimester. Every slight cooking smell makes me nauseous and therefore, impossible to eat at many foodcourts and coffee shops. Sometimes, I won’t be able to determine which foods are turn-offs until I eat it. My current neutralising agent is NTUC’s or Marigold’s soybean milk. Yang bought me claypot toufu dinner the other night and wow, it was truly my tummy pleaser. Last night, he bought egg toufu and it had an opposite effect on me. I think I need pure soybean products.

Although fruits are fine so far, the doctor told me to stay away from pineapples. In fact, I’m craving for the refreshing crunch of guava (no sour plum powder please) and honey sweetness of rock melon now.

Three things kept bothering me during this period of pregnancy:

Nausea

Bloatedness

Constant exhaustion

So far, I didn’t vomit. Thank God! It’s just that the lurking background nauseous sensation kept me from feeling normal. Chewing on a few pieces of cereal helps to stop the sensation for a while. I found out that certain cooking smells can make me more nauseous. I read that this ‘morning to night sickness’ will go away in the second trimester where the level of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) will drop. One colleague shared with me that her second trimester was her happiest. She felt sickly in her first trimester too.

I learned that if I ate normal portions for the usual 3 meals a day, my digestive system couldn’t cope well. Pregnancy causes digestion to be sluggish. Hence, I have to reduce my intake at each meal to about half or else I would feel very bloated. This takes a while to adjust to. I also have to eat small portions frequently in-between meals. I don’t have to deliberately feed myself at appropriate times as my system will cry ‘hungry hungry!’ every 2-3 hours. I have been spending so much time eating that I can’t help but feel like a pig. The challenging part is that I have to watch the nutritional value of my food and stay clear of certain foods that can be detrimental to the development of the foetus.

Feeling flat out tired during this period makes me quite ‘useless’. I’m no good to do any work and my brain is processing information rather slowly. Thank God that I got pregnant after the year-end examination. I can’t imagine the struggle I have to go through to complete the marking within a limited time. Truly, I shouldn’t be complaining. Thank God that the timing is just right. :)

It hit me 6 hours after breakfast 2 days ago. Boy, it happened in the midst of marking my student’s essays and I thought the words just lifted themselves off the page! I had to stop and go ransack the kitchen for food.

Yang doesn’t believe in stocking up food or snacks in the house. Hence, it was tough initially. It is only of late that he relaxed a bit. But today, I had a hard time finding decent food in the kitchen to tide my hunger until dinner. I searched high and low…ah ha, found a pack of instant mee goreng. I cooked it within 5 minutes and gobbled it all up in less than 2 minutes. Hunger pangs still there leh.

Next up, hard-boiled egg. Took me 10 mins to prepare. Dipped it in light soy sauce and white pepper before munching it down, hmmm… very satisfying indeed. Aiyoh, I still felt hungry. Made myself a cup of hot milo. There, much better now.

Whenever I need to tide over my hunger in between meals, I try not to have snacks that will spoil my appetite for a proper meal later. Sometimes, drinking water helps. Instant energy foods such as milo or energy bars can come in handy too. I have my own LL’s theory that proteins, besides sugar, is a necessary component to ward off my hunger since the food will go quickly to the stomach for digestion. Hence, protein-rich egg or a glass of warmed fresh milk with a tablespoon of honey added is great. A ripe banana, if you have it at home, is also a good option.

That was today’s breakfast menu.  Easily done and delicious. An ex-colleague shared this recipe with me and it has only been recently that I used it again.

Ingredients

Fresh white button mushrooms (1 tub)

thick slices of bread

butter

salt

ground black pepper

Italian dried herbs

Method

1) Clean the mushrooms off any dirt. It is okay to use tap water; it is a myth that mushrooms will absorb water.

2) Slice the mushrooms.

3) Heat up the frying pan with 2 tbsps of butter and lightly stir-fry the sliced mushrooms.

4) The mushrooms will soften and release their delicious smells and this is the time to add a dash of salt, pepper and Italian herbs. Liquid will start to ooze out of the mushrooms too. Stir fry for another 30 seconds or so and then transfer the mushrooms onto a plate. It is okay that the mushrooms are wet.

5) Toast the bread slices using a toaster.

6) Apply butter to one side of toast and distribute the mushrooms (do not include its fluid) on it. Optional: you can also add other light greens such as alfalfa or lettuce. Sandwiched with another buttered toast.

7) Enjoy while the toast is still crispy. :)

We don’t have a toaster at home. So we used our oven set to grill mode to do the toasting. It was better as we could toast 6 slices of bread at one go. :) Yang loved it.

The nutritional value of this recipe is high. Instead of using ham or sausage for breakfast, the traditional protein supplement, mushrooms are also rich in protein. Other advantages of using mushrooms: they are rich in fibre, good sources of antioxidants (prevents cancer) and have almost no fats. The only thing to watch out for is the use of butter which is rich in saturated fats. You can substitute it with olive oil for the sauting and soft margarine for the breadspread. But I feel that a little butter is fine especially when no oil can match up to butter for its wonderful aroma rendered in cooking. Eat in moderation and exercise to keep fit. Don’t forget to drink lots of water, eat a colourful variety fruits and vegetables and have the correct amount of sleep. Enjoy life! :D

Yang’s mother cooks great dishes. Matt can attest to that :) Recently, Yang missed Hainanese pork chops and asked me to try whipping up the dish.

I bought too much pork (~450g) and hence had to remove the potato slices from the recipe. Otherwise we’ll have trouble finishing up the food. The traditional recipe calls for potato. I’ll do that the next time. :)

I learned two new methods while preparing this dish: 1) Using crushed Hup Seng Cream crackers as bread crumbs, and 2) tenderizing the meats using the blunt spine of my chopper. Yang had fun creating the crumbs by pressing them in a ziplock bag while I enjoyed ‘boxing’ the meats with the back of my chopper. :P

The result was terrific. The pork chops tasted hmmmm juicy and tender and the sauce complemented well. The only thing about cooking anything deep fried is the lingering smell and oilyness of the kitchen. The cleaning up always require more time and energy. It’s time to check out those deep fryers.

Below is the recipe for those who are interested. :)

Ingredients (serves 2)

250 g pork chops / pork loin

1 small potato, sliced

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 onion, quartered

Frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas), 4 tbsps

9 Hup Seng cream crackers, crushed into fine crumbs in ziplock bag (alternative: panko)

1/4 cup plain flour

1 egg, beaten

Vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

Marinade for pork chops

a pinch of salt

rice wine, 1 tbsp

a dash of pepper

a dash of 5-spice powder

a few drops of sesame oil

cornstarch (1/2 tbsp)

Sauce Mix

water (1/2 cup)

cornstarch (1/2 tsp)

light soy sauce (2 tsps)

sweet chilli sauce (1/2 tbsp)

tomato ketchup (6 tbsps)

sugar (2 tbsps)

rice vinegar (1/2 tbsp)

a few drops of sesame oil

Method

1) Sandwich the pork chops between 2 sheets of cling wrap and beat lightly with the blunt side of chopper knife or a meat mallet to tenderize them. (Note: thick chops must be sliced to at least 1 cm thickness)

2) Mix pork with marinade, wrap and set aside for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

3) Pan fry potato slices until lightly brown. Set aside.

4) Get ready the flour, beaten egg and crumbs in 3 separate plates. Dip pork into flour, then egg and finally crumbs. Make sure pork chops are thoroughly coated with crumbs before deep fry until golden brown.

5) Let the chops cool before cutting them into strips. Arrange them on a serving dish.

6) In a non-stick pan, saute onion. Add tomato wedges and frozen mixed vegetables and stir-fry for 2-3 mins.

7) Add water & cornstarch mixture. Next, add sugar, chilli sauce, ketchup, light soy sauce and vinegar. Stir to mix evenly.

8) Add fried potatoes. Allow sauce to thicken. Add a few drops of sesame oil. Adjust seasoning if needed.

9) Pour over the pork chop strips and serve immediately with steamed white rice. Enjoy! :D

Sigh, have to cross out another favorite food of mine because of the reputation of MIC (made in China) products.

As Yang and I was eating our home-style stir-fry dish of sliced pork, asparagus and golden mushrooms for dinner just now, I became horrified all of a sudden. ”These golden mushrooms are cultivated in China! The substrate used might be plasticky!” I cried. I always detested the chemical smell drifting from the plastic wrapping whenever it was cut. What was that? It seemed to resemble the smell from those disposable chopsticks. Sulphur dioxide? Worse still, was the substrate made up of ground used disposable chopsticks? *Shudder*

Pardon my wild imagination. :)

Anyway, the list of MIC items I’m avoiding is growing by the day. So far, the list goes like this:

1) China fruits (pears, Fuji apples, nectarines, hami melons)

2) China vegetables

3) China luncheon meat (This should be the first on my list. Yang knows the story)

4) China fungi (golden mushrooms, shiitake)

5) China dried products (scallops, birdnest, dates, seaweeds)

6) China biscuits

7) China rabbit sweets

8) China imported medicine, including dried herbs (mother would be upset)

Well, I have to be more resourceful now especially when alternatives can be much more costly. :(

Sheez, it had been a long, afternoon affair making wantons and soup!

Had it not for the fact that I was relatively free today, I’d have made a mess out of the kitchen. The preparation of the pork broth for wanton soup was truly therapeutic in the aromatic sense. The ingredients of the broth include pork bones, dried shrimps (hei bi), onion and garlic. Ahh, the taste of the homemade broth after 3 hours of simmering was simply delicious! It was a real pity that I had to dilute the broth to increase its volume as it turned out to be insufficient for submerging the cooked wantons later.  Next time, I’d know better.

I wanted the prawns to have that signature succulent bite of har gau (shrimp dumplings - dim sum version). I remembered that my ex-colleague once casually mentioned about the method. After confirming the method from various sources on the Internet, I soaked the peeled and de-veined prawns in salt solution for 10 minutes. Well, I think the prawns did become plumber and had more crunch. However, something seemed to be amiss. May be the prawn taste was too strong?

The wrapping of the wantons was fun but time-consuming for the first-timer me. I tore a few wanton wrappers and tried to seal the tear by nipping the skin with my index finger and thumb. I took care to remove as much air as possible from the wantons during wrapping so as to minimise any ugly ballooning later. Being paranoid that water will not glue the wanton skin together, I really pressed them as firmly as possible. No wonder I felt exhausted after that!

The verdict? With my tender, loving squeeze, the wontons didn’t ‘explode’ (spill their contents) when cooked. Yay. :D Yang and I each ate a big bowl of wonton soup with chilli padi in light soy sauce as a side condiment. I’ll say it was, er, passable. 3 out of 5? Yang wasn’t excited about the dish at all. At least, he didn’t give any negative comment. I don’t think I’ll make this dish again unless I chance upon a better recipe or someone’s in the mood to throw a wonton party :P Wouldn’t it be fun to wrap wontons with a group of friends as a form of social gathering?