Simple is Not Easy....

Fried bee hoon vegetarian style...

We had vegetarian fried rice vermicelli today or let's just call it like what we locals call it - fried bee hoon. When I was just around kindergarten age, I used to follow mi mama to the market to get breakfast. The fried bee hoon was just 50 cents but with lots of bean sprouts. I'm a professional in choosing bean sprouts. I can remove the whole plate of bean sprouts without even missing one strand of it. Then, the price kept on increasing until now I think it's selling at RM1.20 at the market outside my new house. This is still considered an economical breakfast, simple and cheap.

I would like to stress that simple is not easy. It's not as easy as tearing the plastic wrapper open and then throw the crispy dry bee hoon into the wok and start stirring like you're a chef in action in a busy kitchen. The cabbage must be chopped up and the carrots need to be grated. Done with that then please be patient. The dry bee hoon need to be soaked for an hour in cold water. While waiting for that, you sit down and read the newspaper get other things done. I do not usually settle for only one dish. So, I made some other dishes to go as the accompaniments to the lonely fried bee hoon.

Onion sambal...

We Malaysians couldn't survive without hot and spicy condiments. So, I painstakingly started peeling the shallots and garlic to blend them into a paste, mixed with some belacan (a kind of shrimp paste). Some people may complain that the smell of shrimp paste is horrifying to the nose while other would love it. I stand on the fence. I peeled the onions but I do not suffer from watery eyes even after peeling 60 shallots, but not as many for this onion sambal. The whole house is filled with the belacan smell. We do not install the cooker hood to absorb vapour from all the cooking because we enjoy having the food smell as the natural air freshener. We had fresh cili padi from my garden as we planted a few cili padi plants and also a variety of chilli plants.

Curry potatoes....

The onion sambal might be too lonely too, thus the potatoes rolled along into its path. The curry potato has a completely different taste compared to the sambal belacan. I had fresh coconut milk from the market to mix with some freshly pounded chillies with lemongrass to enhance the smell. Not to forget a sprig of curry leaves. I'm really glad that the curry leaves plant in my garden is growing really well.

Luncheon meat and deep fried tilapia...

My precious loves luncheon meat so I had to consider her appetite as well. None of us like luncheon meat as it's a type of processed meat that's overly salty. How much sodium has been used in the process of making luncheon meat? And which part of the pig has been taken to do it? Anyway, you can just simply slice up the luncheon meat into thin slices and coat it with a beaten egg. Without the egg coating would do, too. The deep fried tilapia was another add on. That's the best although the colour didn't look golden. 

Economically not cheap :D

Top with a bull's eye, I got the whole household a hearty economical lunch with a few accompaniments to the lonely fried bee hoon. It's no longer lonely now. It looks like more crowded together in one plate.

The perfect ham roll... 

The ham roll bounced out of the oven for tea time. The softness of the bun, oh, amazing~! We have an abundance of food and we have more than enough, while doing some gardening work, mainly just removing unwanted weeds, my new neighbour just arrived home from work. So, we forced persuaded them to walk over for dinner. My neighboud brought a dish of hot bean sauce fried brinjal and eat together with whatever I have. That's the goodness of having a neighbour. I do not have to downsize so much. I can still enjoy cooking plenty of food and then invite them over for dinner.

The hubby is back home, so the abundance of food~!