Buay tahan!

After weeks of eating porridge and soupy stuff, Wendy and I can finally take it no more! We decided to ignore the the feeble warning alarms at the back of our minds and allow ourselves to indulge in a meal of Fried Bee Hoon. Yes, been hoon. We talked about it earlier on the previous postings. Go read if you dun know what it is!

Basiacally, the stall is still in Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre. The name of the stall is Bee Hoon Kuay Teow Mee and Rice. It is located on the second storey of the food centre. Yes, I know it isn't a stall name, it's more of a menu. But that's what's written on the signboard, so..... Anyway, what this stall sells is what is locally referred to as economic bee hoon, cos it is cheap and you can add additional stuff like chicken wings, fried eggs, Taiwanese sausages, etc. The usual favorites of Singaporeans!


Look! How can you resist?!

This stall is recommended cos the bee hoon here is not oily at all, plus the chicken wings (when freshly fried), taste heavenly! Remember to say yes when the uncle asks whether you want chilli, cos it is also worth a try! (However, nowadays, the business has become slower since their move to this new location, so the Chicken wings are not so fantastic anymore.... Sigh...)

The stall is open everyday except Sunday, and from late afternoon till late into the night (just my guess as I don't have the habit of waiting until people close shop) Do go and try!

iIlness taboos...

As the ancient Chinese saying goes: "Fortune never happens twice but misfortune never comes alone." Soon after the recovery from my illness, Wendy falls ill. She started off with a very bad sore throat which eventually led to flu-like symptoms and finally with a bad cough.

The Chinese believe that certain food tend to aggravate various disease states. For example:

If you have a cough, refrain from eating chicken and oranges, cos these will agitate your throat and make your cough worse. Staying away from bananas are important as it is believed to cause the body to produce more phlegm.

A sore throat is indicative of an excessively "heaty" body system. Therefore, to prevent the aggravation of the condition, one should avoid "heaty" food like chocolate, fried and baked food, red meats like beef and especially mutton, foods that contain chilli or are hot and finally fruits like rambutans and durians are a strict no-no. A heaty system is also said to cause acne, so for the image concious people out there, refrain from these foods! (to avoid fried food is healthier too, in the view of Western medicine)



Chinese believes in duality, like yin and yang, so if there are heaty food then there are cooling food. Food that cools the system includes vegetables and fruits like cucumbers and watermelons. Hyper cooling food exist too, and examples of these are bitter gourd, pineapples and mangosteens.


 

A body system that is extremely cooled or heated will result in diseases. Therefore, balance is the key. (this also appears in Western medicine where a balanced diet is important for the general well-being of the body) So, do not over-indulge in food from either categories! One can instead choose more neutral food like apples, pears and white meats like chicken and fish so as not to antangonize the body's balance. However, please bear in mind that diet is only part of the contributing factors to the body's balance of heatiness and coolingness. Activities like late nights or take long afternoon naps and repeated, drastic changes in the surrounding temperature can also disrupt the body's natural balance.

The Chinese also believe that disease can also arise from ingesting too much toxins. (Toxins?! From where?! I dun take arsenic!) Well, it seems that this "toxin" is not the conventional type that we know. This toxin (or "Tok" in Hokkien), is present mainly in marine animals like crabs, prawns, cuttlefish and squid. One should avoid the overconsumption of these organisms. Coincidentally, these organisms are high in cholesterol, so the Asian belief may not be wrong, as high cholesterol levels in the body does lead to diseases like heart attack.


Yes yes, it looks good...but...

Hmm... Wendy is still unwell. Maybe I shouldn't type too much. Oh well, if you feel unwell, just visit the chinese physician! (or locally referred to as "Chinese sinseh") :>

Breakfast?

My premonition of sickness proves to be accurate. I fell sick soon after my last post. But now that I'm better again, I'm ready to reveal the next food on my to eat list. This food is still found in the Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre. If you are wondering whether I'm a lazy guy who only chooses to eat at the nearest food outlet and who delusionally thinks that the food is great in order to pacify his hungry but lazy stomach, you are wrong! It's just more convenient to do food research by concentrating on a certain area.

So, if you happen to read this blog in the morning, you might want to consider trying the Niang Tou Fu aka Yong Tau Fu from the Fa Ji Niang Tou Fu. Located on the second floor of the food centre, this stall provides a large variety of food items to choose from. In case you are not familiar with Yong Tau Fu, you just choose six or more pieces of food items and give them to the stall vendor who will then ask you for the type of noodle you want. You can choose bee hoon (yes please!) or yellow noodle or kuay teow (flattened nice noodles).


So colourful! So nice!

Upon making your choice of noodles, the next choice would be whether you want your noodles and food items to be swimming in soup or not (if you want the soup and noodle to be separated just tell the person you want it dry) If you want it dry, you'll have the option of having it hot (as in chilli paste) or not. Do try the dry bee hoon version with chilli. We find it really good!

Chinese Culinary

Traditionally, the Chinese have categorised food according to their innate properties. The term "heaty" referred to food that stimulates the body system, "cooling" referred to food that soothes the body system and "neutral" referred to food which neither stimulates nor soothes the body system. Chinese culinary aims at achieving a good sense of taste as well as balancing these innate properties. Ginger is commonly used in fish bee hoon and other kinds seafood preparations to dissipate the fish odour. Ginger is considered as "heaty". In order to create a balance, some fish bee hoon will have slices of bitter gourd in the soup because bitter gourd is classified as "cooling".