It's Just Food...

That's what I tell myself every time I crave Malaysian food. Having lived away from home for the past 5 years or so.. I would be lying if I said I didn't crave Malaysian food. My mother is a housewife and she cooks wonderful dishes such that friends and family usually cater from her for small functions, etc.

The food that I cook is not even 1/10th near what she makes. Ironically I always wanted McDonald's, Ramlee burger, Black pepper fried rice, chappatis with lentil curry, etc. when I lived at home. I was not keen to eat home food. Now that I live away from home, I dream of the dishes she cooks. For example, there's this lamb parcel she used to make (little pieces of lamb cooked in a curry and then baked in small foil packets). In Oslo, supermarkets don't sell lamb. The only way to get it is to go to a butcher - something I don't really prioritize because they close at 6pm weekdays, but I probably should.

Sigh, butter prawns, fish curry (my fish curry is not as thick as the one my mom makes), fried beehoon (only managed to make that recently, and it's edible but doesn't taste like my mom's at all), etc. I'm such a foodie. In fact, that's how I started hanging out with the boyfriend. We used to cook together because he likes Indian food (way more than me) and you can't get South Indian food here easily.

You know, the wonderful part about living in Malaysia is that you can get food anywhere, anytime, any type ... you just take it for granted. Recently I was thinking about soup noodles - you know that Japanese type? My Mom doesn't make Japanese food, but my point is that it is so easy to get it in Malaysia right? Any Japanese restaurant would have like 5 different kinds of soups with udon noodles or soba noodles. But guess what? I haven't found any Japanese restaurant in Oslo with dishes like these.

So, I thought 'How hard can it be? I'll make it!'

I found a wonderful recipe here. This is what my dish looked like:



It's actually really easy to make this dish. Once you marinate the chicken and put it into the oven, the rest is really quick. I made extra chicken and refrigerated it.. then boiled new soup + noodles the next day for a second meal.

I should probably go to the _one_ Japanese grocery shop in Oslo to stock up on Japanese cooking stuff.