Back when the guy was working in Frankfurt and when I flew over to visit him, I don’t really recall eating a lot of Semmelknödel there because they always serve this dish as a side along a main dish such as roast meat, schnitzel etc, which is a lot for my small appetite (it’s their version of carbs after all). For me, I’ll always give this a miss and then order something else, like, erm, some cold Brezeln (pretzels) or sausage or Weisswürste (veal sausages) if there are.
I love guacamole. Why? You might ask? Because it’s made with avocadoes – lovely, creamy, rich avocadoes. To make a good bowl of guacamole, make sure to add in enough acidic juice and fruits such as lemon and diced tomatoes as well as enough fresh herbs like fresh parsley or coriander. This will make whatever you eat it with taste as great as heaven.
This recipe of chicken macaroni soup reminds me of the soup noodles that my mum used to cook for us when we were young. She likes to cook the broth with ikan bilis first, and then use the broth to cook thick yellow noodles, some vegetables, and then maybe some fishballs or fish cake slices. The soup would be bland and so would the ingredients, and I recall I really didn’t like it at all. But it’s still cooked with hardship and love, with the limited amount of time and money she has. So, every Saturday, after I get back home from my art lessons at Jin Tai Primary School, I would sit down in front of the television in the living room and I would I always try my best to finish the whole bowl of soup noodle while I watch the programmes on television. I also remember those Chinese medium kiddish shows shown on the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) with the 3D clay figurines that move around stiffly and are animated to tell us stories from the past – ‘阿公讲古’。It’s kind of boring but back then, with no Netflix and no internet, so I would take comfort from whatever’s showing on tv and try my best to finish the noodles because it’s a big bowl filled with broth. That usually takes me an hour or so.
I haven’t made stuffed mushrooms in a while now. My last attempt was in 2022, stuffing and braising mushrooms in Chinese style. The previous time I baked stuffed mushroom in western style was in 2011 using portobello mushrooms stuffed with spinach and tomatoes. That recipe was really nice, I remember. I really should revisit that recipe soon.
I love simple food like this – just a bowl of plain rice with a simple side dish, made with simple love and minimal effort. It’s the tastiest comfort food one could ever get from anywhere in the world.
