Eshin Direct

We decided to be adventurous and took a trip to Kranji. It’s a small place in the northwest of Singapore and is home to mainly farmlands. We’re staying in what they call a resort farm. Anyway, despite the absence of bug repellant, we had a nice meal at the only restaurant on the resort (I use the term loosely).

It was fun partly because of the joy that Mrs. Eshin gets from good food and especially so when it reminds her of her childhood. So after a healthy dose of steamed “Sauna” prawns, water spinach with thousand year egg, and expat fried rice, she asks me, “So, what dishes do you remember from childhood?”

I’ll be honest and say that it took me some time to answer, which isn’t really fair to my mother. And I’m still thinking of the answer as I write this post. But here are some candidates that came to mind then and now.

Putt i Panna. This was something that my mother picked up from Sweden when my parents were based there. It literally means “tidbits in a pan” and can be made with any leftovers readily available. My mother’s putt i panna was made invariably with bacon, diced potatoes, caramelized onions and braised steak so tender it crumbled into the dish more often than not. The braising took a couple of hours but the smell just permeated the whole household, announcing that the family was in for a treat that evening.

Yeung Chow Fried Rice. Another of my favourite dishes that had a unique smell to it was my mother’s fried rice. Our time in Singapore over thirty years ago exposed her to a lifelong passion for Asian food. As a result she came back with a recipe for fried rice that was evidently a take on yeung chow fried rice or expat fried rice. Hers was made from a fragrant basmati rice, the freshest spring onions, peas, and diced chicken. I think it had prawns as well that were often taken out by me. The point was that the basmati rice heralded this great dish before anything else had even been prepared.

Pancakes. To be accurate, my mother didn’t really cook this dish so much as she used it as a fun way to engage her son in cooking. It sort of worked as I still remember it as being a fond childhood memory. She was more responsible for the preparation of the batter that makes a good Dutch pannekoek. A pannekoek is a halfway house between a French crépe and an American pancake, and tastes a damned side better. A versatile creature, it could be eaten with bacon, or raisins, or chocolate spread. Yummy.

Of course there is a whole load more memories of home cooking that I could recall if I had a cookbook to write. My mother makes handsdown the best steaks in the world but then that answer would have deprived my girlfriend of a far more interesting answer.

Tags: food, memories