I just heard a radio program on summer soups. (Okay, for the uninitiated, there’s SUMMER soup, and there’s REST OF THE YEAR soup.) Summer is hot, ergo you drink cold soup. Winter is cold, ergo you drink hot soup.
Now, for a girl from the tropics, the idea of cold soup is as appetizing as melted ice-cream. It’s the same thing, if you ask me. For Singaporeans, and I assume, many others in non-seasonal places, hot soups are a daily – and delicious – reality of life.
I remember how flabbergasted Jay was on his first visit to Singapore. Aside from being overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells, he couldn’t understand how we could eat hot spicy food in the middle of 100-degree humidity.
It’s funny how you never really consider something you do every day, your whole life, until someone looks at it from a different perspective.
We’re used to what we’re used to, until we’re not.
Still, there are some mysteries I cannot fathom.
Don’t come and bluff me with this “Suckling Pig.” Lola, I’m talking to you. When Chris visited Seattle with her family, we made a dinner date at the restaurant and eagerly anticipated “Suckling Pig” as advertised on its menu. After the waitress described the dish, we were sorely disappointed. She lamely told us there was crispy pork rinds. Stewed pork with some skin thrown on as an afterthought isn’t suckling pig. Am I being too harsh if I want them to get it right?
I am constantly tickled whenever I encounter “Singapore” dishes. I’ve seen “Singapore Noodles” in almost every US city, but this was the first time I saw “Singapore Chicken.” Depending on who you believe at the Vashon Island restaurant – run by Hong Kongers – the chicken was either in some brown sauce, or curry sauce, or brown curry sauce. If there was any Singapore dish that deserved a national title, it would have to be Char Kway Teow.
I still have mixed feelings about sandwiches, especially cold sandwiches. We made these Cream Cheese Salmon sandwiches for Ruby’s second birthday this year, in addition to Cream Cheese Cucumber and Nutella Apple sandwiches. I have not had as much cream cheese as I’ve had since moving to the US. They eat a lot of sandwiches here. I guess a sandwich is like a bowl of noodles. Only to me, it’s still not really.
As a result of our schizophrenic diet, Ruby has developed a rather unique palate. She loves cream cheese, pickles, fish balls, sushi, noodles, and char siew; but does not like mac and cheese, tofu, eggs, sandwiches, or pasta (cold or hot). I can safely say she is the only one in her preschool to pack rice or noodles in her lunchbox instead of sandwiches.
What does this mean for our family?
Grocery runs to two kinds of supermarkets to get both Western and Asian ingredients. A kitchen where you can find instant noodles and salsa. Dinners where Jay makes a sandwich, and I make a bowl of noodles.
Because when you’ve got to eat soup noodles, you’ve got to eat soup noodles.
Amen!