Food... in the middle of the night

Can't sleep so here I am at 4.45am in the morning blogging about food. At least, that was on my mind, playing like a loop reel at 3am when I first got up to pee.

Its been like this for some time. I wake around 3 - 4am to pee. Then I can't go back to sleep. I lie there, listening to the blood drumming in my ears, my mind moving from one thing to another. Today, its about food.

I am mentally planning breakfast - what to eat when we go for breakfast in a couple of hours. I consider the wanton mee at Tembeling Place. Or the wanton mee at Maxwell. But so far, I think steamed pumpkin cake and chee cheong fun are the front-runners.

I am also going through recipes. So here's a list of what I want to cook in the near future (in no particular order):

• dried mee siam (my shortcut glory version adapted from Sylvia Tan's recipe)
• steamed pumpkin cake (winnie cheong's version from years back - with dried prawns, minced pork, shallots and seafood sauce!)
• shrimp omelette (nothing but shrimp, salt and egg - and the egg just nicely done, bordering on the 'not-so-done')

Had dinner with Gayle and her family last night. We had Taiwan porridge at Cheong Chin Nam Road. The sound of Taiwan porridge didn't sound particularly appealing initially. I thought it was going to be bland. No such thing! We had a mix of Taiwan porridge and cze char and it was yums!

Side dishes include cockles (just barely cooked, a teensy bloody and so sinful!) in a tangy black lime-chili sauce, braised pork in dark sauce (kong bak pau) with buns, braised toman fish with black beans and chili (this one came in small slivers of whole fish, fried so cracklingly good that you just eat them whole, bones and all!), large prawns fried with cereal, tiny smooth cakes of tofu topped wth pork floss and, sweet black sauce and shallots and served cold, and of course, prawn omelette. I would have preferred it with shallots and onions, but KH and the kids are - sadly - not onion fans.

Okay yesterday was Good Friday. While the kids didn't fast, I did - ok, I skipped a meal (does that count? Not really right?) and we all made sure we abstained from meat. So no kong bak for us, just the pau. And the pork floss was wiped off the tofu before we ate (although I'm sure some strands made it past the food police). The Catholic in me is feeling guilty already... but dang it, the food was GOOD...