Post 404 - Food Not Found

Well folks, this is post no. 404! We've quietly streaked past the 400th post milestone and also crossed the half-millionth pageview mark. I'm still quite flabbergasted that more than a thousand people a day visit this humble site - some of you I have come to know via the comments but most are lurkers - so here's a big HI and THANK YOU to everyone for popping by!

Why am I highlighting the number (404) that is also famously the HTTP response code for pages not found? Cos these days I can't seem to find good food or interesting eateries to blog. Also haven't been able to venture out much, what with sick MIL at home. I do hope to pick up the pace again soon.

So it's been mostly simple home-cooked fare. Last night we had hiyashi chuuka - the Japanese cold Chinese-style noodles that's a summertime favourite. I was a bit hesitant to use angel hair pasta but it turned out pretty acceptable. Recipe adapted from bento.com.



HIYASHI CHUUKA RECIPE - you can tweak this to your own taste
For sauce/soup:
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce (I used mentsuyu and skipped the sugar)
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 3 tablespoons white vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
* 5 tablespoons chicken stock (I only used half)
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 1 tablespoon Chinese or Japanese hot mustard (optional)

Toppings: really anything you like.
* 2 eggs, fried crepe-style (like a thin omelette), then cut into thin strips
* 2 or 3 slices ham, julienned (cut into thin strips)
* 1/2 cucumber, julienned
* 2 crabsticks, parboiled and julienned

Noodles: 8 ounces or 200g angel hair spaghetti, boiled til al dente. Rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. You can either refrigerate the noodles in advance or add some ice cubes to cool them further.

Serves 2.