Childhood food Tag

So I got tagged by Ipoh mari (come from Ipoh) Helen. Since she said she'll buy me Ipoh White coffee when I visit Ipoh the next time, I have to oblige.

Here are the 5 food that I absolutely loved during my childhood, and no longer eat or able to find them :

1) Bak-yu-pok (Chu Yao Cha, 猪油渣/炸, Fried lard) :

Mum was such a fan of this, every time she went to the butcher, she would ask for a big piece of lard. When she reached home, she would cube the lard, then fry it in an un-greased wok. She would fry until all the oil from the lard was released, and the lard cubes turned crunchy. She kept the oil for cooking (later), and served the crunchy lard cubes as snacks! (We ate so healthily when we were young!)

When we ate Hokkien Mee, we always asked to add more lard cubes, and all of us, including my mum would have a chop stick fight over the noodle to see who could grab the most lard cubes!

I lived with my maternal grandma when I was 7 till 9years old. Every time after school when I climbed up the stairs to enter house (grandma lived on the 1st floor of a shop house), if I could smell the fragrance of lard frying, I would jump with joy. In grandma's house, nobody fought with me for the lard cubes, I have them all!

I'd been a non-pork eater for almost 12years now, so, no more lard cubes for me, but this tradition is still practiced in King's Wife's house, King (my brother) would fight with his daughters over the lard cubes.

2) Grandma's Kon-low-mee (dry noodle, 干捞面) :

Most of the time for lunch during my stay with grandma, she would cook cintan-noodles (金蛋面), stir in lard oil (but of course!), soya sauce and black soya sauce, and then sprinkle just a bit of Ajinomoto on top of it, and viola, my very delicious lunch.

Forget about getting a balance diet of vege, protein and carbo, or even MSG-free food. Back then, life was simple!

Maybe I don't take pork and MSG now, I could never make my home cooked kon-low-mee as delicious as my grandma's, even if I added lots of ingredients.

3) Pink Keropok (tapioca cracker) :

On weekend, when my mum visited grandma and me, she would always dropped by at this sundry shop to buy a big pack of pink keropok. One big pack would contain 30 smaller packs, each pack held two pieces of those pink keropok (shaped something like pretzels).

That to me, was the best treat. I think I could whack 5 packs in one sitting. Our whole family would sit in front of the TV and munch on this, the whole big pack gone in a day.

I wonder where you can get the same ones these days.

4) Canteen Curry Mee :

My grandma would give me 10 cents a day as pocket money. With the 10 cents, I would buy myself a small bowl of curry mee. They were just plain noodles with curry gravy, no condiments at all, but they were delicious. No curry mee ever tasted the same.

5) Kong-Bak (Stew pork Hokkien Style, 卤猪肉):
My grandma made the best Kong-bak in the universe. Big chunks of semi fat pork stewed in rich soya sauce and thick soya sauce, together with hard boiled egg. It was just yummy!

For dinner, we always had rice drenched in the sauce, chewing on the devine pieces of pork, almost licking the plate clean every time. If there's any left over the following day, it would taste even better than the first, and more fighting on who got the of morsel.

When I moved back in with my mum, she made that as well, and hers was as good, but being the apprentice, the stew pork cooked by her still lacked the umph!

Both my grandma and mum had passed on, and their recipe now lies with King's Wife. I can't comment if she did a mean stew pork like my grandma because I had never tasted it, only my brother, the King, can comment.

Today, I changed the recipe a bit and replaced pork with chicken instead. It tastes good, but you can't get the creamy fatty sauce (made by the lard) with chicken.

Now, I wonder, when Zara grows up, what would be her unforgettable child hood food, just maybe it's the delicious breast milk mummy produces. *grin*

The 4 people who were tagged before me :
1. Beer Brat
2. Sngl Guy
3. Yvy
4. Helen

I would like to tag :
1. The Diva - For someone who loves food, I just want to see what was unforgettable from your child hood.
2. Jesslyn - What was it like in Johor? I'm curious to know
3. Egghead - I don't believe you'd done this before? Kekeke. Either J or your contribution is fine!

Do list down the 4 people tagged before you. And tag another 3 (or more) people.