Checking Out Godmama's Menu

Glad that the man's parents decided to order in food instead of cooking for our usual week night dinner. It's very hard to cook to cater to everyone's food preferences. We end up with ten dishes on the table with plenty of leftovers. Ordering in food would be much easier since the prep work is virtually nil, and we could easily check out the menu to see what each person wants. The point of eating together isn't actually about the food, I know. However, if we eat together often because it's an obligation, and each time there's nothing for me to eat, then it's only prudent to prep my own food when the hosts' kitchen can't produce it or if it's too much trouble for them. (But Asian hosts sometimes think it's an insult for guests to bring their own food.) 

It's very irritating to be asked to eat Asian stir-fry vegetables and then see a ton of shrimps or prawns in there, or learnt that chicken stock was used as a 'gravy base'. I'm like, 'don't fuck up my vegetables can?' I just want the greens stir-fried with olive oil, garlic and onions. But nope, it never happens. After asking for that for the nth time, I gave up. After a while of getting rashes and swollen eyes and such as a result of these weekly obligatory dinners where I shut up and eat the food placed in front of me, I put a stop to it. Politeness isn't doing any good to my allergies. I simply ignore every dish and pick at what I want. This means that often, I'll feed myself first, and sit at the dinner table and have a nibble but not really eating anything substantial. Hahaha.

Tonight's spread was from Godmama. It was the first time the man and I tasted their food. We haven't bothered with the queues earlier on, and also didn't bother to order takeout recently. There were ngoh hiang, babi pongteh, beef rendang, ayam buah keluak, sambal udang, chap chye, and way over-salted inedible itek tim, and forgot what else. I was pleased because I have peculiar food cravings, and I don't really fancy what this table usually eats. I specifically asked for sambal bendi and nasi ulam. I wasn't interested in any of the other dishes and wanted only these two items. 

The sambal belachan in the nasi ulam was sedap! A generous dollop accompanied the rice. I wished that there were more strips of ikan kembong than shrimps. Godmama's nasi ulam is not great. In this, the kerisik was unfortunately non-existent. There were way too much daun kesum and daun limau purut given. Of course I didn't take them all since I could separate it out. However, the restaurant's ratio of ingredients is a bit off, so its nasi ulam ended being not quite tasty and inelegant. I haven't tasted a decent Nyonya version of nasi ulam. Not in the restaurants, not in anyone's kitchen. My favorite nasi ulam is still the Malay or Indonesian Betawi iteration, and I can still get that at the local eateries.