Yelly Eats

Style over substance

Yelly

Ping pong

I love dimsum.  Particularly siu mai.  I’ve always thought that if dimsum was the universe, siu mai (and it’s numerous varieties) was the point of the big bang.  Where everything started.  But that’s my opinion.  I’m sure Chinese cuisine historians have differing opinions.

I miss the Philippines and it’s numerous siu mai kiosks dotted around.  If you wanted siu mai, there would be some small kiosk that you could go to to satisfy the craving.  It’s not so available here in the UK.  While Chinese takeaway is a favourite and every town, no matter how small, will have a Chinese takeaway establishment, not all the takeaways have dimsum.  The closest thing to dimsum is wanton soup, which is, thankfully, available on all the Chinese takeaway menus where I live.  Small favours, and am very thankful for them!

I am a huge fan of the dimsum trolley service.  Ladies going around the restaurant, pushing steaming trolleys filled with tiny bamboo steam baskets filled with unknown goodies.  I love the excitement of finding out what the trolley is carrying: siu mai, dumplings, hakaw, beef balls, char siu pork in puff pastry, spring rolls, crab dumplings, crispy prawn balls, turnip cakes and the occasional lotus wrapped sticky rice parcel.  I’ve since started mourning the loss of 2 restaurants that did trolley service really well.  There was a restaurant that I only remember as CCK in Chinatown.  It stopped its trolley service, then turned into an all-you-can-eat then closed down.  Then came New World.  It was dimsum perfection — for a while.  The service and the quality of food has since declined and it’s been 2 years since I’ve been.  People have suggested going to Royal China either in Bayswater or Baker Street but I haven’t had the time to.  Since New World, I’ve only ever gone to dimsum restaurants that serve you dimsum after you order them.

We went to the newly opened Ping Pong brance in Westfield Stratford yesterday.  The only word that comes to mind is horrible.  They didn’t have prawn or pork siu mai (which, in my opinion, is the backbone of dimsum choices), the dimsum was bland and oversteamed.  When the steaming baskets came to the table, you uncovered a gelatinous mess!  Everything needed a bit of flavour because everything was basically globs of nothing.  Even the soy and the chilli oil and sauce were bland.  For all the colour and styling in the restaurant space everything faded into the beigeness of the food.  And never again am I coming back to a Ping Pong branch.  It didn’t live up to the hype.  And it was all style and no substance.

 

Yelly Writes

Struggling

Yelly

I am struggling to blog these days.

While I would love nothing more than to blog about food, the books I’ve read (I’ve managed to finish reading Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You!  Hurray me!), the places Alan and I have been to eat, the musicals I’ve seen, it feels a bit self-indulgent.  My father is still very ill and I feel that any enjoyment I feel about my life here is not allowed.  He would say otherwise of course, because he has always said that I should live my life, that I should live the life I dreamed.  But I cannot help but feel selfish.

I will write properly because to write about them would be honouring my father’s wishes.  But right now I will allow myself to worry about him.  Tomorrow is Sunday and Skype day.  I will be able to chat with them and see all of them.

There are days when my grip on my faith is loosed by doubt.  Why is my Abba still ill?  Why is God letting him go through all this pain?  But then I am reminded that these are questions that I mustn’t really ask.  Because the God I believe in does not want His children to suffer.  The God I believe in will turn a bad situation into a good one.  The God I believe in is the God that heals.  The God I believe in is a God who will take His children in His arms and comfort them.  I know that I cannot understand my God’s wisdom because that is beyond my understanding.  I must trust in His plan.

In His perfect time and according to His perfect plan.

That is what I must hold on to.

Yelly Writes

Hayfever schmayfever

Yelly

My head is pounding, my eyes are itchy, my nose is stuffy and my throat is scratchy.  Lovely eh?  All this after taking hayfever meds.

This is the only thing I don’t like about Spring!  I may just take myself off to bed and attempt to sleep this off.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

 

hayfever meds

Yelly Writes

Mothers Day

Yelly

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Today we all celebrate our very own superwomen.  I’m lucky because I get to celebrate Mothers Day twice.  Today in the UK, as it’s Mothering Sunday and during the second Sunday in May when the Philippines (and I think most of the world) celebrates Mothers Day.

My dearest Ima. there are so many things I would like to thank you for. I thank the Lord daily for you, for all the things you do for us, for all the things you have done for us, for all the things you have given us and the things you give to us. But most of all, I thank you for raising us in a household founded on faith. Your faith has sustained us even during the most difficult of times. Your faith has buoyed us during the storms of life and we will forever be blessed by your daily testament of faith. Your faith has sustained ours and has strengthened our faith in God. That is your most precious gift to us.

Happy Mothers Day Mama!  Today, most especially, I wish I could hug you.  I love you.

Yelly Reads

Book du jour: Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Yelly

Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell.  “A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker a new recipe for life.”

I’ve got the paperback version. 320 pages, size 1.9 x 13.2 x 19.8 cm.  Published by Penguin Books.  That being said, I also have the Kindle version!  But because this is one of my favourite books, I am going to go old style and read the actual book!

I’ve probably read this book at least 9 times.  I’ve watched the movie more!  In fact, as I write this blog entry, it’s on.  Right now.  I’ve got Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Amy Adams on my TV screen.

It’s my comfort movie because I watch it whenever I’m home ill.  It fills me with hope that someday, my blog will mean something, that someone will read it and think, “Hey, that girl has something to say and she says it well!”  That is the dream.

I love this book because it’s about someone I can relate to.  I can relate to the experiences and it’s someone who knows about the Bataan Death March (which my grandfather was part of — he was a Philippine World War II veteran)!  Every time I read it, I just smile.  I would love to meet Julie Powell.  I would love to pick her brains.  I would love to say, “How in the world did you manage to start living the dream?!?”

Because that is the dream.  To write.  In my case it’s to write about food.

So I am about to embark into another journey into the world of Julie Powell challenging herself to cook through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  And, oh boy, am I going to enjoy this particular ride.  Again.

Julie_and_julia

Yelly Writes

Comfort seeking

Yelly

These are challenging times.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been worrying over my father, who is still in hospital.  We encountered a setback today.  He was supposed to go home tomorrow but that’s not happening now.  I still believe that he is in the best place that he can be.  He has the best doctors and he is where he can be treated immediately.  I know that science can only do so much.  The rest I believe that God will take care of.

I am feeling a little delicate tonight.  I know that I will cry at a drop of a hat.  So I’m trying to entertain myself.  I’ve got Mary Berry on the telly cooking her perfect beef stew and I am trying to blog.  I am desperately trying not to be morose but I think I am failing miserably.

I’d like nothing better than to go to bed and pull the duvet over my head.  And maybe have a good cry.

Sorry everyone.  Pass the kleenex.

 

Yelly Writes

Sunday Devotion

Yelly

Sunday is usually family Sunday Skype Day.  I chat to my folks and they chat back by video chat.  We haven’t been able to do that properly for a couple of Sundays now.  My dad is still in hospital but he is improving.  His catheter and IV has been removed.  He’s now in rehab for the stroke that he suffered to strengthen his left side.  Instead of a video chat, I phoned my mum and said a quick hello to my Abba on the phone.  There is something that I can’t put a finger on, something that worries me.  But I can’t seem to articulate it, I can’t seem to describe it.  This I lay down at my God’s feet.  This I lift up to Him to take care of.  I also lift up my worrying heart and ask Him to allay my fears and to calm my worrying heart.

Instead of spending the time chatting to my family, I have read several devotionals instead.  The verse below has hit home and has helped me deal with my situation.

“But His joy is in those who reverence Him, those who expect Him to be loving and kind” (Psalm 147:11).

It always amazes me how much God loves us.  And I mean REALLY loves us.  We have free will and He doesn’t stop us from doing our own thing.  But when things go wrong, He makes it possible for us to find our way back to Him.  He loves it when His children go out and be independent, but He loves it even more when we are completely dependent on Him.  He would rather we completely depend on Him.  And that suits me just fine.  It’s easy to say “Keep the faith” or “Just trust God” but because we are human, we have human frailties and we are, by nature, driven to be independent and our self-preservation instinct automatically kicks in and we find it difficult to depend on anyone or anything else for safety.  But going it alone brings a shedload of stress and heartache!  I am so blessed and eternally grateful that my God is there for me, that I can completely depend on Him and I can leave my cares at His feet and I can trust that He will make everything better.  The reassurance that God wouldn’t have it any other way just stills my worrying heart.