still on the “soft food” diet

Ordinarily I’d think this was a nice lunch: homemade macaroni and cheese with cauliflower, and a bowl of Pacific brand roasted red pepper and tomato soup. I am so tired of it. I’m starting to be able to eat a bit easier, but nothing chewy or crispy any time soon - and I’m amazed at how bored I’m getting. I’m tired of ice cream (I know, shocking).

I have ideas for something more interesting for dinner tonight, but in the meantime - anyone out there have any good ideas for soft foods? I can chew on one side, but I’m supposed to avoid acidic or caustic foods, or anything too hot, cold or spicy. What are your favorite foods for après-dental work?

noodles for good luck

My family has a few traditions that we keep up pretty well. Some are new and just between J and myself, like having macaroni and cheese on my birthday, or pumpkin soup and Yorkshire pudding on Halloween. But the oldest and most sacrosanct tradition is the Good Luck noodle bowl on New Year’s Eve. There may have been a year when I have not eaten these noodles, but I’m not sure…even when I’ve spent the holiday with friends I’ve insisted that this dish get eaten. I just feel funny without it.

According to my father, our family has been eating noodles on New Year’s Eve since about 1950, when my grandparents became good friends with a Japanese family. The Fujitas introduced them to the idea that eating noodles with chicken, eggs, broth and scallions at the beginning of a new year brought good luck and health. When I was a kid, we always ate the noodles directly after midnight, after setting off fireworks in the snow and attempting to play each others’ instruments, loudly. These days, we tend to eat earlier in the evening and save some champagne for the midnight toast. It hasn’t seemed to hurt anything (knock on wood). J and I have also started buying a package of Chinese barbecued pork from the local deli counter and slivering it into the noodles, as being a little more festive than shredded chicken. And we sometimes use Japanese udon instead of the traditional Rose brand Chinese egg noodles (gasp!). But fortunately, it’s good no matter what.

a bowl of soba

The other night J was supposed to get pizza at work, so I put together a quick dinner for myself - a bowl of buckwheat soba with egg, scallions and broth. It’s very easy to throw together for one person or ten, and can be flavored however you want.

When I got home from work, I got a container of chicken broth out of the freezer and put it in a pan to melt. I put on another pan full of water for the noodles, and another to boil the egg (you can add the raw egg directly to the hot broth, but I prefer the texture of a soft boiled egg). My method is to put the egg in with the cold water and heat it all up together, then after the water has been at a boil for two minutes I fish the egg out and rinse it under cold water, then shell it and chop it. The noodles (which come in a charming individual serving portion) take around 9 minutes to cook - I just go by feel.

 I put the noodles, egg and scallions in the bowl, top it all up with boiling hot broth, and add tamari and Sriracha sauce to taste. The cooked yolk all falls out of the egg bits and gets mashed up in the broth - that’s the best part, slurping up all the little bits that fell to the bottom. Yum. Try not to fling drops of hot sauce and chicken broth all over your library book.

Oh - and of course, the pizza J was supposed to have for dinner got misdelivered, so I had to take him out for dinner and drink beer to keep him company. Oh, the hardship.