(If I am trying to be a chef, the easiest dish to do would be instant noodles. One of the ‘local’ instant noodles on sale here but compared to Maggi and despite both take the same 3 minutes to cook, it was rather bland and tasteless)
If there is one thing that brings the ‘chef in me’ when I am abroad, it is learning to be independent in the kitchen – independent in the sense of ability to cook something for dinner. As every Malaysians would know, one of the lifelines for times like this is Instant Noodles.
This time around, I did not pack as many instant noodles as my friends did for the Iran trip. I guessed that 15 packets would be enough for the 3 months duration. Others brought about 30 packets or more. Initially, I thought even bringing 15 packets were a bit too much since I have not planned to depend so much on instant noodles.
However given the recent spate of rainy nights in Tehran, sometimes we have no choice but to cook at home. Instant noodles, chicken nuggets and fresh eggs make a hearty meal any time of the day. If there is nothing much to cook with it, then we have to resort to eating just bread and fruits.
Interestingly if it has been me trying to be a chef at home back in Malaysia, it would have been a rather rare occasion of me going to the kitchen to cook something. The kitchen would have been my wife’s department at home and I must admit that her cooking is much better than me, given any time of the day of course. On some nights when instant noodles would have been the ultimate meal, my wife usually takes care of it, often with additional ingredients added to spices up the meal.
(For one heavy dinner, the instant chefs in the apartment opted to have fried eggs, nuggets and instant noodles)
For breakfast, it is a different thing altogether. My friends still take the trouble to cook something in the morning for breakfast (instant noodles are one of them, instant oats are the other) but I find it quite difficult to do the same especially when I have a hard time waking up. So I opt for bread and milk which is not exactly heavy (I miss the heavy ones back in Malaysia – fried noodles with tea or nasi lemak with teh tarik) but is sufficient until lunch break.
For lunch, the good thing is that since we will be out of the house, we will usually eat packed food – rice and kebabs (rotating between chicken and lamb). Rice once a day is more than enough for us here in Tehran. Probably that is why I felt like I am losing weight – I hardly take plenty of rice during the night.
(To be continued)