2022/03/29

<Finally, the stomach ache...>
February 14-18
"Mom, my stomach hurts"
About a week later, my second son said this and lay down in bed.
My second son likes fruits and eats them well, but he doesn't like vegetables if they are seasoned or cooked differently, so he didn't touch the vegetables in the meal box very much, and wheat and snacks seemed to cause indigestion. Even before the quarantine, we had been eating out a lot due to moving and staying in hotels, so that was also a burden.

My husband brought a large amount of snacks on the first day, and to me they were processed in a way that made me want to overeat, so I thought, "Wow, we don't really need all this," but it seems they thought that because the quarantine was an emergency situation, this amount of fun was essential for the kids.

On this day, I drank plenty of water, had some hot water with miso dissolved in it, and ate a little banana, then went to bed.
By morning, she had fully digested the food, the pain had gone, and she was participating in online school with a smile on her face.

And the next day I had a stomach ache.
I had stomach pain for a day, and after constipation I also had diarrhea, so I was completely devastated.
I didn't eat anything but I drank a lot of fluids, and I gradually started to recover in the afternoon.
The strange thing is my eldest son. He doesn't like fruit and likes meat. Maybe he's gotten used to the taste of Hong Kong cafe Cha Chaan Teng, but he eats everything except the stew-like dishes. Maybe it's because he eats everything except the mushy steamed vegetables that come with it, but even though he eats a meal that is biased towards carbohydrates and meat, he never suffers from stomach pain or constipation.

From that day on, my second and eldest sons refrained from eating snacks. They willingly ate raw vegetables such as tomatoes and carrots as snacks when they felt hungry. When they had the resources and could eat vegetables, they naturally adjusted during the quarantine to eat as much as possible. I realized that the body is honest.
By the way, the hotel will provide you with plastic bottles.

<Cooking with everything in the hotel>
If you love cooking but don't like eating out all the time, meals during a two-week quarantine can be quite stressful. If you're alone, you might order a veggie delivery and get by with two meals a day since you won't be moving around, but since you're with your children, you have to come up with some nutritionally balanced meals that they can eat. Here's what I came up with after much thought.

〇Tofu and Chinese cabbage soy milk soup
No cooking required using all-purpose dashi and Muji's dried vegetable soup mix.
Shokin Happo Dashi, made with natural ingredients, is a seasoning I always keep on hand. It's a 10:1:1 mix of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin, so it's lighter and easier to use than noodle soup, and I brought it with me because I thought it would make me miss the taste of Japan.
Muji's dehydrated vegetable soup mix is ​​made by drying parboiled Chinese cabbage, spinach, and onions, so you can enjoy the crispy texture and sweetness of the vegetables just by rehydrating them in hot water. The rehydration water also becomes a base for a mild-tasting soup, so it's very convenient to be able to use everything!
I added a little tofu and soy milk to the dashi stock and vegetable soaking water, and added ground sesame (which I brought for dressing), and tofu soy milk soup was ready. It was a shallow bowl and looked a bit strange (lol), but it was nutritious and delicious. Above all, it was additive-free and seemed to soothe my stomach, which was tired of greasy food. I made this soup several times (when I ran out of fresh foods like tofu and soy milk, I made it only with dried vegetables).

I also made ramen noodles using the same ingredients.
Put the dried vegetables and noodles, which only need to be rehydrated in hot water, into a bowl, cover with a plate and steam to rehydrate. Add Happo dashi and top with stir-fried cabbage, carrots and bean sprouts from the hotel's Meal Box that I happened to have on hand. Sometimes the meal box breakfast comes with a hard-boiled egg, so I added a boiled egg that I had marinated in Happo dashi. Even though it's instant, it's a luxurious ramen with a deep flavor.

〇With leftover tofu
I also made a Shiraae (a Japanese salad) dish using rehydrated hijiki seaweed, mashed carrots, and eight-way dashi paste and miso.

〇 Boiled avocado
I usually eat it with soy sauce, sesame oil, and seaweed, but I didn't have any, so I used Happo dashi. Pour the Happo dashi over sliced ​​avocado (it's also delicious marinated), sprinkle some sea salt on top, and top with roasted seaweed (any type of seaweed will do). The sea scent and saltiness of the roasted seaweed bring out the creamy avocado, making it even more delicious.

〇Nori can also be used as a snack
The nori can be eaten as is, or used as onigiri-razu. Chinese rice has a unique smell and is difficult to eat, so I mixed the rice with miso, sprinkled some sea salt on top, and made onigiri-razu. Onigiri-razu is convenient because it doesn't get your hands dirty and doesn't require plastic wrap. I also used the fried eggs and hijiki seaweed from the meal box, as well as the Hama-natto I brought with me as toppings. This way, my child eats well. He finished all six in between online school classes.

Hama-natto, a dish that Ieyasu also loved
Fermented with koji mold instead of natto bacteria. It has a rich flavor similar to fermented black soybeans and can be used as a seasoning. It is highly nutritious and has a long shelf life, so we eat one a day at home.

No-cook pasta
Couscous is the smallest pasta in the world. You can't boil pasta, but you can make couscous with just hot water. Steam it in hot water for 5 minutes and mix with basil sauce to make couscous salad. Couscous is a type of pasta, so it's a carbohydrate. I added diced cucumber and avocado. Vegetable sticks and hummus. To make up for the lack of vegetables. Ham and cheese crackers. My husband bought this big bowl and plate for me when I asked him, but I was complaining that I was going to put something so big, and that my Canadian husband likes everything to be big, but it was extremely convenient because it doesn't spill (because I can't clean it. I'll explain more about cleaning later).

〇Fruit quite frequently
What was great about this hotel was that they delivered fresh fruit every other day. Apples, pears, bananas. You can eat them as is to get your vitamin intake, or you can add them to a salad.
On Muji curry day, I sliced ​​these three fruits thinly and, since I had some Greek yogurt for breakfast, made a fruit salad with honey, lemon juice, and sea salt.
There were potatoes in the meal box that day! It had been a while since I had boiled or steamed potatoes, so I was really impressed! There were also boiled carrots and green beans. We all enjoyed adding them to MUJI curry.

The sweetness of fruit is essential in cooking. My husband brought kale, but raw kale has a strong bitter taste, so it goes very well with sweet fruits such as mango. I used the pears and apples from the hotel, the nuts, cranberries, and dried figs I brought with me, and honey and the sourness of the mandarin juice I brought with me to make a dressing. I also added black beans. These unseasoned boiled beans are rich in high-quality protein, can be added to anything, can be eaten as is, and can be stored at room temperature, so they are definitely one of the things I'm glad I brought with me.

<Something to suit your tastes>
What I brought (food)
Salt, Happo-dashi, miso, MUJI dried vegetable soup mix, protein drinks and protein bars, dried wakame (for miso soup), plain boiled black beans, dried fruits, dried nuts, mandarin oranges, ground sesame seeds, MUJI curry (also available in Hong Kong), Hama-natto, dried hijiki, dried wakame

Items purchased locally
Fresh foods (vegetables, fruits), honey, cereals, yogurt, soy milk, hummus, ramen (noodles), couscous, pesto (bottled), seaweed, ham, cheese, crackers

I don't like products that contain additives, so I didn't bring any food like instant noodles, but I think it would be convenient to bring instant soups like corn soup, rice porridge, ramen, etc. according to your preferences, as there is a kettle.

<Something that's a bit of a hassle to have>
Rice. The hotel's meal box delivery time didn't match the lunch time for online school, and the menu was different, so it was inconvenient that I couldn't make rice even if I wanted to prepare lunch or breakfast for my children. I thought it would be convenient to have emergency alpha rice or microwave rice, which can be rehydrated with hot water.

●Very important
The flavor and aroma of fresh food adds color to the harsh quarantine life, which is very important for both health and mental health. If you have someone you can ask, I recommend asking them to bring you fruits and vegetables. Some hotels also offer delivery services from affiliated supermarkets, so be sure to check them out.

To be continued in the third installment.

Yuki Duyvestyn
A bilingual Japanese-English culinary expert. A fermentation master certified by the Japan Fermentation Culture Association. She runs a cooking class for delicious Japanese cuisine made with additive-free ingredients. She offers easy-to-follow home cooking and creative dishes for entertaining guests. She also runs children's classes, develops recipes, and hosts corporate events. She is a mother of two. "yukistable" offers cooking classes, catering for corporate events, recipe development.
Hong Kong LEI magazine is currently running a series of easy-to-make Japanese recipes in both Japanese and English.

"How to make homemade garam masala, an essential ingredient for delicious curry"
https://hongkonglei.com/garammasala/

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