DINNER FOR ONE

In the past year and a half I've cooked rice probably three times. The strangeness of that is that rice is one of the fundaments of a meal. If there is no rice, have you really eaten?

A proper meal consists of soup, two or three dishes, white rice, and a chili-paste preparation (sambal).
Rice is key.

It's rather pointless to cook rice for only one person.
Actually, it's quite as ridiculous to cook soup, main dishes, and a sambal just for yourself.


THE WELL-DRESSED TABLE

Several things combine to make dinner. Soup is optional, but a variety of dishes isn't.
There should be a mainly vegetable dish, a mixed dish, and a meat or seafood dish. None of these need to be huge portions, and cooking them really doesn't take much time.
Even a stew as one of them doesn't require any great effort.
I usually do three dishes while the rice is cooking, and wash the pots before putting the food on the table.

I do not cook very much nowadays.
Odd, considering how often food is mentioned here.
When you eat alone, talking about food is more fun than making it.



RICE PLUS TWO OR THREE DISHES

In addition to cooked rice, the following:


Main dish ONE

Poached fish with shredded ginger and black mushrooms.
OR
Stirfried chicken and Chinese broccoli.
OR
Steamed fatty pork with ginger and shrimp paste.
OR
A nicely roasted bird.


Main dish TWO

Meatballs and dried oysters on a bed of greens.
OR
Sautéed longbeans with dried shrimp and chili-paste.
OR
Shrimp stir-fried with eggplant.
OR
Peppery lamb stew.


Main dish THREE

Pan-fried fish with well-thought out garnishes.
OR
Rice wine and soy sauce stewed chicken.
OR
Black-pepper crusted lamb chops.
OR
Mussels in broth with scallions and cilantro.


Main dish FOUR

Sautéed mushrooms with little bits of sausage.
OR
Coconut curry potatoes and shrimp with basil leaves.
OR
Spinach stir-fried with pork and shrimp-paste.
OR
Mixed vegetables and chicken chunks with garlic sauce.


Main dish FIVE

Cold boiled pork with garlic sauce.
OR
Steamed lemongrass chicken.
OR
Stirfried mustard green with oyster sauce.
OR
Asparagus with caper-lemon-mustard sauce.


And so forth, and so on.

One of the main dishes might actually be roast duck or soy-sauce chicken from one of the take-out counters in Chinatown.
Plus soup - for instance chicken broth with tofu skin, or tamarind and fish with some chopped vegetables. Basically something that serves to refresh and augment rather than fill.
Although a zesty seafood chowder or an Indonesian chicken and vegetable soup could very well be the main course.
A spicy sambal on the side. Along with rice, sambal is essential.
Lime and fish sauce may also play a role.
Perhaps as a dip.


I usually don't bother preparing dinner anymore.


I rather miss cooking.


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