LIMP AND BAGGY

Being still a little wankel on the pins, due to a recent situation involving my appendix and stupidly waiting too long get help (increasing agony, for a day and a half, because I should have admitted to myself FAR earlier that there was no way I'd be opening up on Sunday), dinner last night was a bit on the simple side.
But much tastier than anything the Hospital could offer, despite their good intentions.

[At slightly after four A.M. last Sunday Morning the taxi dropped me off at the Emergency Room (急診室 'gap chan sat'). My apartment mate grabbed me a wheelchair. Admission was fast, within minutes I was on a gurney, and after seeing my white bloodcell levels and checking a few other things, they had rescheduled me for first whirl on the table at six rather than second, their original plan. Woke up a few hours later, feeling "refreshed". And drained. And limp. Basically, like lightheaded crap.]


See, hospitals are not set up to cater to Dutch American codgers who tend toward curry flavours and everything with hot sauce. Sadly, it's not a significant patient demographic. Not even at Chinese Hospital, which is the nearest medical establishment with a culturally understanding staff.
I always feel like I'm family when I'm there.
Which is VERY important.

They tried. They were bound to fail. For most of last week I just didn't have any appetite. And I still don't. Appendectomies sometimes have that effect. But the intellectual conceit of white cut chicken (白切雞 'paak chit kai') served in mild curry noodle soup with tender vegetables appealed to me. And my apartment mate had picked the chicken up in Chinatown.

The soup was simply stock and a ready made mild curry paste, some citrus and keffir (in lieu of coconut milk) stirred in, with a brisk dash of hot sauce. And a touch of shrimp paste.

Rice noodles; still not feeling like wheat.

No actual sliced chilies yet.

I'm not foolhardy.


GONNA HAVE TO BUY SOME TEA BAGS

A nice satisfying pipe with a Virginia blend afterwards may need another week. Likewise anything more stressful than rice or rice noodles. Similarly, milk tea is right out (heck, even one cup of coffee is too much), and fried foods, as well as crispy crunchy fresh chilies, will have to wait for two or three weeks.
One of the nurses treating me highly recommended Rickshaw brand teabags (車仔紅茶包 'che jai hung chaa baau') as really very good if you make milk tea at home, but also insisted that one should use sweetened condensed milk (煉奶 'lin naai') instead of evaporated. I am very keen to try it soon.

Yeah, not opening up this Sunday morning either.
Still as limp as canned asparagus.




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