Hoisin pork, portion sizing and Ruhlman's garlic tip

Soya Hoisin Pork with rice

Today's Food Diary

Breakfast: Wholemeal sourdough toast with jam

Lunch: Soya Hoisin Pork with rice

Dinner: Pasta with spinach tomato sauce

Baking/sweets: Small amount of oat sweets

Soya hoisin pork is almost char siew pork. Instead of grilling or baking, I simply stir fried it, and I did not pre-marinate. And there was no glazing involved. I was happy with the result, it’s an alternative if you are time constrained. 

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: eating pleasure

Steamed tofu. Looking at this picture reminded me of an ad for a healthy cereal that said something like "don't tell the kids its healthy and they will eat it by the boxful"

Today’s Favourite Blog

Michael Ruhlman

I have never been to chefs school. I am not a chef. I rely on www for tips that chefs learn at school. Removing the garlic germ is a new concept for me. Apparently it distorts the flavour unless the garlic is fried immediately after it is peeled and minced/chopped. This is perhaps good to know. I will store this tip in the back of my head for the special occasion when I really need to impress someone and when every little bit counts. And that will be the day I use Fiji Water to cook rice and make coffee.

Today’s Random Rambling: Portion Sizing

Inspiration for todays random rambling comes from Eats Well With Others. Portion sizing or amount of food per serve is an issue close to my heart and I follow it almost religiously. I am not overweight, I may be actually slightly underweight but I like to control how much I eat. Eats Well With Others asked how we keep portion size in check. Here’s my top three strategies:

1. Eat until you are almost full but not full. The Japanese have an expression for this: "Hara hachi bu" meaning “eat until 80% full". This does not mean leaving 20% of the food behind on the plate and wasting it, rather taking smaller serves. This is probably trickier to implement in a restaurant that portions the food for you. You either have to throw away the 20% which is not good, or take a doggy bag.
2. Eat slowly, and this is easier said than done! It takes 10-20 minutes for the message to reach the brain that you are full. If you eat fast you will most probably overeat. Remember that the human body was created before the modern day faster means of communication was discovered. 10-20 minutes for the message to go from the stomach to the brain is a long time. Humans need an upgrade, in the meantime eat slowly.
3. Have more smaller meals if possible such as 6 smaller meals a day instead of three bigger meals. What I usually do when eating at home is to leave some of my lunch for consumption later in the afternoon.