And in the process of doing so, I have learnt a very important lesson: the food that we eat out may contain quite a lot and more sugar than we can imagine.
For one, I love the Chinese sweet soups, tong sui, and I would stop by the shops or stalls and order my favorites whenever I have the chance. But since I have bought a pressure cooker, wouldn't it be better if I make it myself. I realize of course that I can't make just one bowl but I can't finish a whole pot all by myself. So with that to begin with is already a bad idea. But I went ahead anyway.
I followed this recipe for mak zuk or wheat porridge. The results was not to my satisfaction at all. I have already put in more sugar than what was prescribed in the recipe and it still doesn't taste sweet enough. But I am giving up – I am not going to put it anymore sugar and I have decided it's better to discard the whole pot than to eat up the whole receptacle of carbohydrates now should I. No more making tong sui for me.
This was after the last time I made vinegared pork knuckles. The recipe called for 2 cups of brown sugar and I went like, "what?!!!". I used barely a cup. It did not taste as good I presume, a lot more sourish than those I have had tasted in the shops, but quite close to my late grandma's, so that's good as far as I'm concerned.
You'll find a lot of articles out there that tell us how much sugar is hiding in our food and foods we don't expect to have dangerous amount of sugar. They give us a list of high sugar processed foods and advise us to check the nutritional labels before buying anything. But in a culture where eating out is a norm, we will never know how much sugar is in our food until we start cooking it ourselves.
pearlie
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