Do you eat canned food? When Kris blogged about canned food, it made me think of the canned food I had been eating occasionally (ahem!) and in the past.
When I was a child, I grew up with my grandparents. Grandpa was a fan of canned goods. We used to have luncheon meat (yes!), corned beef, stewed pork, baked beans, Campbell cream of tomato/mushroom soup and even beef tongue in the pantry. That last one I have not seen anywhere except once at Cold Storage.
When I went to live with my parents, my mum also had a stash of canned food in the kitchen, mostly baked beans, sardines and tuna. Her collection was not as extensive as grandma’s hee..hee… One of the canned food that she used to buy is Ayam Brand Chili Tuna.
What does she do with it? Well, she boils up some Maggi Mee, drains the noodles and adds chili tuna, sliced cucumbers, grated carrots, sliced shallots and a generous squeeze of lime juice. To that a generous helping of herbs like daun kesum, kemangi (basil) and mint is added. Mix it all up and you get some sort of noodle kerabu.
Mum removes the chili padi as she can’t tolerate the heat. Me? I am very gung ho and I eat all the chili padi.
In my early working days, I lived in a rented room. Cooking was not allowed by the landlady (I wasn’t keen on cooking back then, so it was fine) and sometimes I do get tired of chap fan. That’s when I would turn to canned food for a change.
I used to buy those Heinz Chunky Soups (they are quite expensive now) and heat them up by immersing the can in a container of hot water. Or I get creative and cook Maggi Mee (secretly in my room using a heating element) and mixing the drained noodles with baked beans. That was my make believe spaghetti hah..hah… How sad.
I still buy canned food these days but I consume them sparingly. Lets see what have I cooked using canned food.
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| Nasi Goreng Sardine |
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| Luncheon Meat Aglio Olio |
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| Luncheon Meat Omelette |
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| French Beans with Luncheon Meat |
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| Luncheon Meat Fried Rice |
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| Meatballs with Baked Beans |
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| Curry Tuna Cakes |
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| Braised Pork Trotter Meehoon |
Quite a few, eh? Mostly luncheon meat hah..hah.. Well, I am sure that there are a few more canned stuff in my pantry that I could use to cook many more wonderful dishes. We shall see!
