Bee Tai Mak

Ever since my girl started school this year, I have been a very hardworking mum. I not only cook dinner, I have added meals to prepare, which is breakfast and lunch. It's mind boggling business. Haha.

Previously, it was usually cereal for breakfast, but since this year, I needed to prepare a simple breakfast for her to take along on her short journey in the school bus which lasts approximately 15mins. Usually a slice of bread will suffice as she doesn't have much of an appetite in the morning, just like me when I was growing up. It's really tough to struggle out of bed and then stuff food into the tummy. Drinking a cup of something takes too long as I try to give her the maximum rest she can get so she's usually woken at 15-20mins before the bus arrives. A quick wash up and changing into her uniform, getting hair tied etc, all done within those precious minutes.

I made her a lovely omelette sandwich for yesterday's breakfast and I was told she only ate the remainder half of it at the end of the school day on the journey home. :(

Was having a chat with one of her ballet mate's nanny. Apparently she cooks a full hearty breakfast for the family in the morning, and little A who is slightly more than half the size of our dear princess, laps it all up. Her breakfast, I kid you not, include bacon, eggs, ham, toasts and sometimes mee goreng... well, you get the idea. This girl is petite! Where does all the food go? Hahhaa. I can't see myself swallowing all that stuff at 6am for sure!

I need to rack my brains on what to cook for lunch most days. If I happen to be out in the morning, I sometimes pick food up for her. However, since this year, I find that I stay at home more.

I tend to get my inspiration with a trip down to the wet market or supermarket. Sometimes, I get so sick of cooking the same old stuff and I just need something different. Lunch is not elaborate so I don't need to fuss over it. Take for example this bee tai mak which has only 6 ingredients, namely pork fillet, fishcake, baby corn, baby caixin, an egg and bee tai mak.

I love to slice my food thinly, so the pork and fishcake were cut that way. Pork was seasoned with oyster sauce, white pepper, sesame oil and some cornstarch. To be honest, I am not a pork lover, so I tend to buy the least amount from the pork seller. It's always $2 of minced pork which can last us for weeks, as I only use a little at a time. On the odd occasion, I will buy pork bones and once in a very blue moon, I will buy the fillet. It is an expensive cut of meat but it is ever so tender. It's great for kids or for people, ahem, who don't like the animal so much. I cut up some young corn which she likes and some greens.

First I fried the garlic till fragrant, then added the pork, followed by the corn and fishcake. Make sure all ingredients are well cooked before adding the bee tai mak (which takes very little time to cook so make sure you don't overcook it), ending off with the beaten egg and the few stalks of green leaves. I seasoned the dish with oyster sauce, some sprinkling of salt, white pepper and sesame oil. After scooping out her portion into the thermos flask, I added some sambal to mine and it was oishii!

Here is her portion of bee tai mak sans chilli, with a side of 2 apple turnovers. Glad that she loved her lunch that day. :D

A lovely gift from her godma for her birthday. This will definitely be put to good use for storing her lunch. I love the size of it, just right for a single child's portion. It retained the heat quite well because 2hrs after I put the bee tai mak in, she was commenting that the food was too hot when she ate it.