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Hospital Food

liuzhou

By liuzhou
in Food Traditions & Culture

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
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Posted
1 hour ago, chefmd said:

@liuzhou When are you getting out?  I am missing the posts of the food that you cooked.  Hope you are OK!

 

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

I am worried, too.  It seems like he's been in there a long time!

 

It does seem like a long time. It's been a week. 

 

They've done all their tests and concluded all their conclusions, but want to keep me a couple more days to monitor fading symptoms.

 

And for me to finish all the fruit, no doubt. 

 

First lunch and dinner back home are fully planned.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

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Shelby

Shelby

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

It does seem like a long time. It's been a week. 

 

They've done all their tests and concluded all their conclusions, but want to keep me a couple more days to monitor fading symptoms.

 

And for me to finish all the fruit, no doubt. 

 

First lunch and dinner back home are fully planned.

Ok, I feel better.  You'll be back in the mix soon :)  

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chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

First lunch and dinner back home are fully planned.

...and hotly anticipated, I don't doubt. 

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted (edited)

Got to admire these people. Tell you to get as much rest as possible, then wake you at 2 am to stick a needle in your nether regions just to remind you. Then charge you for the privilege.

 

A last minute hitch finds me still being lovingly cared for and fed by a dedicated team of professional practitioners of the delicate art of removing anything resembling taste or flavour from food.

 

20170702_182758.thumb.jpg.3b0bcdae3cf4d1269454379f14664d47.jpg

 

I have no recollection of what this might have been. Looks like pork and loofah with cabbage.

 

20170701_124848.thumb.jpg.5b9c0401e85208f94a95c757f1fd1cfb.jpg

 

This I do remember. 请教肉片 is a very simple, but common stir fry of pork with hot green peppers, usually with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. I like that.

 

No, let's remove the garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. While we are at it, let's brighten things up by using tasteless, certainly not spicy, bell type peppers. Oh and undercook them while you are there. Salt. What's that?

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Shelby

Shelby

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Got to admire these people. Tell you to get as much rest as possible, then wake you at 2 am to stick a needle in your nether regions just to remind you. Then charge you for the privilege.

 

A last minute hitch finds me still being lovingly cared for and fed by a dedicated team of professional practitioners of the delicate art of removing anything resembling taste or flavour from food.

 

20170702_182758.thumb.jpg.3b0bcdae3cf4d1269454379f14664d47.jpg

 

I have no recollection of what this might have been. Looks like pork and loofah with cabbage.

 

20170701_124848.thumb.jpg.5b9c0401e85208f94a95c757f1fd1cfb.jpg

 

This I do remember. 请教肉片 is a very simple, but common stir fry of pork with hot green peppers, usually with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. I like that.

 

No, let's remove the garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. While we are at it, let's brighten things up by using tasteless, certainly not spicy, bell type peppers. Oh and undercook them while you are there. Salt. What's that?

 

 

 

Do I need to get over to you and bust you out of there????  I'll steal a lab coat and wheel you to freedom ;)

 

 

  • Like 8

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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THE NADIR (I pray)

 

You know tofu absorbs the tastes of what it is cooked with. You don't need anyone to tell you that. 

 

The catering division of Liuzhou Peoples' Hospital does. Here is a perfect example of tofu absorbing the taste of a plastic container.

 

It's not me being a pampered foreigner. Some Chinese friends were visiting, tasted, and declared it a National Shame.

 

A requested list of suggestions for improvement started with salt.

 

20170704_142918.thumb.jpg.3b11cfbee5ccf8dd89c893a4e6ee3097.jpg

  • Like 11

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted (edited)

About an hour ago, I heard the three most beautiful words in the English language (except they were in Chinese and word count gets difficult there - four characters; arguably two or three words).

 

These weren't the expected 'I love you' or even 'Have another champagne!' or any of several newspaper headlines I pray for each day (Is 'T**** self-combusts' two words or three?)

 

No, the relevant part of my simple translation of what I was told was "GO HOME TOMORROW", so now I'm busy packing up my grapes and settling up with the ghouls whose eyes lit up every time they found a new symptom. (Actually, my friend/secretary Cindy is doing that. I'm lying on the bed writing this.)

 

In fact, they have been very nice, caring, and efficient. I have only two complaints. The food and another not worth going into, but which involved one person who was so stupid they wouldn't notice if they self-combusted with two weeks warning. Stupid people everywhere.

 

Those who know me at all will be aware that I'm not the stick-at-home type. I've spent my life moving; lived in a dozen countries (for between a year and twenty plus years); and visited over 60 others. I have spent the last 21 years based in China - a long way from that mining village in Scotland.

 

Yet "go home" is profoundly meaningful when attached to "from hospital." I've never been freed from prison after decades of incarceration, falsely or rightly accused, but I can't think of a better comparison. (I have slept in a prison cell once, but was not there under compulsion. The prison was the safest building in an air raid and I was kindly offered hospitality. And the food was better, but I love middle-eastern food.

 

Of course, before I can escape I have to eat the Last Lunch and.the grand finale - the Last Supper.

 

Last Lunch just arrived. It a heroic, but failed attempt to rescue the NADIR above. They made the same dish again but added some fish. Boiled carp (sp?).

 

20170705_113433.thumb.jpg.dd5f3de62bbedc09d419f73cc46a7ee5.jpg

Edited by liuzhou
typos (log)
  • Like 16

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted

Very happy you will be going home. I have to say, even if partially due to your excellent photo skills your hospital meals actually look far better than hospital meals I've ever encountered here in the States. I take your word for it they taste far worse than they look.  It remains questionable whether being able to identify your protein is a good thing. May it always taste like chicken. 

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Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

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@liuzhou,

 

You do not know how happy this makes me that you can make your great escape! I will be looking forward to the cooking adventures you get up to after your release from (well you know, hell). Yah!

 

I had dinner at my brother's house tonight with three nursing home residents who will probably never make a permanent escape from there, but we partied tonight. One lady was 90 years old, and she told me she never wanted to live that long, but was still having a really good time doing it. I told her it gives me hope. She is delightful.

 

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> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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IowaDee

IowaDee

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Can't wait to see what your first few home-cooked meals will be. 

Eons ago I was in the hospital and was on a diet of soft foods and liquids.  Told my husband I crazy for something to chew.  His solution was to bring me a plug of chewing tobacco .  That raised some eyebrows and I often wonder if they thought I might really use it.  Nope, I didn't

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caroled

caroled

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Wonderful, glorious news! once you get to puttering around in your kitchen and eating good food you'll feel great again!

 

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And this old porch is like a steaming greasy plate of enchiladas,With lots of cheese and onions and a guacamole salad ...This Old Porch...Lyle Lovett

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Although it's great to be back home, I remain a bit weak. It's amazing how quickly lying on your back doing nothing can drain the muscles. For  two weeks all I have moved is (very slowly*) from the bed to the wash room (en suite) and back, so my body has forgotten how to function in terms of normal stuff like walking, standing, sitting etc.

 

This means that that first meal won't be served up immediately. I have a dear friend popping in later to assist with (well, actually cook) dinner.

 

1 hour ago, caroled said:

once you get to puttering around in your kitchen and eating good food you'll feel great again!

 

 

Yes, indeed. One step at a time. Unfortunately, step one is binning all the stuff which has self-destructed in my two-week absence. I had just baked three loaves of bread when I took ill. Even the ducks will probably turn their noses up at them, now. And the veg in the fridge has cunningly made itself into soup.

 

Although things were properly refrigerated where appropriate, not everything is fridge-suitable and it has been in the mid-30ºC during my incapacitation.

 

 

But I'll be back on full track soon. In the meantime it's so nice to be surrounded by my things and my music and a computer with a keyboard (as opposed to a cell phone).

 

  • Like 12

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Although it's great to be back home, I remain a bit weak. It's amazing how quickly lying on your back doing nothing can drain the muscles. For  two weeks all I have moved is (very slowly*) from the bed to the wash room (en suite) and back, so my body has forgotten how to function in terms of normal stuff like walking, standing, sitting etc.

Yes!  Each time I am hospitalized I return home under-nourished, sleep deprived, deconditioned and on the verge of psychosis. Amazing really for a place supposedly designed to heal the sick.  So glad you're out of there and hope you can avoid a return engagement. 

  • Like 6

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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