Hospital Food

[liuzhou]

Some meals over the last couple of days or parts thereof.

 

 

This is 皮蛋肉粥 (pí dàn ròu zhōu）- century egg and pork congee. Unusually for me, I had this as part of lunch today. And enjoyed it.

 

 

They're pushing me to upping my protein, so 蒸蛋饺 (zhēng dàn jiǎo) steamed dumplings with egg wrapper  and 清蒸芙蓉蛋 (qīng zhēng fú róng dàn)  steamed egg.

 

 

This looked like a bowl of greenery 青菜 (qīng cài), but then I remembered ordering it. Under that forest of greens lie hidden wontons 云吞 (yún tūn) in broth.

 

 

Dinner tonight was called 酸菜焖鱼 (suān cài mèn yú) braised fish with pickled cabbage. This was unlike any 酸菜焖鱼 I've ever experienced, but was OK. Served with rice.

 

 

Roll on tomorrow.

[Smithy]

"Hidden wontons" suggests something far more exotic than wontons hidden under the greens. I can dream. 

[liuzhou]

Lunch:

 

虫草乌鸡汤 (chóng cǎo wū jī tāng) - Cordycep militaris and black bone chicken (silkie) soup.

黄瓜炒蛋 (huáng guā chǎo dàn) - Scrambled egg with stir-fried cucumber

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

Dinner：

 

西芹炒鱿鱼 (xī qín chǎo yóu yú) - Stir-fried squid with celery.

 

 

Odd pairing, I thought, but it worked. Squid was verging on the chewy though. Still, I expected that.

 

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Scrambled egg with stir-fried cucumber

I am quite familiar with scrambled eggs and tomatoes, but this one is definitely new. 

[liuzhou]

22 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I am quite familiar with scrambled eggs and tomatoes, but this one is definitely new. 

 

Egg and tomato is by far the most popular, but this is not unusual. 2nd prize. They also offer egg and bitter melon.

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

Egg and tomato is by far the most popular, but this is not unusual. 2nd prize. They also offer egg and bitter melon.

What seasoning or sauce would they do with eggs and cucumbers?

[liuzhou]

32 minutes ago, Smithy said:

What seasoning or sauce would they do with eggs and cucumbers?

 

It's relatively dry but does have some soy sauce. A very simple dish. Eggs, cucumber and soy sauce.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Egg and tomato is by far the most popular, but this is not unusual. 2nd prize. They also offer egg and bitter melon.

In addition to the egg and tomato, the egg and cucumber and the egg and bitter melon, they also offer egg and green beans and egg and green chilli.

[liuzhou]

Dinner：

 

黄鳝粥 (huáng shàn zhōu) -  Paddy Eel Congee

 

 

青椒牛肉 (qīng jiāo niú ròu) - Green Chili Beef (except it had more red, my preference anyway)

 

 

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Green Chili Beef

Ouch. Just looking at those red chillies complete with their seeds and I acknowledge that I am a wimp!  Glad that you are getting some enjoyable meals. 

[SLB]

First and foremost:  wishing you a speedy mend, @liuzhou. 

 

That food, though?  It's looking awesome from over thisaway.  Awesome.  It's been too long since I've had good Chinese food, dang.

 

In the mid-80s, one of my cousins married a woman who was the head dietician for the VA hospital in Chicago.   This.Woman.Could.BURN!!!  Meaning -- could cook her butt off.  ohmyGOODNESS was her home food good.

 

When my parents were ailing, she was always coming through with all of these amazing suggestions for packing more calories into the food, so that any bites I could persuade them to get down would bring the most bang for the misery.  I would call her all the time, I guess for more support than just feeding tips.

 

She retired and moved back to her very rural Alabama home, which happened to be (sort of) near a facility that I had to travel to regularly for work.  I would always -- ALWAYS -- aim to drop in on her country kitchen after a day's work, which would add a full two hours to my trek home.  Two hours following, ahem, having been well-fed, country-style.   

 

I never ate her hospital food, but somehow I believe this woman was throwing down for those vets.  

Edited November 15, 2022 by SLB (log)

[heidih]

12 minutes ago, SLB said:

She retired and moved back to her very rural Alabama home, which happened to be (sort of) near a facility that I had to travel to regularly for work.  I would always -- ALWAYS -- aim to drop in on her country kitchen after a day's work, which would add a full two hours to my trek home.  Two hours following, ahem, having been well-fed, country-style.   

 

I never ate her hospital food, but somehow I believe this woman was throwing down for those vets.  

My ex had a similar great food experience. He worked in high school as a janitor at the hospital his mom was head dietitian at. My MIL could not cook but the cooks reportedly did a fabulous job. He dragged me down early n our relationship to speak with a retired one so she could share his favorites and I should replicate.

 

@liuzhou though hospitalization sucks it appears the food is at least a  bright spot. Looks pretty enticing considering the situation. 

[FauxPas]

15 hours ago, liuzhou said:

青椒牛肉 (qīng jiāo niú ròu) - Green Chili Beef (except it had more red, my preference anyway)

 

 

This looks so tasty! Are the red chilis hot and the green ones sweet? How hot/spicy is the finished dish overall? 

 

Edited to add:   Do you have any idea of how much longer you will stay in hospital? Whatever the underlying issues, I hope you are getting answers and some good news. 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by FauxPas (log)

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

This looks so tasty! Are the red chilis hot and the green ones sweet? How hot/spicy is the finished dish overall? 

 

Edited to add:   Do you have any idea of how much longer you will stay in hospital? Whatever the underlying issues, I hope you are getting answers and some good news. 

 

 

Neither are sweet. The green are mildly spicy (by my standards) although occasionally one can creep up on you; the red are fiery spicy (as I like). The dish would be considered rather spicy by most people, I think, but not so much the locals. We like spicy round these parts.

 

I guess I'm going to be here till the end of the week or early next depending on how well my ancient body responds to treatment. It is working, but it is slow.

 

Thanks.

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

This breakfast was disappointing. Advertised simply as 炒粉 (chǎo fěn) fried rice noodles, it came with overscrambled eggs and was totaly unseasoned. With onion and one miserable bean sprout.

 

Fortunately, I had also ordered a couple of pork baozi as back-up (not pictured).

 

[liuzhou]

After my breakfast disappointment, dinner eventually rolled around the kitchen redeemed itself.

 

子姜炒鸭 (zǐ jiāng chǎo yā) - Stir-Fried Duck with New Crop Ginger. Served with Rice.

 

 

 

 

[KennethT]

I'm thinking about checking into this hospital just for the food.

[liuzhou]

17 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I'm thinking about checking into this hospital just for the food.

 

It's definitely tastier than the medicine.

Edited November 16, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

This breakfast was disappointing. Advertised simply as 炒粉 (chǎo fěn) fried rice noodles, it came with overscrambled eggs and was totaly unseasoned. With onion and one miserable bean sprout.

This sounds as if you are familiar with it when well-made. Just out of curiosity, how should it have been prepared? (You seem to be relatively lucky in only dealing with a few disappointing meals.)

[liuzhou]

8 hours ago, Anna N said:

This sounds as if you are familiar with it when well-made. Just out of curiosity, how should it have been prepared? (You seem to be relatively lucky in only dealing with a few disappointing meals.)

 

There is no definitive recipe as such. It does tend to be a 'fridge clearing' dish, but this version was just mean. I would normally expect to find some lean pork slivers, some vegetable other than onion*, maybe carrot slivers or Chinese black fungus and certainly not just one bean sprout. The over-cooked egg is just bizarre. I've never been served  anything like it. Cheapest protein, I suppose.

 

And it would be seasoned with soy sauce.

 

*Someone in that kitchen loves onions. They turn up in everything. They aren't that common in everyday cooking.

Edited November 17, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

@KennethT

 

I just measured my breakfast baozi - 10cm / 4 inches. It is similar to those I photographed for the Guangxi Gastronomy topic.

 

 

Why I happen to have a tape measure in hospital, I'll leave to the mists of obscurity.

 

Now the nurses are giving me strange looks.

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Lunch：

 

辣子鸡 (là zi jī) Chilli Chicken (again). Seem to be out of red chillies. Only green in this. Highly inauthentic.

蛋饺 (dàn jiǎo) Pork Dumplings with Egg Wrappers (also again).

青菜 (qīng cài) Greenery

米饭 (mǐ fàn) Rice

 

 

Dinner:

 

清蒸鲫鱼 (qīng zhēng jì yú) Steamed Crucian Carp

青菜 (qīng cài) Greenery

米饭 (mǐ fàn) Rice

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[SLB]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:19 AM, KennethT said:

I'm thinking about checking into this hospital just for the food.

Seriously.  Stir-fried duck and ginger??? 

[KennethT]

8 minutes ago, SLB said:

Seriously.  Stir-fried duck and ginger??? 

As @liuzhouhas said in the past, duck is the cheapest meat in that area, but for us the West, it's considered a luxury item...