Creamed Rice

 As a child, were you a picky eater? I wasn't, my mum still happily remarks to new mothers that when I was a toddler, she would just give me a bottle of milk, I would drain it in one go and then go back to playing. If she fed me "new" food like traditional Vietnamese food, I would happily eat it, a lot of my Aussie born Vietnamese friends don't eat simple traditional foods even nowadays. I've eat all the usual proteins, beef, chicken, pork, cuisine ones like quail, duck, unusual ones like kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and straight out squeamish stuff like heart, kidneys, liver, tripe, chicken feet and balut. As well as this, I've tried almost every vegetable I've come across at least once.

On the other hand, VGirl was terrible at trying new things. She went through phrases where she was a vegetarian, where she would only eat meat, continuous times where she would eat one or two foods and now she's a vegetarian again. VGirl has some strange food obsessions too, there were lots of Vietnamese food that she absolutely adored and would be the only eat if they were present, nem nuong - fermented pork meatballs, ca com kho - caramelised anchovies, thit heo quay - roast pork belly, thit heo kho- caramalised pork belly and eggs, bo vien - beef meatballs, bo la lot - marinated beef in betel leaf and my mum's secret recipe for sticky chicken, you'll get the recipe one day. She loves cucumber, tomato, cruskits, watermelon specifically the white bit, pickled radish, any potato chip and really hard fruit. Sweet wise she loves fruit tingles, pop rocks and cookies and cream ice cream.

Ca com kho - Caramelised anchovies

Thit heo quay - roast pork belly

Thit heo kho - caramelised pork belly and eggs

Bo vien - beef meatballs used in pho soup

Nem nuong, we ate this so much I felt like dying

Bo la lot - love this stuff, such a pain to make

On the other hand, I had food I disliked a lot but would stomach eating, it took me years to like spicy foods, so I avoided anything red that was Vietnamese, like bo kho - Vietnamese paprika beef curry, bun rieu - crab and tomato soup, bun bo Hue - spicy beef noodle soup, ca ri ga/bo- Vietnam's take on beef/chicken curry. Any sort of bitter taste. Any sort of shellfish, I eat crab and prawns though. Fruit and meat combos like ham and pineapple pizza. Time consuming foods to eat like crab or steamboat. I had a lot of fruit I disliked though, like red grapes, banana, pumpkin, white nectarines, soft pears, any melons and floury apples like red delicious.

Bo kho - paprika beef, so goddamn spicy. Now I can't even feel it

Bun rieu - crab and tomato noodle soup, it was super spicy as a kid

Ca ri ga - mild but to me, mouth burning

I read this article on Buzzfeed about this Youtube video on a little Japanese girl who loves to try her mother's international cooking. It mentions in the article that its hard to get most children to try new foods, and I never really thought of it that way. NZ-A's children happily chow down strange food, they ate chicken feet at my birthday party last year for one and went to yum cha with us and tried everything. My friend's nephew on the other hand, doesn't eat anything besides meat and will hide vegetables in tissue paper to get rid of it. On the other hand some of the people I work with have strange food avoidances, like Br., who can't stomach any brown parts on her food, Becky doesn't eat any fruit and Mrs D., can't stand any part of the chicken besides the breast and freaked out when I said I used stock made from bones.

Just mentioned this because I never though I would find myself eating rice any way besides as a savoury side or a soup like in chao. Risotto still weirds me out and it was a long time before I even tried creamed rice. The concept was completely bizarre to me, sweet rice? What the hell. I remember getting into a fight with someone once for eating buttered rice once.

Anyway, one day I tried LeRice when it was on special and it was pretty good. I guess you never know until you try it huh? A few weeks ago I had this craving for creamed rice, so I looked up some recipes and made it. Its good when you can cook, even better than that, is when its easy to make. This is an incredibly easy recipe, the hardest part of it is the constant stirring and the amount of time it takes. Generally I cook it for at least 45 minutes, or the better part of an episode of the Walking Dead.

 Creamed Rice

Uses: something to do while watching the Walking Dead

The lineup barring rice

Cause a 25kg bag is too heavy to lift duh.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of uncooked rice
1/3-1/2 cup of white sugar, depending on how sweet you like your creamed rice
125-250ml cream
750-1000ml milk
1tbsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup of sultanas

Optional:
1tbsp cinnamon or nutmeg or both

Method:
1. Rinse your rice twice under cold running water until the rice water is clear
2. Combine the rice, sugar, cream and milk into a large saucepan and heat on a steady medium, stir frequently

The beginning, all is quiet

3. Turn down the heat if you suspect its going to boil over because milk boils over really really quickly

This level of simmer is fine

Grab your spoon ladies and gents, its about to boil over

4. Once the liquid has reduced by 1/3, add in your raisins and spices. Continue to stir frequently, otherwise it will catch and begin burning.
5. Once you're happy with the consistency, take off the heat and serve immediately. If the creamed rice appears too thick, add more milk, if too thin allow to cook for several more minutes.