recovering!

I didn't imagine such a day would come where I would get sick of porridge! I've been having porridge everyday for lunch and dinner for almost the whole week now. It gets a little tiresome especially if there's not much variety in the condiments considering I needed something quick and easy.

For those who know me, I'd gag if I don't have some variety in my food within the same day, much less for 5 days in a row!

Well, maybe I was just sick of my own porridge, coz  I was well enough to cook and still had some stock in the fridge. On Wednesday, my kind colleague dropped by with some groceries (she's the only mother in the team - and yes, this is quite rare in Japanese companies!), I was surprised she bought me some instant pack of porridge.

This apparently has the famous コシヒカリ* rice genre from Niigata prefecture. How can I forget this rice which I've been eating everyday when I was studying back then!

I figured, why would people buy instant porridge. Porridge is not that difficult to make, compared to most other food. Well, same reason why people would buy instant rice, instant noodles, instant whatever-food! Quick and easy. Boil it as it is, either in a pot of water or through a microwave. After a few minutes, just pour out and you're ready to eat.

I added some 振りかけ* which has bits of dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds, then fried shallots and some sprinkling of soy sauce. So simple but can be quite yummy especially when you're craving for supper but you're too lazy to cook in the middle of the night.

I kinda like this type of porridge, where there's excessive "water" and the rice itself is soft. Somehow when I cook porridge in the rice cooker, the rice becomes "fat" because all the water has gone in to plump them up.

She also bought me some cooling pads in case I still had fever, and even a digital thermometer! I was so amused at this, as I don't even have one back home in Malaysia. When I mentioned this to them, my colleagues were really surprised.

Sure, we had one of those old-school mercury types, but it was mainly as kids. As adults, we'd just slap our hand on the forehead and have a rough idea if we have fever or not. If we're shivering and in pain, it's just confirmation of the same. If you still don't feel well, just pop in a Panadol and you would be good to go.

So, I think the whole influenza test and taking Tamiflu wasn't really that necessary. Now I have hundreds of emails to go through (which I tried to go through in between naps and porridge) when I get back to the office ! *frowns*


* コシヒカリ 《越光》 【こしひかり】 (n) (uk) Koshihikari (variety of rice)
ふりかける 《振りかける; 振り掛ける》 (v1,vt) (uk) to sprinkle over (e.g. salt, pepper, etc. on food)