Food for Thought

Comfy Roti John for breakfast, snack and brunch

Roti John with porkmince

This weekend the temperature dropped together with rain and wind it's getting chilly, a good reason to bring in some warmth with comfy food. We strolled over the local freshmarket in the centre of Leiden and stopped at a Morrocan stall where we bought fresh baked flatbread, other mediterranean ingredients and moved on for our dinner groceries.

Once home hubby suggested a Dutch winterdish "Prei Stampot", however we modified the original recipe with extra ingredients and a thick cut pan-fried pork chop just to satisfy the boys tastebuds. But the real surprise comfy food was when I'd prepared a "Roti John" for brunch, just by looking at the crusty loaf, minced meat and a tin of sardines it made me remember our visits to Tekka Mall Foodcourt, Sim Lim Tower for Kaya toast and other eateries in the basement foodcourt.

Roti John, is a popular Malay breakfast and favourite snack at Kopitiams in Singapore and Malaysia. Basically a meat-omelet sandwhich with choices of Chicken/Lamb mince, sardines or tuna together with onion, garlic, chilipaste and eggs all scrambled together topped on bread and then pan-fried. Tea Tarik would've just made it picture perfect with this simple snack, but we indulged ourselves anyway .

The first loaf was with Sardines and it tastes so good, that we had another Roti John this morning with porkmince and Sambal Badjak as chili paste instead. It didn't last long either.......

Ingredients

• 1 French loaf (Turkish/Morrocan crusty flatbread is better)
• 100 gms Minced Chicken/Pork/Lamb/Beef or small tin sardines/tuna in tomato sauce
• 3 Eggs
• 1 Onion & 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 Tbl chili paste (Sambal Belanchan or any chili paste to your liking
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Chillies, slice diagonally to mix in or just scatter on top
• Garnish with tomato parts, cucumber slices (fresh chili's) with a dollop of chili sauce on the side

Method:

1. In a bowl mix the first five ingredients and beat together with the eggs.

2. Slice the french bread in halves, press cavity and fill in with above mixture.

4. Heat up the pan and add vegetable/olive oil.

5. Put the bread with the egg-meat side into the frying pan, mixture side down.

6. Listen to it sizzles, cook and turnover both sides until golden brown and sprinkle chillies to your liking.

7. Serve with a sweet chili sauce, garnished with cucumber and tomato slices.

Give it a try, you'll like it:)

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

Funny, if this question would've been asked ten years ago I wouldn't even have believed a prediction of living abroad lest being an expat for the last ten years in Asia. However time revealed and decided that we did as a family spent our time in sub-tropical countries and we enjoyed every minute being in a different culture and life-style.

At the moment we've moved back to our origins which is The Netherlands while our ancestral roots are Chinese we've become native Dutch for the last three generations. So at this point with this question viewing the next ten years I now know that we will be spending time on both sides of the Globe due to work and built-up lives here in Europe as well as South-east Asia with family and friends.

For a short while I signed our travel stories as modern No-Mads, realizing we are actually the Third generation without borders as the lyrics goes; "Wherever I lay my hat is my home".
Just now I finished a similar conversation with a friend who asked if I wasn't tiered of moving and living without a base, I replied: "On the contrary wherever we go we will make a place to call our own".

And without exaggeration true friendship doesn't have any borders, hesitation, any conversation at any time will be continued or a new topic will be shared as time goes by.

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