Chicken Rice

I just finished watching an episode of Channel 8's "Xi You Ji" hosted by TV host Belinda. In this episode she visited a Singaporean Joe and his wife Carol who set up a restaurant and settled in Tibet. In the midst of building up an F&B career, the couple took time to reach out to the employees and their families.

Two scenes struck a chord string in my heart as I was watching it. There was a scene where Joe, Carol and Belinda were playing frisbee leisurely outside their beautiful housing estate in Tibet. Life is just so different outside Singapore. There is still the stress of work and career but the stress of material fulfilment is comparatively smaller. Spiritual fulfilment seems to be the key to happiness and a meaningful life. In Nepal, business is not about working 9-6 in the office and counting every cent behind closed doors. It is also about extending care and concern to everyone in the family. Subas just had a new born daughter last year. Tin needs to learn French and upgrade himself. Wang is picking up the travel trade and is attuning well to guidance. When I am in the house, Khrisna will sometimes make coffee for breakfast, just like the good old days when he was my porter on my Ghorepani trek. Dhruba come take care of our mom when she is not feeling well. I'm always fascinated when the whole courtyard is full of cooking wares and cartons of food prior to a camping trek. The cooks never fail to answer my questions through my translator - either Pasang, Tin or Khrisna. The entire experience of living and working in Nepal is just so out of the world. Everyone that I worked with is just like family. And watching the episode brought back all these memories.

Before Belinda left, she made hainanese chicken rice as a farewell dinner forJoe and Carol. When we had good friends Henry and Jenny over at our Nepal house, they made the most delicious chicken rice I ever had out of Singapore! With our limited kitchen utensils and ingredients, this is certainly an amazing feat. Like Belinda, we took a long time in the kitchen.But I remembered I was almost drooling every minute and couldn't wait for a taste of home cooked favourite after almost two months in Nepal. Till today, I am proud of the ginger sauce which I created for the dish, thanks to the inspiration from Soup Restaurant's famous samsui chicken with ginger sauce. There was no recipe for the important chilli sauceso we made do with 'my sauce'. I thought it turned out great! We had a lot of laughter in the kitchen. The weather was cold. After all that frying, boiling and chopping, Henry, Jenny, Deepak and I sat in our dining room enjoying the fruits of our labour - home made hainanese chicken rice. I never knew that such a simple dish connects us Singaporeans so well. And I never truly appreciated the taste of chicken rice until I had it out of singapore, in an exotic country like Nepal, warmly prepared by our wonderful friends.

It really makes me ponder about the small things in life. I look forward to my next visit back to Nepal.

Maybe Bah Kut Teh would do the trick when we next have our friends over in Nepal.