Mom, look what I made!

Very exciting news requires a real-time update. I am so proud to be sitting here with a full tummy from a self-cooked dinner that I just HAD to share with you the details of what I feel is the first truly nourishing meal I've eaten since... well, I can't remember, a pretty good sign that I should be cooking more often. Restaurant food is really cheap here, and hotpot and street pancakes are all good, but sometimes I feel like an urban hunter/gatherer. As my current mantra/new year's resolution is "Don't Panic," I figure there's no better place to start than in the kitchen. The monetary cost incurred making my own meals with familiar ingredients can't be anything compared to the abuse inflicted on my adrenal glands as I struggle to read take-out menus and have my broken-Chinese order heard among a dozen highly aggressive other voices.

Anyway. This afternoon, I headed to Carrefour and Parkson - the two biggest grocery stores - and found green curry paste and canned chickpeas and lentils. Chickpeas! How I have missed thee! I simmered everything in coconut milk before throwing in spinach and ten million green beans. (I confess I did not make my own rice - I can't entirely rob the restaurant downstairs of the profit they've been making off me.) The result totally approximated Mom's cooking. In a good way, ha ha. Really, it made me feel all homey and accomplished, and there's even enough for lunch tomorrow. I shall forage no longer.

Just posted the photos and realized my creation actually looks pretty gross. Well, beauty/beholder/etc., clearly.