At Home At CY's

 April 20, 2012

Yi left for LA today. Finally, no need to nag her about going to bed early or washing her face.

CY's house reminded of my aunt's house in Langley, Washington. A fireplace, a large deck set over a valley with a view of San Francisco in the distance and a newly renovated kitchen. No kids, no mosquitoes or flies. It was a just a little too cold, especially at night, but it was bearable. I was completely without care and totally enjoying myself. Behind the house, there's a trail that runs to the 'village' nearby, about 20 minutes' jog away. The trail is wooded, with trees and wild flowers but I never got up in time to run. The house is 10 minutes by car to the nearest subway stop and coming home at night passing through dark wooded hills, it didn't feel like I was in SF. There was the stink of a skunk everytime we passed the football field, and I expected to see a deer or at least some rabbits.


This grows wild and the color was a lot more intense when I first arrived.


Lavender.


CY's rosemary bush is taller than me and totally uncared for, just like how we take lemongrass for granted in the tropics.


The next time I visit CY, her cherry blossom tree will be replaced by something "more useful". This kind of cherry blossom does not fruit but I think their awesome flowers are worth keeping the tree. I wanted to salt the flowers to bring home but wasn't sure how to do it.


This is a beautiful tree but I've forgotten the name. The flowers are tiny and would make a nice bouquet.







CY's neighbour's laurel bay tree (from which we get bay leaves) which is as tall as a three-storey house. Of course I grabbed a whole bag to bring home. Fresh bay leaves smell so much better than the dried ones. I've found that it's better to freeze the leaves because if you dry them in the sun, they curl so much it's hard to store them without crushing them.


I found a bag of fresh egg noodles in CY's fridge.




Toss boiled egg noodles in sesame oil, chili oil, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and a shake of white pepper. Eat with sauteed bean sprouts and mushrooms. Completely devoid of meat.



It was immensely tasty and satisfying. It reminded me of university days, how we used to cook simple meals on a small budget. How is it that back home I would never consider this a good meal? Maybe it's the cold weather.



One night, CY and I watched an old Chinese movie, 'The King Of Masks' (I highly recommend it) on Netflix (wish we have that here; I read that Internet streaming media will be the thing in future, no more TV stations) and we ate pork congee with century eggs lying on the couch and floor. It felt like we were back at college, like we were 19 again, except CY's house was a lot more luxurious than our university apartment which had only one armchair made of wood and throw cushions and a TV that was as thick as a box and needed to be thumped to stop the pictures on the screen from shaking and jumping.



The century eggs in America are way better than the ones we get in M'sia, because the eggs are fresher and they keep better in the cold weather. The yolks were yellow (instead of green), soft, creamy, runny and there was no ammonia stink. Like.