Pork stew haiku and pork floss
Last night I looked on the fridge and boom! A haiku was already made for me! I'm not sure who made the haiku but much thanks. This week I'm way behind! Posting a haiku on Wednesday... Gotta get on schedule with these things. Hopefully this weekend will be better. If you read the haiku you might be a little confused about what it means. Uh... can't help you there because I didn't write it and it sort of confused me too. That's ok, we'll just chalk it up to incoherent poetry because after all, half of that Shakespeare shit is just nuts anyway.
What you see above is a picture of breakfast when I was back home a couple of weekends ago. Some of you will know right away that is pork floss on congee. Some of you right now are asking yourself, "Pork what?" Pork floss or rousong is this dried pork that's cooked down so it looks fibrous. Even though it looks fibrous, pork floss is actually fluffy and soft. You can put it on rice, buns, congee, or even soy milk. Pork floss is also salty and Mom says I'm not allowed to snack on them without eating some sort of starch.
The problem is that rousong is really tasty and I love snacking on it. It's like.. snacking on protein. At least I think it's protein... When I was in elementary school out in the burbs, my mom used to pack lunch for me occasionally. Sometimes she would give me a pork floss sandwich. Those were pretty tasty. In my neck of the woods, the kids were all white or black so no one else had any idea WTF I was eating on my wonder bread. So one day when someone asked me about it, I showed the person and the response was,
"Eww! That looks like carpet fuzz!"
So then I became the kid that ate carpet fuzz. Kids yo, they're pretty awesome. Then soon after that kids started asking me at lunch if my mom packed some carpet fuzz for me.
You can find carpet fuzz at your local Chinese grocery store. They come in all sizes and you can probably find a small one for a couple of dollars if you're curious about the taste. Chinese bakeries around New York also sell pork floss buns. Generally they're kind of rectangular with a thin layer of mayo, and the pork floss is sprinkled on top. The mayo keeps the pork floss from scattering all over the place. It's a good bun if you like that sort of thing. Just don't show your co-workers what you're eating or else they might think you're eating carpet fuzz due to this recession. Or worse, they might think you actually like it.
haha - best story ever! I grew up eating roufu , home made by mother, and had roufu sandwiches for lunch at school. Luckily, her roufu never had that hairy looking texture.
jae_em
December 10, 2008 9:48 am
I love that stuff. My mom now buys the loaf of bread at the Chinese bakeries that have that stuff already embedded into it. It's like raisin bread but with the awesomeness of pork. I had the same experiences when I was a kid and brought my sandwiches to lunch. haha
jane
December 10, 2008 10:33 am
Haha... you already know my stories... this is why, when Breakfast Club came out, my classmates took to calling me... ummm, whatever the weird girl's name was :( Oh well... tastes good to me!
I only found out the name was pork floss earlier this year btw... after I was commenting to a Taiwanese friend about fairy floss being an awesome name for cotton candy. If I'd known I could call it pork floss... maybe, just maybe... haha.
Oh, if you cook (do you?) this stuff is also great stuffed into homemade onigiri. Tightly packed though for maximum flavor
Yvo
December 10, 2008 11:43 am
PS the haiku reads to me
the romantic cook melts
man's lingering winter freeze
with succulent pork stew
Yvo
December 10, 2008 11:47 am
I too was made fun of because of the sandwiches my mother packed for me. But it wasn't the pork floss....my mom put canned sardines between two slices of bread,the kind packed in tomato sauce. Nobody asked me what it was cause it smelled bad, they didn't want to know. They just stayed away when I had the fishy stinky sandwich.
Yvonne
December 10, 2008 1:42 pm
no more dirty haikus naughty boy? :P
Ilovehotsauce
December 10, 2008 11:55 pm
@jae_em,
oh wow, homemade stuff? That had to of been amazing. I wonder if any restaurants in NY does that...
@jane,
Totally with you about those bread with the pork floss already on top. It's a great snack in the afternoon.
@Yvo,
Now that you mention it, I remember having pork floss in sushi form. I can't get enough of this stuff!
@Yvonne,
Wow, canned sardines. I've never had a sandwich like that before... it sounds interesting though. I gotta try it next time.
@Ilovehotsauce,
There are some things you can't insinuate in a public forum when you get a girlfriend. So yes, clean haikus.
Danny
December 11, 2008 3:49 pm
How funny, I just wrote about my mom packing me Korean kimbab in elementary and my classmates getting grossed out. I guess it's a universal memory for immigrant kids growing up in the US. I love pork floss btw. Yum, yum. Is there a certain brand you think is better?
bionicgrrrl
December 13, 2008 6:14 pm
My mom packed fried rice for me! :D
I love pork floss plain, on sandwiches, on congee. But the best pork floss is the spicy stuff! And I think I prefer crispy to soft.
Su-Lin
December 13, 2008 7:37 pm
@bionicgrrrl,
Hmm... you bring up a good question about brands! I'm not sure which brand is better because I haven't tried all of them... I don't even know if the lighter colored ones taste as good as the darker colored ones. Next time I'll take pictures of the packaging!
@Su-lin,
Mmmm, on sandwiches and congee. So what is this 'spicy stuff' that you speak of?!? I've never heard of that!!
Danny
December 14, 2008 11:12 am
I've bought it in Singapore and Malaysia...and you can get it with chili - spicy!
Su-Lin
December 15, 2008 6:53 pm