Two types of fish whilst waiting for one type of ice-cream

I have mentioned before that my niece loves fish. One other fish dish that frequently makes it to our dining table is fried bah-tu fish. "Bah-tu" is in hokkien and I have no idea how to translate it. The fish itself is rather small, maybe 15cm long. Its texture is described to be smooth and a little similar to chicken when cooked. Therein lies the attraction (so claims the reviewer, i.e. my mum). My niece is another fan of it. To me, fish is fish. Yucks.

Anyway, according to my mum, bah-tu fish is seasonal and not available all the time. Recently, she had gone marketing and to her disppointment, it is not available at the usual stall she patronises. But the bah-tu fish of a neighbouring stall caught her eye and she decided to abandon her loyal customer tag for once.

Lunch for my niece that day therefore included fried bah-tu fish. After trying one piece of it, she pushed it aside, saying,

“不好吃，不要！”

Taken by surprise, my mum tried a piece and detected a slight difference in taste. The very next day, she went back to the usual fish stall she patronises and asked the stallholder if there are two types of bah-tu fish. The answer was yes, and that his stall only brings in the supposedly better tasting ones.

So she bought the better tasting ones which were in stock now. Another lunch and more fried bah-tu fish. 慧 tried a piece, proclaimed,

“好吃！”

and finished everything on the plate.

Well, I'll be! My niece's taste buds are really sharp! I think she takes after me in that aspect. :P

Speaking of my niece and food, her diet has been severely restricted in the past month since the Disneyland trip. She had fallen ill shortly after her return and have been suffering from a persistent cough since. So bad was her cough this time, it affected her sleep from time to time. This is the first time she had been down with a cough for such a long time. It usually clears up within a week.

And so lengthy was the recovery period, 慧 herself got impatient and kept asking us,

“爲甚麽慧慧病還沒好？” (Translation: Why haven't I recovered yet?)

As encouragement for her, I told her that once she recovers, we can have Haagen Daaz ice-cream together (ice-cream was of course one of the banned foods during the recovery period). Upon which she gave her enthusiastic voice of approval.

In my last phone call home, my mum told me the good news that her cough has finally cleared up. She added this,

“你知道她好了后問我甚麽嗎？” (Translation: You know what she asked me after she recovered?)

“甚麽？” (Translation: What?)

“她問我慧慧可不可以吃ice-cream。” (Translation: She asked me if she can have some ice-cream.)

Ah well... so much for wanting to wait for gu gu to share the ice-cream with.

15 days to go.