When I Tried To Cook Prawns, But The Foods Did Not Turn Out As Instagrammable As I Expected

After months in the pandemic situation, people would start to do the unexpected. In my case, it was cooking. I can cook for survival, but I would not find any joy if I have to do it on a daily basis. This cooking journey began with me missing the restaurant foods and trying to be frugal since we have yet to see the end of the pandemic and the economy crisis. I ordered a pack of shrimp (or is it prawn?) from an online shop. 

Most of the recipes are from Devina Hermawan's YouTube channel, with a few tweaks because sometimes I did not have the exact ingredient at home.

Can you guess what these are? Well, they are supposed to be "lumpia udang ayam kulit tahu" (shrimp and chicken wrapped in tofu skin spring roll). The ones sold in the restaurant are usually in small sizes, but since I felt hungry and generous, I made them gigantic. Despite the ugly appearance, these tasted  quite okay.

 

This one was supposed to be Singapore chili prawn. I was afraid that it would turn out too spicy or sour, so I kind of reduced the chili and tomatoes, resulting on this pale-looking dish. But it still tasted good, at least M said so. We both ate this dish in one sitting.

 

I was trying to recreate ebi furai (fried crispy shrimp) of Hokben, and lo and behold, what the hell were these chonky-looking bent prawns? While I currently could not pass the appearance test in cooking, I tried compensate in the taste department. These were actually good and delicious.

 

I believed this dimsum was the most successful prawn-based dish I have made so far. But again, you can never fail in making dimsum. The best thing about dimsum is you can keep them frozen and steam them later.

While I enjoy cooking these dishes, I have to take a break from the prawns, because the cholesterol level has spiked afterwards. M actually loves it when I cook, because it means she does not have to cook. I guess you will see a similar post in the future under this label :).