Soft Food
Recent dental work has left me feeling like a toothless old woman.
Here’s something you don’t know about me: I’ve never had a cavity. Ever. And I’m already 35. Unfortunately, such a dubious honor leaves me vulnerable to a whole host of other oral diseases, one of which is the reason my dentist had to go “digging.” At the end of my open-mouthed ordeal, I’m left with a cement patch on the left side of my mouth. It’s a feeling unlike any I’ve known before.
“See me next week so that I can remove that patch,” my dentist tells me, “and make sure you stick to a soft diet.” Eh. Baby food. Graveyard gook. Victuals for the invalid. My stomach growls.
So I’m limited to food that I can either suck through a straw – preferably those thick pearl shake straws – and “spoon-able” food. Having a mouth incapacitated by dental work gives me a profound appreciation for the food I used to be able to eat: hard, crunchy foods that detonate into bits on first bite, and stringy foods like beef brisket glazed in honey-mustard. And oh god, using only one side of my mouth to chew makes me realize how the act of mastication requires – nay, demands (!) – full participation of all teeth involved.
It’s enough to make a grown woman cry.
So I do the next best thing. Eat congee. For me, Luk Yuen has the best congee in Manila. With other congees, I have to pour in spoonfuls of soy sauce and calamansi (native lime) to induce flavor; it is gruel after all, just water and rice. On the other hand, Luk Yuen’s congee is tasty, even before the requisite condiments are added. I like their halo-halo congee that’s got a little bit of everything from pork strips to meatballs to slices of century egg, and the golden glory of a raw egg glimmering in the middle. It’s hot and satisfying like nothing else.
This morning, I make myself some butterscotch pudding, something I usually make when I need sweet solace. (Yes, I do have dessert for breakfast. Don’t you?) The recipe I use today produces a pudding that borders on (crème) brulee. Instead of being stirred over the stovetop like most puddings, this one requires caramelizing sugar and water before being baked in a water bath for about 30 minutes. Quick and easy like most puddings it is not. But the extra step of caramelizing the sugar imbues a deep butterscotch flavor that borders on burnished, and the long, slow bake blesses this pudding-brulee with its jiggly, silken texture. Its salty-sweetness revivifies.
But my ultimate soft food, the one thing that I have an unabashed love for are eggs. It’s what I eat when I feel myself sinking into a cesspool of disgust and self-pity. I’ve printed paeans to this humble food here on this website, my lustful imaginings of them cooked in every way proving every bit as divine as the real thing. Eggs are a soft food-salve, a reminder that I’m not a toothless hag.
At least not yet.
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A good recipe for butterscotch pudding
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I know what you mean about Luk Yuen congee. It’s a pity they don’t have any branches north of Greenhills.
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Lori, that’s the coolest spoon ever!
I want one! 
Can you share with us where we can get it? Thanks. 
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That Butterscotch Pudding looks amazing! I clicked through but the recipe you linked up is no more
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Please please please share what’s wrong with your teeth! I, too, am cavity-free, and my dentist told me I am more prone to gum disease and tooth-loss because of it. I’m always worried about that!
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Lori, perhaps you can do a post on what you have been eating while you were partially incapacitated. My son will be getting braces in a few days and it would be so helpful if I could get ideas on what he could eat. The poor boy would have been eating yogurt and ice cream had you not done this post on congee, pudding, and eggs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
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re Nina: That’s a honey spoon, if I’m not mistaken–the ‘dent’ in the stem allows you to rest the spoon on the rim or lip of the honey jar so that the slow-flowing honey can drip back into the container.
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one week soft foods! that’s really tough!
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Santiago,
That’s a cool tidbit. I have one of those spoons (I got from Boudin in SF). I just called it my lazy coffee spoon.
Lori,
I needed to take my wisdom tooth out, err, since last February, and well… I keep putting it off. LOL (scaredy cat!)
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butterscotch pudding is also one of my comfort foods. the first time i made it was when i was about 8 years old, the jello kind. would love to make it your way, except that the recipe isn’t there anymore.
by the way, just finished 3 weeks of dental work (i suspect the same as what you had), and it was lugaw, cream soups, and ginataang mais. this time i used “tapol” malagkit (the purple kind), and the chewy grains were an unexpected treat.
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I feel for you.. recently, I had to quit on spicy foods, citrus (my fave foods) due to hyperacidity..After staying away from those foods, I am now back to my normal eating habit…yipee
Hope you’re going to be okay..Love your blog..reading it makes me feel better all the time
I admire your passion for food.
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im a big fan of the congee in hap chan but wow the one from luk yuen looks amazing! iv got to give that a try
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Lori! Hope you get to go back to your old “mouth and teeth” again. : )
Try the lugaw in Cafe Bola. It’s like congee with a lot more. Super yummy!
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Hi Miss Lori! thanks for inspiring me to try and make butterscotch pudding (I craved for it after seeing this post
) I tried the recipe linked here and I kinda burnt the milk at the bottom and I think my butterscotch was a bit too pale, but it was still quite ok. 
I hope to try baking it (like what you did) the next time I try it. thanks again. 
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i love luk yuen congee too, i order it plain… no egg even…then a plate of those tasty chips… yum!
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