Fish Head Soup

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I had the opportunity to travel globally for internal company business. People who have not traveled internationally for business may envision glamorous accommodations to exotic locales. Better meals, free drinks and more comfortable seats in business class are nice, however 20+ hours in an airplane to the other side of the world is still not the most pleasant day of my life.

Going on a romantic vacation to Bora Bora would make coach seats enjoyable, as I looked forward to days spent with my wife in a tropical paradise. I cannot say the same about traveling on business to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, or any of a half dozen other locations. Instead of looking forward to days spent relaxing while enjoying the tourist sights of an exotic locale, I have hotel and conference rooms ahead of me.

After a few trips, the differences between Singapore and London begin to fade as the conference and hotel rooms of one locale blur with those of the other. The one differentiating fact is the local cuisine.

I look forward to bonding with my foreign co-workers over lunch or dinner at their choice of local restaurant. While I cannot say I have been a fan of every local delicacy (bangers and mash comes to mind), I have found some that are very enjoyable.

I do find it interesting how rapidly American cuisine has spread and the relative status attached to it. I can remember in Singapore being asked by a group going to lunch that "as a special treat for me, their guest" was going to the all you can eat pizza buffet at their new Pizza Hut. On another occasion, a senior executive in Hong Kong schedule an outing to Olive Garden. And there was no lack of invitations to Outback.

This became so prevalent that I mentioned in passing to Daniel (a peer in IT) that I really enjoyed sampling local cuisine. A few days later, Daniel asked me to join him for lunch. He took me to a small outdoor café in his kampong. The menu was in Mandarin so he said to leave it to him to order.

A few minutes later he returned with a large tray full of items. The first of which shocked and honestly revolted me slightly - fish head soup. I understand this is a local dish and serving it with a full small fish head in the bowl is considered an honor. But being an American, I do not like my food looking back at me.

Not wanting to offend, I tried the soup, eating the rice noodles and small slices of meat. I just could not bring myself to eat the actual head. The soup is very spicy but tasty. I would enjoy eating it again and can recommend it - just hold the head please.

Recipe for Singapore Fish Head Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

750g "Batang" fish head, cut into 1 ½ x 1 inch slices
250g thin rice noodles or laksa noodles (soaked, cooked in boiling water, drained)
2 slices of ginger, shredded
80g spring onion (cut into sections)
• 1 tomato cut into quarters
• 1 litre water
• 2 red chillies (seeded & chopped)
• Dash of pepper
• Dash of sesame oil
• Enough oil for deep frying

Seasoning:

• 1 tbsp cooking wine or dry sherry
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Salt to taste

Steps:

1. Using a sharp knife, cut and divide fish head into bite-sized portions
2. Heat enough oil in a deep-fryer then add the slices in
3. Deep-fry till golden brown, turning once (2 mins)
4. Remove and drain excess oil
5. Heat about 3 tbsp oil in a wok and brown the ginger slices
6. Add the fish head pieces and 1/2 chives, stir-fry everything (1 min)
7. Remove and set aside
8. Pour water into a pot and bring to a full boil, add tomato
9. Add 1/2 of the spring onions and all the ingredients for the seasoning (salt, oyster sauce, black pepper, sesame oil and cooking wine)
10. Allow the soup to simmer before removing from heat (1 min)
11. Divide cooked noodles into individual bowls, sprinkle with a few drops of sesame oil and pepper on top
12. Arrange pieces of fish head and chillies on noodles
13. Pour hot soup over bowls and serve immediately

About business meetings...

I wanted to share a Saturday Night Live sketch about business. Take a look and see if you have not been in this meeting (at least until the last 5 seconds…) at some point in your life. I know I have – on more than one occasion.

One of the more memorable ones was a meeting I attended with a client last November. They are a small (<300 employee) custom automotive parts manufacture that had suffered an exceptionally bad year.  The CEO convened the meeting at 3pm and let all of us know that he had ordered dinner to be catered (and it was *not* pizza or sandwiches) so none of us were going anywhere until the problem had been addressed and a workable plan agreed upon.

My relationship to the company was one of consulting on Information Technology, specifically on aligning technology initiatives with the business goals.   I was actually surprised to be included, as the last three projects I had been engaged to consult on I had recommended against, as they would not generate a positive return.  This included the CEO's desired project to create a highly interactive web site (at a high cost) for a customer base that relied on sales engineers visiting their racing shops to design and/or recommend parts.  All three projects had proceeded, with a collective cost that was a sizeable portion of the company's sales.

Now the company was looking at going on a crash diet as there were insufficient funds.  Numerous suggestions were made, but by 1am it had become obvious that a large portion of the workforce would need to be let go within the week.

After the meeting, the CEO pulled me aside and asked if I would have additional bandwidth to take over managing their IT projects and could I bring on resources to aid in day to day operations as they were letting their whole IT department (5 people, including the manager) go.

I hired four of the five for a small decrease in wages, and then billed at my normal hourly rate.  It is now 5 months later and the company is currently undergoing a reorganizational bankruptcy.  At least from the IT perspective, the costs are close to doubled over what they were.  On a positive note, I was able to defer or cancel the contracts for the three projects...

Oh, and I felt very much like Water Guy...