Hair in my Rice?

It was way past lunch time but the boys refused to leave the school. They were having too much fun playing hide and seek and chasing games with their friends since 11.45am.

Finally they were dragged home. After a quick shower, they started complaining of hunger. 

With only 10 min to whip up something for the boys' lunch, I threw together some overnight cooked brown rice, a cup of frozen vegetables, three eggs, some chopped ham (Marcus chose a big roll of ham the other day) to serve up a reasonably healthy version of fried brown rice.

Two plates on the table and the boys dug in like hungry wolves.

A few minutes later, Marcus paused in between mouthfuls and stared curiously at his food. 

'Mummy, why is there hair in my rice?'  It was kind of funny that he was so calm, with half-chewed food in his mouth. No exclamation or expressions of horror at all. 

Alerted by his big brother, my 3.5 years old also started picking at his food, turning the rice grains over and over, as if looking for something. 

'Mummy, I don't see hair in my rice. But there is a lot of sand in my rice! 

Haha! 

So I had to confess. 

I spotted a pack of Bee Cheng Hiang's fish floss in the fridge when I was cooking, and on a whim, decided to mix two teaspoons of it into the boys' piping hot lunch. 

The kids had never seen or tasted pork or fish floss before. Now that they have mentioned it, I can see why they would think it looks like 'hair' and 'sand'.

I explained to them what fish floss is and how it is made. I also shared that it is their grandma's favorite food and how she would add it to bread, rice, porridge and whatever else that she is eating. 

Somehow, that changes their perception and instantly makes the 'hair' and 'sand' more palatable. 

They looked at the packet and their lunch again and this time, asked for MORE! 

YUM! YUM! was their reactions. Haha! In this sitting alone, each boy served themselves at least another 3 teaspoons of fish floss to eat with their fried rice. 

Marcus even suggested to serve a bowl of this fish floss at his birthday party, so he can offer it to all his friends to eat with their slice of birthday cake. Umm... I don't think so, cheeky!

The lunch was all eaten and boys went off playing. But now, I can't shake off the association of 'hair' or 'sand' with meat floss. Yikes! 

I don't think I will be eating pork or fish floss anytime soon.