Drinks I make during the haze

We were pretty much confined to our hse and office during the haze when the PSI reading hits 400.

Did not want to go anywhere as I didnt managed to get the N95 masks and didn't want to risk going out without proper protection. Hehe kiasee ma.

Anyways, wkend is spend mostly at hm and since the weather is so unforgiving hot and feels like we r burning in a furnace, I decided to brew 凉茶 for Mr Love and my parents.

After wrecking my brains, I decided to try cooking barley water which seems to be the easiest and happily went to market to buy, but alas guess I am not the only 1 to think of this.

Barely and green beans are all sold out, be it the market, provision store or NTUC, there is non left. There are people who are more fast minded than me lo..

In the end, I settled for a pack of chinese barley (last) which the store owner say is much better than the Holland counterparts though with a slightly stronger taste, I aso brought some water chestnut,they are good for cooling heaviness too.

Tried brewing the barley 1st and I realised I didn't noe how much water or rock sugar to add . win oredi. Just follow my gut feelings. Steady.  Turns out didn't taste too bad though it really came with a stronger smell than the usual barley drink but luckily the ever fussy Mr Love drank 3 big cups after I cool them in the fridge. 

Feeling somehow encouraged, I tried the water chestnut drink the next day. Its nice alright but the preparation process is a nightmare.  Now den I realised why mummy dun prepare this drink for us. Its really a lot of work! 

While the 大爷 was playing his zombies game in the living room. I soaked and scrub the 600g of water chestnut.  Then have to scrap off its skin and then cut to smaller pcs for easy boiling.

600g comes up to ard 20 water chestnut and it took me an hr to clean them. Then another hr to brew them before the cooling down process starts. 

I started to prepare ard noon but it wasn't till early evening den we get to drink the ice cold version.  Too much time required. If not for the whole day I have on hand, I tink I would need 2 days to prepare this drink. 

But then again,its much cheaper and healthier to male ur own as you are able to control amount of sugar added.

Not sure whether I would have the patience to make this drink again but I reckon I better stock up on barley for convenience sake. Hehe