Last night, hubby woke up at 8.30 p.m. after his short nap. From 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., short nap? He didn’t eat instant noodle as I suggested. Instead he finished the half bowl of cooked barley.
Today I am cooking the other half packet of the barley. It’s been hot these few days and I don’t have appetite today due to my mild headache.
It’s cooling and soothing to drink more barley water on hot days or on days when you are under the weather.
There are two ways of cooking barley: pre-soaking the barley overnight or simply cooking barley without any advanced preparation.
For my convenience, of course I opt for the latter. 
Ingredients:
1 cup pearl barley
2 knotted ‘pandan leaves’
1/2 cup preserved winter melon sticks
A few lime/lemon slices
1 liter water
Instructions:
1. Rinse the pearl barley like how you normally wash your rice prior to cooking.
2. Pour the water, barley and preserved winter melon sticks into a rice cooker. Bring to boil.
3. Add in the knotted ‘pandan leaves’ and simmer for another 15 minutes.
4. Each time you pour yourself a glass of barley water, squeeze some lime/lemon juice into it. You’ll love the sweet and sour taste of barley water!
I used to dislike drinking barley water; it’s a drink that I only consumed when I was sick. Maybe it’s too ‘plain’.
Photo Credit for Barley Drink
But then one day, I heard a woman sitting at the next table order, ‘Barley Water with Lime’. It’s something that I hadn’t tried before, so I ordered one too. Since then, I have loved barley juice.
I think today’s dinner is going to be the cooked barley and preserved winter melon sticks. Why just drink the barley water when the high-fiber barley and winter melon sticks can speed up your bowel movement the next day?
