Homemade Egg Rolls!

I was reviewing my blog recently and noticed that over the last couple/few years, my posts and cooking habits have been very Asian-heavy.  I'm not complaining. I love all Asian cuisines. Well, with the exception of some Asian countries like Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan...not a big mutton fan. So, in keeping with my Asian persuasion, I present our simple dinner tonight.

Carrot and Ginger Soup with Homemade Pork & Shrimp Egg Rolls. I'm patting myself on the back.

I'm pretty sure I've told you all about this soup before.  It's insanely easy: carrots, onion, ginger, broth, garlic and some half and half to finish.  Delicious and packed with vegetable goodness.

Ever made your own eggrolls?  Again, insanely easy.  In my opinion, an eggroll is one of those things where you can take extreme poetic license, kind of like how I do with fried rice, burritos, omelets, etc.  You can literally use whatever you have and roll it up in an eggroll (or wonton) wrapper and go to town. The only thing that may take a little practice is your rolling technique, but again, slow down, pay attention to what you're doing and you'll realize it's just not that hard.

Tonight's concoction consisted of:

1/4 lb ground pork mixed with 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp Shaoxing wine and about 1/4 tsp white pepper.  I think white pepper that you find in grocery stores tastes weird, so I use white pepper powder that I get at the Asian market near Dutch Square.  Mix this up and set aside while you heat up your wok, or skillet.

Shred about 8 oz cabbage; you can use regular green cabbage but I prefer Napa. Chop about 3-4 cloves of garlic, and a tsp of ginger. Slice about 2-3 green onions, julienne about a 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, and roughly chop about 1/2 cup bean sprouts.  You'll also need about 1/2 of julienned carrot, but here, I cheat with grocery store matchstick carrots in the bag. And, lastly you'll need about 20 medium sized shrimp. 

Start with a hot wok, and cook the pork mixture, breaking meat up with a wooden spoon.  Remove to a large bowl.  To wok, add 2 tsp oil then garlic and ginger. Stir fry just until it becomes fragrant. Then add cabbage, carrots, and salt. Stir fry until vegetables are becoming tender but still have some bite. Remove from heat and add to bowl with pork. Mix in green onion, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. While this cools, cook shrimp in wok just until they start to turn opaque (they will cook more later.) Chop them into pieces, as big or small as you prefer. 

Once your filling is cool enough to handle, assemble your egg rolls.  You can fry them, which is traditional, but they can also be air-fried or baked.  Your choice. We fried them tonight and they were GBD (golden brown & delicious.)  I went to a nearby Chinese restaurant and bought a couple containers of their homemade hot mustard. Don't bother with that garbage in the packets. Our little dinner of soup and eggrolls was super yummy and easy. My kinda meal. 

We are Asian food fanatics!

 

Yes, we've been on a kick lately.  It happens.  Japanese- everything from the hibachi joints to sushi. Thai- making it ourselves and stocking up various curry pastes from our favorite Asian market.  Chinese- digging dumplings, which we prefer our own homemade versions!

Viv is a dumpling devotee.  But it's only been this week that she wanted me to show/teach her to make them from scratch.  She's really been getting into cooking recently, which makes me so happy, of course.  We found round Hong Kong style dumpling wrappers at our favorite market, Asian Market on Dutch Square Blvd. I just gave Viv the basic run-down verbally, and while I was out working, she whipped up the filling herself.

We got the butcher at Publix to grind some pork for us. Then, Vivian used that, some chopped serrano pepper, finely chopped carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, an egg, and some soy sauce to create the dumpling filling.  We wrapped them up, and off to the races.  If you've never made your own, it's quite simple.  The most challenging part is learning the various methods to folding and crimping the dumpling. But, simply folding and sealing is ok; no need to be fancy. 

You heat a very thin layer of oil in a skillet. Place dumplings bottom (flattened) side down to fry and get golden crispy. Then, you (carefully) add about a 1/3 cup water and smack a lid on that baby. Crisping up the bottoms before adding water keeps them from sticking; skip this step, and you have a stuck on mess (thus the name potstickers.) Turn the heat down to med-low and let them steam about 3-4 minutes. Then, remove lid, turn heat up a bit to cook out any remaining liquid and to make sure dumpling bottoms stay crisp. Now, get your chopsticks and get ready to have (IMHO) better than restaurant dumplings.

I like mixing up a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, thin slices of ginger and sliced green onion.  

Tonight, we wrapped them all up, cooked a few, served with some sauteed baby bok choy and put the rest of the dumplings in the freezer for another day!

Baby Got Knack

 A knack for cooking, that is!

My daughter is a sucker for a crab rangoon.  My issue with this little morsel, is that pretty much every restaurant on Earth uses "krab" with a K.  Here, in my little coastal state, we spell "crab" with a C, as it is so. Red-dyed surimi (Krab) is fish. Not crab of any sort. It's fake ass Krab.  So, due to my seething loathing for this stuff, I informed the wunderkind that I'd much rather make rangoons at home so I know she's getting the real deal.

We made our inaugural batch together yesterday and were quite pleased with our results.  Today, she decided she wanted to make more, but as a solo mission.  She used the cookbook she gave me last Christmas, The Woks of Life. After our first batch yesterday, the one change she decided on, and it was the right decision, was to increase the crab meat by one ounce. They turned out great and we've decided that using 3 oz. of crab will be our standard.  

She had a few as a little snack and still has about 20 more that we will store in the freezer for next time.  I'm very proud of her and more importantly, she's proud of herself and her efforts. This may become the signature dish of the Vivver!

Sweet and Sour Pork at Home

You know that feeling when you make a meal at home that you love so much you'd even be willing to buy it from yourself?  That's how I feel about the sweet and sour that I make myself. I'd put mine up against any Chinese restaurant in this town.  And, I'm pretty confident I'd win.

I've written about this one before, but it's so good,it bears repeating. Last time I don't think I really told you how to make it so I will this time.  The coolest thing about Asian cuisines is that you don't have to have a lot of meat to work with.  The protein is so nicely accompanied by vegetables and rice that a little goes a long way.  Needless to say, this brings us into the category of budget meals too.

You all may remember that I'm a meat snob. I don't like meat with bones in it or with a bunch of fat & other icky stuff hanging off it.  So, I start with really good, fresh, lean pork.  This could be boneless pork chops or tenderloin.  To me, this is key.  Another aspect of this dish that I love is the true sweet and sour nature of combining onions and bell peppers with pineapple and the sweet sauce.  Just delicious!

So here's what I want you to do.  Cut your pork (about 1/2 lb.) into small, bite-sized pieces.  Gather these things:

• 1 cup flour

• 4 Tbs cornstarch

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• pinch of salt

• 1 Tbs oil 

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  Make a well in the center & add the oil and enough water to make a thick, smooth batter. Using a wooden spoon, stir the ingredients in the well & gradually incorporate flour from the outside. Beat until smooth.

Heat some oil in your wok, dip your pork in the batter and fry about 6 pieces at a time, to keep your oil from cooling off. Drain on paper towels.

 Pour off most of the oil from your wok.  Now add a sliced onion, sliced bell pepper and one can of pineapple chunks (drain them but save the juice for the sauce.)  Stir fry over high until veggies are tender.  Remove & set aside.

 Now, for the sauce: 

• 2 Tbs cornstarch

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

• pinch of salt

• 1/2 cup cider vinegar

• 1 clove garlic, crushed or minced

• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

• 6 Tbs ketchup

• 6 Tbs reserved pineapple juice

Mix all these ingredients together and pour into the wok. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring continuously until thickened. Allow to simmer for about 2 minutes until it becomes clear.  

Add the veggies and pork back to the wok and stir to coat completely.  Reheat for about 2 minutes then serve.  It's great over jasmine rice but rice isn't a must.

Of course, you could do this same thing with chicken or shrimp if you wish. The technique with the batter and the sauce is what I think are most important.  I paired ours with egg rolls that I picked up from Sun Ming in Irmo.  

Sun Ming is one of the best Chinese restaurants we have, IMO and their egg rolls remind me of the kind we always had as kids.  Big and fat with bits of pork and shrimp inside.  Not like the ones you get so often today that are nothing but cabbage and shredded celery.  And, don't forget to ask them to give you some of their homemade hot mustard to go with the egg rolls. That garbage in the packet isn't worth the name mustard! 

So, there you have it: homemade sweet and sour pork that will impress your family and your guests.  It's surprisingly easy to whip this up at home and so much better than take-out.  Give it a try; you'll thank yourself for putting forth the effort.

We Love Dumplings!

 I started making wontons back in high school.  My mom had come across a recipe for "Tex-Mex Wontons" and we made them for pretty  much every party we hosted.  In essence, it was taco meat folded into a wonton skin and fried. They were awesome.


After college, my friend Susannah showed me how she makes her famous dumplings.  You may call them potstickers. Do you know the reason they call them that? If you steam a wonton skin, it becomes soft, pliable and kind of gummy.  So, they will stick to a pot in a heartbeat unless you know what you're doing. So what do you do?  You fry the bottoms of your dumplings in a thin layer of oil until they are crispy.  Then, carefully (very, very carefully) add water to the pan and cover it quickly to steam.  The fried bottom keeps the dumpling from sticking to your pot.  Skip this step and you have one stuck-to-the-pot fiasco.

So, ever since Susannah taught me this technique, I've been making my own.  They are ridiculously easy and so darn tasty.

Tonight's batch started with about a pound of ground pork.  I grated ginger and garlic over the meat, added chopped green onion and chopped water chestnuts.  Then I added just a little soy sauce for flavor and mixed it all up with my hands. 

Then, I placed about 2 teaspoons of meat into the center of my wonton wrapper, wet the edges with water and just twisted them up.  

Like I said, heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet with a good fitting lid.  Fry the bottoms of the dumplings until they are browned and easily lift from the skillet.  Next, add about 1/4 cup of water.  I shield myself with the lid as I add the water to prevent spatter and then cover it quickly.  Let steam a couple of minutes and that's all she wrote.


I like to mix up a dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some sliced green onion.  Simple and delicious.

Tonight, I served the dumplings with a vegetable fried rice, using peas, carrots, green beans, onions and scrambled egg.

This is a great way to spice up dinner at home and you can make big batches and freeze these little babies for another day. And, just like stir-fry or fried rice, you can make your dumpling filling with pretty much whatever you have available: ground pork, turkey, chicken. Ginger & garlic, green onion, carrot, bean sprouts, you name it.  Don't let this simple dish not make its way into your home.  So very easy and something interesting on the plate.  Enjoy!

Repurposed Food

You can spend hours, yes hours, on Pinterest checking out "repurposed" ideas.  Using old doorknobs to hang your keys on, turning an old suitcase into a desk, making headboards out of old doors.  The list goes on and on.  But, you never see anyone talking about repurposing food.  And I get it.  The term generally applies to objects, most of the time found objects that can be given new life.  But, since I think about cooking and food pretty much all the time, I find myself thinking about "repurposing" food.

You see, I hate leftovers.  Always have.  The only food, in my opinion, that is worth eating as a leftover is Chinese food, pizza or my Aunt Jennie's sweet potatoes.  Everything else just sits in the fridge hoping that my husband will come along and gobble it up before it finally gets thrown out.  You're probably asking yourself "Why bother putting the leftovers in the fridge if you know you won't eat them?"  Well, it's really really hard for me to just throw away something, anything, that I know is good and useful.  Consequently, when I was single, I'd amass a pretty good collection of unwanted leftovers that would stare back at me until it was finally time for them to take up residence in the trash can.  But then I found Neil.  He loves leftovers! He's a "chronological" eater too.  He keeps track of what went in the fridge when and he finished them off accordingly.  It's a great system really.

However, over the last couple of years, I find myself trying to be more responsible when it comes to the leftovers.  I still can't bring myself to want a plate of heated up old stuff, but aha! I realized that I can turn them into something else and then everybody wins! Repurpose it into something completely new.  

This brings us to tonight's dinner.  Pork & veggie spring rolls and beef with broccoli over jasmine rice.  A few days ago, I made caramel apple pork chops.  The chops were huge, so we ended up with a lot leftover.  I just scraped off the apples and sweet sauce then finely minced the meat.  This morning I created the spring roll filling using shredded cabbage, julienned carrots, bean sprouts and sliced bamboo shoots, mixed with the minced pork.  Viola!  

Stir-frying cabbage, carrot, bamboo shoots & bean sprouts

 

Assembly: got these awesome spring rolls skins at the Chef'Store!

 

Ready to be fried

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, so we had steaks.  Again, I had more than we needed, so I took the leftover steak, sliced it thinly and will use it in a beef with broccoli recipe from my trusty Chinese cookbook.  I am so excited about dinner I can hardly stand it!  And better yet, there are no leftovers sitting in the fridge giving me the stink-eye every time I open the door!  Repurposing again.

All ready for the wok

 

I love the sight of bright green broccoli

 

Added in some bamboo shoots as well

Beef with broccoli & pork/veggie spring roll

I don't pretend to be the first or only person to do this with leftovers. I'm just happy that I've become pretty darn good at it.  I find my creativity kicking into gear any time we have leftover food and I'm likin' it.  And when you stop to think about how inexpensively you can end up feeding yourself and your family, the numbers are almost staggering.  Now that I'm a committed and addicted coupon-a-holic, this means so much more.  If you are an anti-leftover person like me, think about how you can do something with the food instead of enduring the guilt that those leftovers can inflict when they stare back at you all weepy-eyed in that harsh fridge light.  :-)

Baby's First Dish

As you all know, it's always been my goal to engage my child in cooking, food and nutrition.  As soon as she was old enough, I've had her in the kitchen.  Starting at things like pushing the buttons on the food processor, to measuring ingredients, mixing stuff up and even some beginner knife work.  But, tonight was the culmination of it all...my baby COOKED!

She's ready to roll!

 That's right.  She cooked an entire dish all by herself.  Of course I was standing right there overseeing, and I did all the prep work (chopping) but she cooked all by herself!  We decided to go with a Chinese flair tonight, so I worked on beef with broccoli while Viv worked on the veggie fried rice.  

So, this is onion, carrot, broccoli and ginger (which I think is nectar of the gods!)

I was so proud of her.  One: because she actually listened to and followed all of my directions.  Two: because she was talking constantly about her observations and her technique of stir-frying the veggies.  Three:  she sloped the rice up the sides of the wok like I told her and scrambled the egg down in the center. She did it all and we ended up with a great batch of fried rice. The real joy of it all was, of course, her pride in her creation and the excitement of being allowed to work with the stove and just do it.  Like all cooks though, at the table she kept insisting that my dish was better than hers while Neil and I insisted that the rice was the best.  

The beef with broccoli did turn out well too.  I used a flatiron steak, sliced really thin. Marinated in soy sauce, a little flour, a tiny bit of sugar and sherry cooking wine.  Stir-fried broccoli then cooked the steak with its marinade, which creates the sauce. 

I can't ever give Viv the plate that was chipped by the dishwasher. Ever.

  I may have said this to you all before, but I'm going to say it again. The beauty of Chinese cuisine is quantities.  Over dinner, we talked about this.  People walk into a place like Longhorn and order a 12 oz. steak.  That's a hell of a lot of meat.  That's more meat than a person is supposed to eat at any given sitting. Our dinner tonight was made with 8 oz. of steak and it was more than enough for the three of us.  What the Chinese know and have known for thousands of years is that you can take a little bit of a lot of things and make a satisfying meal.  


Think about this for a minute.  Fried rice is loaded with vegetables and tiny cubes of pork, chicken, tofu, or shrimp, right?  But, it's plenty for you.  MooGooGaiPan is thin slices of beautiful white chicken surrounded by tons of veggies.  Sweet and sour pork uses about 8 oz. of meat and the rest is all veggie.  And for those people who always say after eating Chinese food, they are hungry an hour later...all I can say is vary your selections.  You can't eat a wheelbarrow-load of fried rice, fried wontons or egg rolls and escape the carbohydrate coma and hunger that comes quickly.  You simply must treat this cuisine like any other.  Incorporate a salad, a main dish with protein, a veggie side and yes, carbs too.  But don't lump all Chinese in with your starch/MSG stupor and subsequent hunger.  Don't do it, I say!

My happiness tonight isn't stemming from the fact that I made beef and broccoli that Neil, the Vivver and I loved, but rather from the fact that my baby got in the kitchen tonight and OWNED  it!  I've waited for this day. Having her cooking alongside me, not having to worry about her getting hurt or spilling some hot something all over herself.  It was wonderful! If you have kids, bring them into the kitchen.  It will prepare them, in many ways, for their future life but also will bring so much joy to the here and now.  For you both.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm not much of a buffet girl.  Especially not a Chinese buffet.  But from time to time I guess we all end up at one.  But, as a general rule, I stay away from buffets.  Although the champagne brunch buffet at the Hotel Coronado in San Diego is pretty flippin' amazing!  But usually buffets are picked over, tired looking and just not very exciting.  

A few days ago, my mom ran into her former neighbor.  They chatted a bit and he said each week he takes his mother-in-law to lunch and that quite often they go to this Chinese place that they really like.  He went on to say that it's the ONLY Chinese place he goes to.  Why?  He knows someone who served as a missionary in China and this is the ONLY Chinese place that he will patronize. And <<gasp>> it's a buffet restaurant. 

The Best Chinese? Make it Yourself!

I've always found Chinese cooking fascinating. Really and truly I guess this applies to most forms of Asian cookery.  I am a die-hard fan of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean.  But it's not just the plain deliciousness of these cuisines, it's the brilliance of them. 

What I'm referring to is the resourcefulness of this type of cooking.  Think about it.  Let's use the Chinese as the example.  And, I'm not talking about the Americanized Chinese take-out, 24 hour buffet, or mall food court Chinese.  If you've ever read a Chinese cookbook, one thing that stands out is the small amount of each ingredient.  Take fried rice...obviously, you use as much rice as you need to feed the number of people in the family. But, the protein (chicken, shrimp, beef, pork, fish, etc.) is relatively small.  But that's ok, there are then small amounts of various vegetables added next.  This technique likely began and evolved from times when ingredients, money and resources were scarse.  The Chinese figured out that you can make a satisfying, hearty and nutritious main course with a little bit of meat, a little bit of egg, a little bit of cabbage, a little bit of carrot, a little bit of onion, and on and on and on.  The end result is, in this example, a wok full of fried rice packed with veggies, protein and 6 people with full tummies.  Just brilliant.

Today I found myself considering the growing amount of leftovers in my fridge.  I have half a of a pork roast, ham, broccoli, about 1/2 pound of shrimp.  Just those ingredients alone scream some sort of Asian inspired dishes.  So, I popped into Publix for a few staples (a green cabbage, egg roll wrappers, wonton wrappers) so I can use up these fridge inhabitants before they go South on me.  Tonight, it was beef with broccoli (1/2 lb of skirt steak, broccoli, ginger) and shrimp potstickers (my leftover shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, 5 spice powder and green onion). 

Cute little dumplings waiting to be cooked

 Tomorrow, I'm going to repurpose that pork roast into eggrolls with cabbage, ginger, bamboo shoots & water chestnuts.  The beauty of that plan in that I will have plenty of egg rolls to stash away in the freezer for later!


As a side note, my husband continues to improve from his tonsillectomy from a week ago, so I also used some of the broccoli for a cream of broccoli soup for him.  Not only was he able to eat (and actually taste it!) he went further and ventured into the beef with broccoli and downed some of that too.  Yea!  He's finally able to tolerate eating and getting some fuel into that body.  Good news indeed! 

Forget Take-out!

I may have told y'all this before, but I'm a very ethnic eater.  I have to have variety or I lose my mind.  I'm glad that I'm this way because it has always lead me to try new dishes and new cuisines.  So far, the only cuisine I've determined that I can live without is Jamaican.  I've tried it numerous times; Neil loves it.  But, since I'm not a goat fan and I'm not crazy about chicken with bones in it, Jamaican doesn't have much to offer me.  But, put Indian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, French, Italian, Greek or Chinese in front of me and I'm one happy little food fan.  Last night, we decided to have Chinese...home cooked Chinese, that is.

I pulled out another of my old tried and true cookbooks, aptly titled The Complete Chinese Cookbook.  

Release your inner dragon

This is another one that I think I bought off of that traveling cookbook saleswoman back in the early 90's.  I love it because it's full of workable recipes that taste just like authentic "American-Chinese."  Since I'd just gotten a great deal on boneless pork chops, I zeroed in on the sweet & sour pork recipe.  

My handy dandy Williams Sonoma cookbook stand

 It's been ages since I've made it, but I remember how awesome it was.  So, there you have it.

This dish is exactly like what you get in a restaurant except it's better because it's being made at home with fresh ingredients.  You make a simple batter and fry the pork in the wok.  There is a good bit of corn starch in the batter, so the pork stays nice and crisp and stands up well to the sauce.  Stir-fry bell peppers, onions and pineapple then make the beautiful clear red sauce.  It's fantastic.  And it's gets a thumbs up from the little gourmet too.

Prep work

A little blurry...we were in a hurry to eat it!

 Now, here's something that you will either identify with me and understand, or you'll think I've lost it.  After this morning's soccer game, we returned home.  As I opened the door and stepped across the threshold, guess what?  It hit me.  My house smells like a Chinese restaurant!  And I think that's awesome.  Like I said, some of you may love that smell that I'm talking about or you might be wrinkling up your nose and saying something like "What the...?"  All day, I've left and come back just so I could get that Chinese waft as I entered the house.  

      美味

Per Google, this means delicious!

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Sizzling Flank Steak!

I had some time by myself today after a meeting downtown and decided to walk over to M Cafe for a little lunch.  I haven't been to M Cafe in a long time, so it was nice to be back.  As I neared the restaurant, I could smell it.  (This is a good thing).  I love being in a city and smelling good food smells.  Chicago is good for that.  So, as I arrived, I was already jacked about my pending meal.  

This is one of those places that I've been to enough times that I've tried several things on the menu but then one day, I ordered something that I'm stuck on.  I tell myself each visit, "Ok, this time I'm gonna do it.  I'm going to order something else NO MATTER WHAT!"  I peruse the menu, I ponder, I consider. Then, the waiter comes and I say, "I'll have my usual.  Sizzling flank steak with the cold noodle and salad."  He says, "What do you mean when you say 'cold noodle?'"  Uh oh...have they changed the menu?  I quickly look.  It's not called sizzling anymore, but it still offers me noodles instead of rice and there's mention of salad.  The waiter and I exchange mildly confused looks.  A moment of silence.  Finally, he says, "Why don't you just tell me how you want it."   

*****H A L L E L U J A H*****

Sorry about the lack of focus..the iPhone was even excited about this lunch!

This guy has just entered my Waiter Hall of Fame.  Why yes, I'd love to tell you exactly how I'd like it.  So, here it is.  If you like M Cafe or Miyo's, I recommend this little meal.  Sizzling Flank steak:  marinated in a soy based sauce that has a hint of curry.  I think they actually use skirt steak, which until recently wasn't well known in the South, so I think they always just called it flank for ease of understanding.  It's thin, tender and the marinade is just fantastic.  Garlic Green Beans: These come with the steak.  They are sauteed just until the skins blister.  My favorite way to cook beans.  Cold Noodle:  Pretty self-explanatory, but I like a little puddle of their house salad dressing on the plate, then the cold noodles, then a dollop of Sriracha or something similar.  House Salad:  the lettuce is beautifully fresh, absolutely no blemishes, it looks like they just picked it from the field themselves.  But the house dressing is the magic component here.  I've heard over the years that many of us here in Columbia have begged the owner, Michelle Wang, to bottle this stuff and she won't do it.  I can hardly describe it...soy, peanut, hot sauce???  I don't know; just trust me and order it!

So, I had a very successful and satisfying lunch experience. Oh..bonus!  I've always said I feel like I could write childrens' books.  I got an idea in my head a few days ago, so since I was dining alone today, I took a pad and pen and started writing.  If anything comes of it, I can tell you later about the irony of the lady at the table across from me!

Bye bye Bangkok

Back in the early to mid 90's, my best friend Heidi and I were in our early 20's and were just starting out as "real adults."  She and Lloyd finished grad school and moved to Atlanta.  Being single, I could jump in the car and head to ATL pretty much at a moment's notice to hang out for the weekend.  Not only were these trips to spend time with "The Hoser" and "The Barber" (it's a long story) but for all the cool dining that Atlanta offered that Columbia didn't.  

On one trip, Heidi took me to my first Thai restaurant.  As a former Thai delegate to the Model U.N., I couldn't be more excited!  (Ha Ha...can you believe that?)  It was a place in  Virginia Highlands and was completely new to me.  I loved every second of it.  But, malheureusement, there were no Thai restaurants at home.  But, somewhere along the way in the mid 90's, my dad found Bangkok.  

It was (and still is) a small place in a strip mall on Garner's Ferry Rd.  I remember going there first with him and mom and was overjoyed to find the place.  I have been there many times and ordered many dishes, but haven't been in years.  I always had positive memories and sentiments about the food.  I met Neil there today for lunch, as he was working nearby.  Alas, my discovery of Mai Thai has prejudiced my palate and Bangkok has either changed for the worse or my memory was just being generous.

Bangkok is still small, which I always find endearing.  But, it's showing age and frankly, neglect.  Dingy carpet, cheap chairs, crack-n-peel numbers on the wall over the booths, a cashier stand crowded with junk and a kitchen door that needs paint and a proper door handle were the first things that caught my eye.  We were given a table but then Neil had to get up to get menus for us. Now, here's what alarmed me about the menu.  They've always had Chinese stuff on it and that's ok.  So, they have it separated out into the Chinese lunch menu and the Thai Special lunch menu.  The Thai menu doesn't have ONE SINGLE curry dish on it!  What?  How in the world can you NOT have curries on a Thai menu?  They do have Pad Thai, Pad See-iw, some other noodle and rice dishes, satay and one noodle soup, but this stuff is all "mainstream" Thai.  Frankly, this is what everyone was introduced to back in those early 90's days.  Now that Thai is so well-known in America, I can't believe the lunch offerings are still so rudimentary.  It was a disappointment.


The server irritated the #*&%! out of me.  She's one of those hurried people that rushes up to you and immediately says something charming like "What do you want to have?"  I asked her if we could get a lunch size curry and she said "yes." Great!  I proceeded to order a Panang Curry with Shrimp.  As I saw her write on her pad a figure that started with '12',  I asked her again.  This time she said, "no."  Well, that's what I just asked you lady!  So, I fell back and punted with the Pad Thai.  After all,  I'd remembered that their version was good.


Well, disappointment again.  The shrimp were nicely cooked on the grill, but the dish just plain lacked flavor.  I know the peanuts were there because I could feel them, but they had no taste whatsoever.  That can only mean they weren't fresh.  The green onions were cut into 1 1/2" pieces, cut right across the scallion.  So, they were like green onion stalks.  Not really edible that way.  The bean sprouts tasted completely raw.  I can eat raw sprouts; my mom used to grow them in a dark kitchen cabinet.  But in a dish, they should be at least slightly cooked and warmed.  Overall, this pad Thai just tasted bland and honestly, looked bland too.  Thumbs down.

Just didn't cut it!

Next, Neil's dish:  he decided to go the Chinese route and ordered pepper steak and asked if they could make it extra spicy.  As you all know, he likes EVERYTHING spicy!  Really spicy.  So, when he asks if you can do it and you say yes, then do it.   Well, you guessed it...no spiciness at all!  Pepper steak is pretty straight forward; bell peppers, onions, thinly sliced steak.  Neil reported that the entire dish was merely "okay."

No color: bell peppers are green but they are hidden in this mess

To wrap up, we both decided that we're taking Bangkok off our restaurant radar.  When it comes to Thai food in Columbia, we just have no restaurant that measures up to Mai Thai.  They have our loyalty.  

"Kitchen Sink" Fried Rice

Making fried rice at home is the most efficient, and delicious, way to use leftover meats or vegetables that need to be used up before the rot monster gets them.  Plus, it's always so much better when you make it yourself.  I tend to make what we'll call Kitchen Sink rice because I'll throw in whatever I have that sounds good to me.  Which leads me to this evening...

Our dinner tonight was fried rice with shrimp, scallion-scrambled egg, baby corn, carrots, onions, bamboo shoots and a chiffonade of spinach added at the last minute.  It's kind of like pizza (see "The World's Most Perfect Food").  All the food groups (can) be represented.  In tonight's version, we had grain, dairy protein, lean seafood protein and vegetables.  Sounds pretty perfect to me.  And, when a 4 year old says, "Mommy, it smells like Chinese food" and then later "I love it!  You're the best cooker in the world!" then you know you're on to something.

Make a pot of rice in advance (2 cups of water, 1 cup of rice, 20 minutes, you know).  If you can make it a day ahead, it's even better.  If you need to make it same day, cook it as early as possible. Fluff it up with a fork to get some air moving around and stick it in the fridge.  You want it to dry out and let the grains become separate.  Have all your ingredients cut and ready to go, then...let the games begin!

I first scrambled one egg (and some egg beaters that I needed to use up) with scallions.  Now, y'all know scallions are green onions, which are not the same as shallots!  Remove from the wok & set aside.  Next, I stir fried the onion and carrots.  As the carrots began to soften, I added minced garlic and all the other vegetables, except the spinach.  Remove from wok & set aside.

I took a handful of shrimp (how ever much you want) and cut them in half lengthwise.  I stir fried them next.  Remove and set aside.  I added a little vegetable oil here and when it was  hot, I stir fried the rice.  Again, try to get it cooked and dried out a little.  Keep an eye on it and do it until it looks right.  Then, add all your stuff back in.  Drizzle soy sauce over (as much as you like) and sprinkle with ground ginger...oh, that smells heavenly!  Lastly, I stirred in the sliced spinach and mixed in, just to wilt it.  Then, we ate the heck out of it!

The other extremely cool thing about making your own fried rice is how ridiculously easy it is.  Make a pot of rice tonight, stick it in the fridge, & whip it up tomorrow when you get home from work.  The possibilities are endless and don't forget, if you're really in a pinch, use frozen or canned peas and carrots or asparagus, or broccoli...you see where I'm going with this.  

BTW-As you know, I am a cookbook junkie. If you enjoy rice, you may want to seek this one out.  It covers Asia, India, Middle East, Italy, America...the whole planet as it relates to rice.  Risotto is not to be feared!  It's crazy easy.  Indian Biryani at home?  Absolutely!  If you can read, you can cook.