Lesson #4. You can always get better at something.
Back in my East Coast days I would take a bunch of guys into NY Chinatown for some authentic Chinese food. The restaurant was a classic hole in the wall, one of the places that didn’t cater to non-Chinese diners. All the menus were in Chinese and the family banquet style menus were posted near the ceiling on the wall. The group would get seated, tea was served, and I would point to the menu on the wall for our table. Sometimes I pointed to a menu I thought I had ordered in the past and the food was different from the last visit. Didn’t matter. It was all good.
My friends all got forks, spoons, and knives. The waiter would remove my silverware and return with a pair of chopsticks and one of those awkward soup spoons. I always had to ask for a fork and regular spoon because I was really bad at using chopsticks.
I still can’t use chopsticks very well. Too bad we didn’t have the internet or YouTube back then. At least I now have instructions and a video to watch.
We wanted to get the scoop on Young’s wok collection, including whether we could crack open her tightly-held secret on how many woks she actually owns.https://t.co/WdRZmboR3M
But I have to tell you that if you’ve never traveled with your wok, you have not truly experienced TSA. They’re putting on gloves and they’re unzipping the bag. They basically just treat me like I’m a criminal and tell me not to talk. Then they pull it out and they go, “Oh, it’s a wok,” and then everybody’s like smiling and laughing. One time this guy said to me, “What’s the secret to fried rice?” So yeah, it is pretty hilarious.
And yet another post/link in my sporadic electronic sticky note series. I may have made dumplings once or twice in my entire life. There are some recipes here I want to try if and when I get into a dumpling mood.
The past is merely fragmented memories woven into a story that changes according to how you tell it. You can alter the impact your past has on you by changing your story about it…You live in whatever story you tell yourself.
Jarl Forsman and Steve Sekhon – Bite Size Happiness: Volume 1
Taking time off from work is both a blessing and a curse. I’ve taken long weekends where by the final day I am ready to head back to the office and get back to work. This compulsive urge of needing to work has been with me my entire life. My parents’ generation of immigrants, my ethnic heritage, my upbringing all contributed to my strong work ethic. I was quite surprised when recently all of this changed. It’s not that I’ve lost my work ethic or anything like that. I still work hard but I’ve also found other things to do with my time. One of the projects on this extended weekend was to de-clutter and the target was my collection of saved recipes. Like any other household item the strategy was brutally simple: keep or toss. It didn’t take long to determine that most of the recipes I’d been keeping for possible future meals would be tossed. Here’s some of the things that you learn about yourself while de-cluttering your recipe collection:
I had saved recipes and old newspaper clippings since 1976.
I never used any of those recipes.
I’ve known for a long time that what I cook and eat currently is a lot different than what I used to cook and eat. Most of the saved recipes are dishes that I would not cook now.
An entire folder of pork and lamb recipes got tossed. I eat pork on rare occasions and can’t even remember the last time I had lamb.
Groupings of old newspaper articles eventually became cookbooks for their authors. I have these same recipes in the cookbooks from the same authors in my cookbook collection. Why did I keep the old clippings?
Thinning out the cookbook collection is next on the de-clutter list.
I was literally tossing out everything until I found this:
At first I didn’t recognize what I was holding in my hand. It took a few minutes to realize I was holding an old recipe that was written in my Father’s handwriting. After this discovery the pace of my purge slowed. I didn’t want to accidentally discard a cherished memory.
Memories hidden from view that were here with me waiting to be uncovered and woven back into my story. Have I ever mentioned my Father was one hell of a cook?
Heat 1 T canola oil in a nonstick wok over high heat. Coat pan with the hot oil by twirling.
Add the egg and fry until golden brown and curling on the edges. Flip and brown the other side. When cooked through, remove to a plate and set aside.
Add the remaining canola oil to the wok, heat on high, and twirl your wok.
Add carrots and broccoli, stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add onions and stir fry for a minute.
Add rice and stir-fry while breaking up the clumps until rice is heated through. Add more canola oil to prevent sticking, if needed.
Turn heat down to medium-high. Cut the eggs into large dice. Add the peas, corn, and eggs to the work. Stir constantly until the frozen vegetables are heated through.
Season with salt and pepper. Add sesame oil.
There have to be as many versions of Fried Rice as there are cooks. I wrote this line several years ago for another fried rice recipe. I was making fried rice for dinner when suddenly I realized that one of my favorite fried rice recipes was not written down anywhere. So after dinner I sat down at my computer and…
Ampaipitakwong Fried Rice! Number One Son was a damn good soccer player and he had some damn good coaches. Coach Ampaipitakwong was one of those coaches. Watching Coach dribble was like watching a professional dancer. His son Ant went on to play professional soccer in Thailand. But I digress.
At one of those pot luck soccer get togethers that kid soccer teams do all the time Coach Ampaipitakwong brought a tub of fried rice. It was incredible! And after years of producing clumpy bad fried rice, I finally got it down. Here is my version of Coach’s fried rice.
Nobody could pronouce Ampaipitakwong correctly. So we shortened his name to Coach Pete. Pete’s Fried Rice.
Tips – The rice needs to be cold and leftover from the previous day or two. Be daring and use different vegetables. Add animal protein. Add fried tofu. On second thought, don’t add fried tofu.
Nut (predominantly peanut) consumption is inversely related to all-cause and especially cardiovascular mortality in African-American and Chinese men and women.
The inverse association of nut consumption and mortality is unrelated to baseline metabolic conditions.
It’s a cardiovascular intervention that literally costs peanuts.
This is great news. My unique preference for peanut butter and pancakes turns out to be scientifically heart healthy given my ethnicity. Morepeanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Pad Thai with crushed peanuts, spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Update 03.04.15
I ate a mini peanut cup last night. The jar of dry roasted peanuts was moved from the cupboard to my office. I have absolutely zero guilt. It’s for my heart.
The food safety scandals in China have ranged from companies adding melamine to milk to increase its nitrogen content and hide dilution, which sickened 300,000 babies; to plastic added to bubble tea; to pork blood pudding made with formaldehyde and industrial salt. And jerky pet treats imported from China into the U.S. have been linked to thousands of sickened and killed pets.
garyskitchen.net 