Cooking Chinese, Ordering Sushi

This post is about the actual Chinese food I make at home. I've got an assortment of food I'd eat more often, food I'd make much less often, and food to order when you're just craving.

First off is a simple stir-fried bok choy, sliced beef and vermicelli in the bottom there (though you can't really see it). Super simple, serves my veggie/protein needs, and relatively tasty (just add soy sauce).

On this day, I went full out making Chinese food you'd find in a restaurant. Little did I know how much salt and oil and that requires! This is why I don't make restaurant-style Chinese food on a daily basis, it is TOTALLY different from what Chinese people actually eat at home. However, on this day I pan-fried some chicken thighs marinated in oyster sauce, stir-fried asparagus and olives, and used the leftover oil from frying the chicken to crisp up some noodles. It was SO salty, and VERY oily, and I actually didn't feel very good after (or during the meal for that matter...I had to drink tons of water). It will be quite a long time before I fry noodles again.

On another night, my roommate and I decided to order sushi! It's always pricey and this one came out to around $35 dollars if I remember correctly....but it gave me the excuse to pull out these Japanese dishes that I rarely use. It also came with shrimp sushi (that was put in a separate container...due to my allergies).

Mmmm....

PS...I LOVE the Korean sushi roll (that's the one in the front with the fake crab, egg, cucumber, radish, and beef).

Sometimes I get frozen dumplings (though not often anymore), and decide to be lazy one night so I them out of the freezer. You simply boil them until they float (and I also cut it open because I'm still a novice at telling when it's cooked through). I had some Chinese vegetables that I stir-fried to complete the dish. I believe this is Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan). What's important is that it's green.