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.

The AM Snack

Being the Chinese guy I am, I was terribly craving some food so I made some instant noodles (NOTE: these noodles are not found in a cup and microwaved: those are GROSS. Who wants dehydrated veggies paper shredded into tiny squares? I successfully laid off of cup noodles since first year university *shudder*). My angry stomach may/may not have been caused by my Exercise Training class where we had to do some 1 mile runs, max weight workouts, and I was generally very sore from the day before too (hence I was yearning for protein).

So....I added some frozen scallops to the noodles for that protein. The noodle pack also came with those soup bases, but they shoot up the sodium levels on these noodles to 79% of your daily intake...which is insane. I added maybe half of that and some sesame seed oil and presto! Late night snack.

PS this totally breaks many rules of my new nutrition plan where I eat 2 serving of veggies with every meal and carbs only for breakfast/post exercise....but I was reading articles on hamburgers so the hunger got to me.

On Ron Artest and a World Cup Makeshift Breakfast

What a week! Exams and studying have kept me from writing, as well as the World Cup and NBA Finals. What a game last night! I was rooting for the Celtics but happy for Artest. Watch his post-game interview on nba.com, it's pretty fun at the end.

Currently watching Germany getting owned by Serbia...don't think anyone expected Klose with two yellows, a saved Podolski penalty shot, and multiple crossbars both ways. Simply evidence you can't judge teams from one game in the opening round.

I'm surprised I got up early to watch this game, but it was just one those day I got up naturally at 6am despite sleeping at 1am :P ANYWAYS this blog is about food so let's get to that (lots to catch up).

I didn't have any cereal left over, or eggs to make an omelette, so my main two options were out. Had to finish the cherry tomatoes in my fridge (heading out for the weekend), so I shaved some white cheddar on top with vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Made some noodles to get my carbs, and tried to finish up some broccoli as well. Threw in the last of the chives my neighbour grew in garden for some flavour. Since I didn't want to clean another bowl, I just ate out of the pot I boiled everything in. Reduced cleaning time = more World Cup. Need I say more?