Comfort Food

Comfort food has a lot of different variations in my mind. There is the comfort food we think of in a cultural context. Here in America the term tends to invoke images of homemade, down-home cooking. Then there is the comfort food that we each individually define as such based on our own experiences or family traditions. And then there is the kind of comfort food that just sounds "right" on given days or in given seasons. For example, when its snowing outside and all I want to do is hunker down on the couch wrapped in a warm blanket, nothing sounds better than a bowl of my grandfather's chili and a slice (or two) or my homemade corn bread. At the height of summer when it stays light until after 9:00 pm here in Utah, my ultimate comfort food tends to consist of hamburgers cooked on my mom's grill served with potato salad and corn on the cob (and a Coke, but darnit, I'm trying to kick that habit).

There are a lot of reasons I love food, but certainly somewhere near the top of the list, are the cultural associations and traditions that define food in both a wider social context and more narrowly, on an individual level. We each have our individual likes and dislikes and they don't always make sense, even to our own families. A couple of mine... whenever I eat macaroni and cheese (not the orange death stuff, but the real, creamy, homemade kind) I have to douse it in ketchup. This is a lingering taste leftover from my childhood. I assume it started because I must not have liked the mac-n-cheese my mom made, but would eat it if I could add ketchup. My mom claims that adding ketchup to the mac-n-cheese was not her idea, but in my opinion, it seems like a sneaky mom trick to get a kid to eat something they are refusing to touch. Another food I developed a taste for early in life, although it was relatively unheard of in southern California is grits. My favorite meal growing up, aka the ultimate comfort food in my young, and as yet unsophisticated opinion, was grits casserole. Every birthday for years that is what my mom would make for my birthday dinner. Certainly the credit or blame, depending on your point of view, for my early love of all things grits goes to my father. But that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions because he grew up in Nevada, and I don't think grits was a particularly common element of cooking there either.

Planting rice in Puli.

Having lived in Taiwan and China for a total of 2 years, I now have a short list of Chinese comfort foods - foods that for me invoke the same feelings of coziness and down-home cooking that I associate with American comfort foods. As I've thought about this post, I realized that I've already posted 2 of my favorite Chinese comfort foods, the stir-fried cabbage with garlic and the dumplings. Today I wanted to share another favorite Chinese comfort food, egg fried rice. One of the reasons I love egg fried rice is because at its most basic, which is my favorite version, its nothing more than a way of cleaning leftovers out of the fridge. Yet the end result is homey and delicious.

In my first area in Taiwan, a little town in the center of the island named Puli, we had one particular place we always went for fried rice. This place made the best fried rice I ate the whole time I was in Taiwan. As an added bonus, they always gave you a choice of adding either hot sauce or ketchup once the rice was cooked. Its probably not hard to guess which one I went for. The ketchup of course. Because Puli was my first area I assumed adding ketchup to fried rice was common practice across Taiwan. Not so. But much like my love of ketchup with mac-n-cheese, once my taste for it was established, I couldn't shake it. The remainder of my time in Taiwan I got many a strange look when I asked for some ketchup to add to my fried rice.

蛋炒飯 (Egg Fried Rice)

This recipe is dedicated to Hillary, who has a very intense love for fried rice. Hill, I hope this lives up to your very exacting standards.

You can make this dish with or without meat. If you want to add meat, almost any kind will work. I made this right after Easter (sorry for the very long delay in posting) so I used ham leftover from our Easter dinner. Shrimp is another good choice, unless you are Hillary, in which case it's bad. Very bad.

Last note... you want rice that has cooled already, so this truly is an ideal way to use up any leftover rice you have taking up space in your fridge. However, when I made this I didn't have any leftover rice on hand, so I quickly made up a batch in my rice cooker and spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool quickly.

2 T. sesame oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 t. salt

1/8 t. white pepper (you can use black pepper)

3 c. cold, cooked rice, fluffed

4 T. soy sauce

3 T. chicken broth

1 c. diced ham

8 oz. frozen peas and carrots

Heat a pan or a wok over medium high heat until hot. Add the sesame oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the eggs, salt, and pepper. Cook the eggs until lightly scrambled. Don't overcook the eggs because they will be staying in the pan and will therefore cook a little more. Once cooked, break the eggs up into small pieces. I used my spatula to cut the eggs into thin strips.

Add the rice, soy sauce, and chicken broth to the pan. Stir to combine. Let cook for a minute or two.

Add the ham and the peas and carrots. Stir to mix well and let cook for 5-7 minutes, until the peas and carrots are cooked and the ham is warmed through. Serve. Enjoy.

My New Favorite Thing: Google Reader

I'll say right off that this post makes me feel more than a little bit silly. However, having just been introduced to the wonders of Google Reader a few weeks ago (thank you Jess), I feel like there must be others out there, like me, who haven't yet been introduced.

If you, like me, use gmail, then you can access Google Reader from the top bar in your gmail account. Why I love it? It's a one stop shop for all the blogs you want to read (or just feel obligated to read). Just add the blog address to Reader and anytime the blog has a new post, it will show up in your reader. No more checking my favorite food blogs multiple times a day waiting for that new post! It comes to me! I love it. I always resisted signing up to receive new posts via email because I feel like my inbox is cluttered enough as it is (hence the lengthy wait for me to respond to any and all emails). Now, I just click on Reader a couple times a day to see if any of my blogs have new posts, and then I can read them right there. Genius!

To be fair, there are other readers out there. If you don't like or use Google, feel free to check out other options. But like I said, I just wanted to make sure that my readers, at the very least, knew this was out there.

California Dreaming

This past month I had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for a weekend to visit two good friends I haven't seen in a long time. While seeing them was wonderful, I have a confession to make.

I don't like the Bay Area.

I know, shocking! When people find out that I don't like the Bay Area, they're usually prone to gasps of horror or incredulity. It's apparently not in vogue to dislike the Bay Area. In my case, however, this dislike might possibly be explained by the fact that I grew up in Southern California. The things I love about California - warm sunny days, palm trees, long sandy beaches - don't exist in San Francisco. When I'm in the Bay Area, more often than not its cold and foggy and thanks to all the insane hills in the city I HATE driving there (for the record, I drive a stick). I end up annoyed, and more than a little bit confused as to why so many people love this particular place when LA is only 5 warmer and sunnier hours south.

However, from the start this trip was different because I was actually excited about visiting the Bay Area. My excitement stemmed from two main reasons, foremost among them being the opportunity to see two of my favorite people after a very long separation. The second reason though, had everything to do with my relatively newfound obsession with food.

I've always liked food. Thanks largely to the influences of my mother and my good friend Jessica, I've liked cooking since high school. This like has occasionally verged on love, but I don't know that I've ever been obsessed with food. Not like now.

As though this blog were not proof enough of my newfound passion for all things food, let me take a moment and share with you a few random facts from my recent life.

-- In the past year I have read 5 food-focused memoirs and The United States of Arugula; The Sun-Dried, Cold-Pressed, Dark-Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution.

-- In the pile of books yet to be read next to my bed, I currently have 3 more books that revolve around food.

-- I have subscriptions to Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, Bon Appetite, and Fine Cooking.

-- My cookbook collection never fails to raise my mother's ire. Also guaranteed to raise her ire: seeing the various kitchen toys she has bought for me at Christmases and birthdays collecting dust in my pantry. They get used... just not enough, in her opinion, to justify their presence in my cooking life.

Partly due to my newfound obsession with food, I was seriously excited about my trip to San Francisco. And I can now honestly say that where food is concerned, the Bay Area does not disappoint. (Although sadly, dinner at the Chez Panisse Cafe was in fact a bit of a disappointment, but maybe that's a story best kept for another time.)

My real food fun began on Saturday morning when I hit the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. It was like food nirvana. I couldn't believe the selection of fresh, locally grown produce to be had for pennies! Not to mention cheeses, olive oils, beans, pastries, and imported Italian tuna packed in olive oil (not to be found in Salt Lake, which in my opinion, is a true crime). Two hours after arriving at the market I walked out with a much lighter wallet and a very very heavy, newly purchased shopping bag to hold all of my treasures.

Where does a girl go to refuel after a busy morning shopping for produce? In my case, Taylor's Refresher for a hamburger, mint-n-chip shake, and downright delicious sweet potato fries. I'm a sucker for sweet potato fries.

Sunday morning, Jessica (of "high school best friend" fame) and I be-bopped around Chinatown and its environs. While wandering we got to watch a local youth group perform a lion dance for some important looking Chinese gentlemen. Even I, with my relatively broad understanding of Chinese culture, have no idea what it was about. But it definitely made for a more interesting morning. I couldn't wait to eat lunch and will admit to initially being a little bit skeptical of the spot we picked, a place in Chinatown called House of Nanking. It always worries me when I go to a Chinese restaurant and no one eating there is Chinese. It doesn't tend to inspire a lot of confidence in the authenticity of their food. As it turns out, their food was definitely a bit on the new-agey/fusion side of Chinese cooking, but it was delicious. I loved everything we ordered and I can't even take credit for that because we just told the waiter what kinds of things we like and he did the ordering for us.

While in town, we paid a visit to City Lights Bookstore where I promptly forgot my New Year's resolution to not purchase any new books until I finish the rather large pile of unread books sitting next to my bed (and on my desk, and on my bookcases). I choose a couple of books on China, because as I told myself, I really should get a little more educated on Chinese history before traveling there in August (any excuse that works, right?). I did however steer clear of the Anarchy and Muckracking sections.


In the end, it was a wonderful weekend and I haven't even taken time to go into the best part of the trip. Although the food was fantastic (to include yummy corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day), the defining moments of the trip were the ones I spent reconnecting with two old friends. It's been five years since I last traveled to the Bay Area and it was so nice to spend hours with them talking about food and life and family and friends and kids and politics.

I've now been back in Salt Lake for almost 2 weeks and I can't wait to go back again. To the Bay Area, no less! It's true. I've been doing a lot of California dreaming these past 2 weeks, but for the first time in my life, I'm dreaming of cold, foggy San Francisco, not warm sunny LA.

Guo Nian Kuai Le - Part 3 (The Final 2008 Installment)

Chinese cooks in the know may feel somewhat inclined to mock me for posting a recipe for steamed fish. This method of preparing fish is so common in China that any Chinese cook with even a modicum of culinary ability can pull it off. However, given the fact that I have only recently begun to develop/increase my Chinese cooking skills, it seemed prudent to go to someone who has already mastered this technique. Enter Edi. Edi is my good friend and former roommate in Boston. She grew up in Hong Kong. She makes lots of yummy Chinese food... one reason among many to love living with her. I loved it when she would go to Chinatown and buy fresh fish and vegetables because it usually meant that I could enjoy a little of whatever simple, tasty, meal she whipped up. She made this kind of fish often, and although its been a favorite of mine since I lived in Taiwan, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have never even attempted to prepare fish this way myself.

However, I recognize that it is silly to pay someone else to make something for you when it's ridiculously easy to make yourself. As an added bonus where this fish is concerned, it's the kind of dish that elicits "ohhs" and "ahhs" when presented to your fellow diners. I should be honest and note that it's also the kind of dish that might elicit a few "ughs" from the slightly squeamish or from those less enamored of seafood. Those types don't particularly relish seeing a whole fish plopped down on the table in front of them, but in my opinion, that just makes for more entertaining dining.

Because fish is a quintessential New Year's dish I wanted to be able to share this method with all of you, which left me little choice but to finally tackle it myself (many thanks to Edi for furthering my education by sharing her tricks of the trade). I've always understood that fish is served at Chinese New Year because the character for fish in Chinese sounds the same as the character for "surplus". I'll spare you a lengthy explanation on how characters work and why tones are important, etc etc... just know that my above explanation simplifies things somewhat. Anyway, because the two characters sound the same, eating fish during the New Year's celebrations is believed to mean that the coming year will bring surplus into one's life. I like fish, so I don't really need a reason to eat it. But if eating it means I might have a more prosperous year, I'm certainly willing to oblige.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't like any seafood until I lived in Taiwan. Since living in Taiwan, I am a full-blown, died in the wool convert/believer/advocate. There is something about the way Chinese cooks prepare fish that helped me to see the light. Mostly I think they flavor the fish so adeptly that you can't help but love it. I'm hoping that over the coming year I'll be able to convince other seafood skeptics to give it one more try. In the meantime, for those of you who have already been converted, I hope you enjoy this super simple, yet amazingly delicious preparation as much as I do.

Whole Steamed Fish with Ginger and Green Onions

As noted above, some people don't exactly relish the idea of digging into a whole fish. If you are preparing this dish for people who might fall into that group, you can certainly use something less alarming, like fish fillets.

Whole Fresh Fish:

This one, admittedly major, ingredient is the key to this dish. I can't stress this enough. As Edi said, "The most important thing is to get/catch a died-not-long-ago fish." If you have a Chinese supermarket near you, I suggest going there. The fishmonger can tell you which of their fish is the freshest. The fish I prepared was a black tilapia, but you can use any fish. Just make sure it is A) fresh, and B) one you like. Also, have the market clean/degut the fish and remove the scales.

Fresh ginger - good size chunk, maybe about 2" long

3 green onions

Cooking oil

Soy sauce

Salt and Pepper (preferably Chinese white pepper, if you can find it)

Peel the ginger and julienne into small, short strips. Cut green onions into 1" chunks and then slice (I quartered the green onion chunks so that I had long, thin strips.)

Put the fish on a glass plate. Sprinkle salt and pepper in the cavity and on the outside of the fish. Place about 1/3 of the green onions and ginger on the inside of the fish and another 1/3 on top.

Boil water in a large pan. Place a rack of some kind in the pan (see photo above... I used a wok stand). You don't want the water to touch your plate, so make sure your plate is elevated high enough. Once the water is boiling, place the plate on the rack and cover.

Steam fish for 15-20 minutes. The fish is ready when the meat at the thickest section of the fish flakes easily and a fork or chopstick goes straight through.

Take the plate out and drain off any water that has accumulated on the plate. Heat 2 T. oil in a pan. Once hot add the remaining ginger and green onions and fry briefly until fragrant.

Pour oil mixture on top of the cooked fish. Pour some soy sauce on top of the fish as well. I didn't measure the soy sauce... just gave it a couple good shakes. Serve, with great applause, to your amazed guests.

Guo Nian Kuai Le - Part 2

It's more than a little bit embarrassing to call this post "Guo Nian Kuai Le" when it is so long overdue. But nonetheless, Chinese New Year was the inspiration for today's recipe, so I'm sticking with the theme. I promised in my last post to provide my readers, however few they may be, with a noodle and fish recipe to help celebrate the Chinese New Year. As both of those dishes are easy enough to make, I thought it would be a simple matter to get them both onto the blog before the end of February. I was wrong. I made the noodles about 3 weeks ago, but didn't feel like my recipe had enough flavor to recommend it to others (see how seriously I take my recipe-crafting responsibilities). That meant I had to go back and tweak it a little. Sadly though, having just eaten my fill of stir-fried noodles, I wasn't in the mood to make them again right away. Thanks to my gourmand friend Carri who agreed to be my guinea pig, I perfected both the fish and noodle recipe on the same night last week. However, I don't want to overwhelm you with too many choices, so today you'll have to settle for only the noodle recipe. Next time around I'll bless your lives with one of the simplest, yet yummiest ways, to prepare fish (so stay tuned).

About noodles, they are eaten during Chinese New Year because their length symbolizes long life. For this reason, you never want to do anything to make them shorter. Which means usually you end up slurping them up in one long string... remember, we are eating these with chopsticks so you can't wind them around your fork. Anyway, it makes for fun and entertaining dining.

Noodles are one of my favorite things to eat when I am in Taiwan or China. I love all the different ways they can be prepared: beef noodle soup, zha jiang mian, dan dan mian, etc. I also love Japanese noodle soups, which thankfully, are easy to find in China. However, all of those noodle dishes are hard to find in the States, which is one of the reasons I started this blog... so I could learn how to prepare the food I miss the most. It's therefore somewhat anti-climatic (for me at least) to be presenting you with a noodle recipe that is something of a no-brainer, and not at all exotic. Good ole Chow Mien. However, chow mien is one of those dishes that manages to be both authentic and appetizing to the average American. Plus, as an added bonus, its a cinch to make. Therefore, before moving into more esoteric directions, I thought I would start with something appealingly familiar to most of my readers. Enjoy.


Chao Mian, aka Chow Mien

(Adapted from Martin Yan's Chinese Cooking for Dummies)

Noodles - really any kind will work, but I used a Chinese kind

1 lg. boneless skinless chicken breast

2 T. oyster sauce

1 lg. carrot, julienned (I like julienned pieces about 2" long)

1 1/2 c. bean sprouts, rinsed

Sauce:

1/2 c. chicken broth

6 T. soy sauce

1 t. plus 1 T. sesame oil

1 T. Chinese rice cooking wine

1/2 t. sugar

Cook noodles in boiling, salted water until almost done. They'll cook a little more when you add them to the stir-fry so you don't want them to be totally cooked. Drain and set aside.

Cut chicken breast into small dice. Mix with oyster sauce in a small bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Sauce: Whisk together in a small bowl the chicken broth, soy sauce, 1 t. sesame oil, rice wine, and sugar.

Heat 1 T. sesame oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add chicken and cook until the chicken is done, approximately 8 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Add carrots, bean sprouts, and sauce to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are almost cooked through, maybe 8 minutes. Then add the chicken and noodles to the pan. Mix well and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Serve.

Guo Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year) - Part 1

As many of you likely know, Thursday, February 7, was Chinese New Year. As in other cultures, Chinese holidays have certain foods associated with them... foods that help to define and shape holiday celebrations. The 3 foods I associate the most with Chinese New Year are dumplings, fish, and noodles. I'm hoping that before the month is over I'll have a recipe for each one of these on the blog.

There is so much that I love about Chinese New Year. I love that it is celebrated for a week. Why don't we have any week-long holidays in America? Literally, life stops for a whole week. People travel back to their hometowns to spend time with their families. They clean their houses so the new year gets off to a fresh, clean, tidy start. They eat lots of yummy food with their family and friends. They visit Buddhist temples and honor their ancestors. They are in a perpetually good mood (for the week at least) because no one wants to ring in the new year with a bad spirit in their heart. They hang red banners around their door frames with good fortunes or positive sayings written on them. These banners stay on their doorways until the next year, so when you wander through neighborhoods you see them, weathered and looking a little worn, but still festive and welcoming. They also hang upside down characters on their doors to invite good fortune or to welcome spring. It's a very exciting, joyful time and I loved experiencing it during the one Chinese New Year I spent in Taiwan.

My, admittedly belated, gift to you this Chinese New Years is a recipe for some super tasty dumplings. A quick history of the dumpling's place on the New Year's table... In a nutshell, dumplings look like an old form of Chinese money, the gold ingot. Eating them at the New Year means you are hopeful that the coming year will be full of good things, i.e. money. I apologize that my tardiness in getting this post up means that none of you will be able to ring in the new year with a plate full of dumplings. However, you now have a good eleven months to perfect your dumpling technique in time for the next Chinese new year.

Dumplings have actually been part of my Chinese cooking repertoire for a number of years now and whenever I make Chinese food for people, dumplings inevitably make an appearance on the table. The only exception so far being the time, in Virginia, when for some as yet unexplained reason they all fell apart in the water and the meat tasted strange to boot, so they all got thrown away. Usually however, I'm quite successful at throwing together a good tasting dumpling. In addition, people like them and they're kind of fun and look complicated (which they aren't), so they're an easy trick to pull when you want to impress people.

In Taiwan and China you can order dumplings three ways: steamed, boiled, and pan-fried (i.e. potstickers). The boiled variety tend to be the most common and that's how I prepared the recipe below. My favorite version is actually the steamed variety. However, I tend to boil them now because its the easiest method to pull off at home. I always have plenty of pots hanging around my kitchen, but I can't say the same for steamer baskets.

The below recipe is a new take, for me anyway, on dumplings. Usually when I make dumplings I go to a Chinese supermarket and pick up some zhou cai (Chinese chives). However, I really wanted this recipe to be super-doable for any adventurous soul out there willing to give it a try, and zhou cai can be a bit of a pain to find. Fortuitously, my friend Joanne, who hails from Taiwan, stayed with me in January and while at my apartment she made a batch of dumplings using cabbage, not chives. I had many dumplings made with cabbage in Taiwan, and while I liked them there, I've never liked my attempts to recreate the recipe here at home. Joanne kindly agreed to school me in her cabbage-pork dumpling technique and I'm now thrilled to share the below recipe with you. Enjoy!

Shui Jiao (a.k.a. Boiled Dumplings)

1 small head of cabbage

1 1/2 lbs. ground pork

2 T. sesame oil

2 1/2 T. soy sauce

6-7 cloves garlic

3/4 t. salt

Asian dumpling wrappers - You can buy these at pretty much any grocery store. I like the round kind, but the square ones work just as well

Chop the cabbage very, very fine. Part of what makes Joanne's method so good is that you don't have large chunks of cabbage so this step is key. Mince the garlic, also very fine.

Mix all ingredients, except the wrappers (of course). I usually use my hands for this step because it goes faster, but if that kind of tactile pleasure does not appeal to you, feel free to use a spoon. Just make sure everything is mixed up really well.

Fill a small bowl with water. Open the wrappers and put them next to the bowl of meat and the bowl of water. You want everything within easy reach. Get out a baking sheet (preferably rimmed) and sprinkle with flour.

Fill the dumplings. This is actually not complicated, so don't let this step stop you from attempting this recipe. Place a dumpling wrapper on the palm of your non-dominant hand. Take about a tablespoon of filling and put it in the center of the wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and run it around the edge of the dumpling wrapper. The water will seal the two edges when you fold your dumpling. Fold the wrapper in half and press along the edge to seal. Tada! You're done. You have officially made your first dumpling. Put it on the baking sheet and carry on until all the wrappers or filling have been used.

You may notice from my earlier photo that I do this little crimping/folding thing with my dumplings to make them look pretty. A nice, older Taiwanese woman taught me how to do this and I like the way it looks, so whenever I make dumplings, they look like that. However, it is absolutely not necessary, so I recommend just folding the wrapper and sealing it, as outlined above, because it will save time and stress.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. When you have some dumplings ready, dump about 10 into the pot. The dumplings will sink to the bottom and slowly rise back to the top as the water comes back to a boil. You may want to give them a quick stir or two though so they don't get stuck to the bottom of the pot. Once they have risen back to the top and the water is boiling again, add enough cold water to the pot to stop the boiling. Once the water comes to a boil again, again add enough cold water to stop the boiling. Do this one more time. When the dumplings come to a boil after you have added water 3 times, they are ready to eat.

They are good with all kinds of sauces. Soy sauce is the most common. I like to add a little fresh minced garlic, hot pepper flakes, and a little sesame oil to jazz it up. You can also try Asian hot sauces or Thai sweet Chili sauce (my current favorite).

Also, if you make a big batch, cook up however many you want to eat that night, and freeze the rest. Then whenever you want some, you have some ready and can dump them in the water without defrosting. They'll just take a little longer to cook.

My Favorite Thing

One of my favorite experiences in Taiwan, which thankfully, I was able to repeat many times, was eating dinner in people's homes. At the beginning of my mission, it was one of the more terrifying experiences. You never knew what kind of food was going to be served, and although I now like to think of myself as a fairly adventurous, open-minded eater, at the young age of 21, things like seafood still scared me. You can only imagine how terrifying it was to contemplate eating chicken feet or rice soaked in pigs blood.

In America, we have an open-minded attitude towards people's dietary tastes and restrictions. Which just means, if someone doesn't like something, we're not going to make them eat it. Not so in other cultures. In Taiwan, we weren't allowed likes and dislikes. Partly, that was a result of the fact that as missionaries, we wanted to be open-minded to Chinese culture and not offend people by rejecting elements of their culture they felt strongly about (food, of course, being at the top of that list). However, our inability to foster our dislikes while in Taiwan was also a result of the fact that Chinese people don't let you have dislikes when you are dining in their homes.

You learn quickly to guard your rice bowl, always keeping it turned slightly towards your body so that your hosts never know how much food you have in it. This also makes it hard for your hosts to dump food in your bowl when they think you haven't eaten enough or you need to try more of any one particular dish. You can't say no, so you do what you can to maintain as much control of your food intake as possible. You eat slow, every once in awhile refilling your bowl a bit with dishes you like, thereby allowing your hosts to see that you really do love the food... but trying at the same time to ensure that they never pick up on the fact that you haven't touched the stinky tofu or the chicken feet.

Thankfully, the experience of eating with Taiwanese people in their homes introduced me to food that I previously would not have touched, but which I now love - squid, mussels, any kind of fish. It also helped me to understand Chinese culture in a way that would have been difficult without those moments shared in people's homes, eating food they had prepared for myself and my fellow missionaries. Regardless of what might be served during these times, my saving grace was knowing that there was one dish in particular that was likely to make an appearance. This dish could, for me at least, redeem the experience regardless of what else might be served. That dish was stir-fried cabbage with garlic.

This dish, in my opinion, is the epitome of Taiwanese home cooking. I've tried to order it in restaurants here in the States and it is never the same. Never the same kind of cabbage and never the same flavor I remember from Taiwan. In Taiwan it is one of the simplest dishes to make. As the name implies, it's nothing more than stir-fried cabbage drenched in oil-soaked garlic. Part of the reason I choose it as the first recipe for this site is because for me it embodies what I love about authentic Chinese cooking. The recipe is about as uncomplicated as you can get. It uses the simplest ingredients and yet delivers great flavor. It's also one I haven't ever really tried to master. However, after a few tries, I think I've gotten pretty close.

Stir-fried Cabbage with Garlic

This recipe is dedicated to Amri... I hope it is one you can easily reproduce in the wilds of Peru.

Couple of notes before starting:

• You can use the technique outlined below with any kind of cabbage. I used green cabbage because that's what I ate in Taiwan. However, Regan makes it to great acclaim with bok choy, so feel free to experiment with any cabbage you come across.
• If you want added depth of flavor you can add oyster sauce (also Regan's method). To do that, after you add the cabbage let it steam for a minute or two. Then mix maybe 1-2 T of oyster sauce with a little bit of water, add it to the pan, and let it steam for a few minutes more.
• Lastly, almost all Chinese cooking is look and feel rather than recipe based. The below is what I worked from but feel free to tweak it.

1 smallish head of green cabbage

5 cloves of garlic, finely minced (I put the garlic through my garlic press and then minced it some more)

3-4 T. vegetable oil

Salt and Pepper

Cut the head of cabbage in half and remove the core. Chop the outer, mostly flat, layers of leaves into 1" squares. Don't use the inner leaves of cabbage that are thick and sort of mutated looking. They will take too long to cook so save them for something else (like Chinese dumplings).

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. I used a regular saute pan and it worked fine, so don't worry if you don't have a wok. Truth be told, I don't have a wok myself. Once the oil is hot, but not too hot, add the garlic. Cook the garlic until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. The key here is that you want the garlic nice and soft, but not crunchy hard. So be sure to use medium heat. Anything hotter seems to cook the garlic too fast for me.

Add the cabbage and sprinkle generously with salt (the salt will draw water out of the cabbage to help it steam) and a little bit of pepper. Mix thoroughly so the cabbage is nicely coated with the garlic-oil. Turn the heat up just a tad, cover and let cook about 2 minutes. Give the pan a couple good shakes, or if using oyster sauce, add it now. Let cook for another 2-3 minutes. Its likely done by now, but if not, let it cook a little longer.