Torinabe or chicken soup served with rice in a fancy dish

The lighting wasn't really working with me on this, but in real life it looked pretty good if I say so myself.

Also, still no table top gas burner, so this was just cooked in a pan and then poured into my lovely pot. We both know things just taste better out of pretty dishes.



This was a very basic chicken soup with chicken broth, sliced up chicken thigh, purple carrots (from the farmers market), and onion. Then I served it with my new fancy rice.

Also, a fun thing to note is that my nabe has about a three cup storage capacity. This means if I ever want to throw that nabe party I either need to get the much larger one I saw (which is not a money/space investment I am currently willing to make) or cooking in rounds (meet round, veggie round, repeat) which is not a bad way to do it.



The carrots are more what I imagine "real" carrots ought to be (aside from being purple) in that they have a little bit more of a sweet potato flavor and are shorter but a little fatter towards the top. In fact, these ones reminded me a little of beets from appearances alone.

The interesting thing about these carrots is that only the skin is purple, the rest is a very vivid orange. For the soup, I thoroughly scrubbed them but left the skin on. I mean, what's the point of buying purple carrots if they're not purple when you get to eat them? Plus, I'm sure there's some vital nutrient in it. I mean... it's purple.



Anyway, something that was suggested in my nabe book was when you are finished with all the goodies in the soup (a.k.a. the solids) you just ladle that rich broth on top of some rice.

So good. Will do again. The Boyfriend really liked the new rice by itself and just had the broth after he'd finished it, but I liked the chicken stock and rice combo.

If you have a favorite pan or serving dish, you should write about it in the comments.

Curry in a bag, what a quandary...

My lovely friend Lilian was visiting from Seattle on a work related project. I saved her from boredom during the time between duties for her. She preemptively rewarded me with prepackaged, "Golden Curry" curry.



Now, generally I make my own curry from scratch due to that being much cheaper than buying a curry roux brick. I will even admit I was a little hesitant about the fact that it came with vegetables (onion, carrot and potato) already in the curry gravy. It was actually pretty tasty.



I sauteed some fajita beef while I boiled the curry for the recommended time. I figured the sauce would already be generously salted, so I just let its natural beefiness take care of seasoning.



A little rice (the last of the Niko Niko rice which means I get to try the Akitaotome rice soon, but that's another blog), and then I poured the gravy over the beef.

It was about what I was expecting, and tasted almost exactly like the roux brick. The nutritional information was pretty shocking (sodium! calories!), but that package was meant for one and it was split in half, so I felt that it was an all right amount for dinner.

How do you feel about prepackaged dinners?

At the fair!

So, first off: chickens.



The Boyfriend and I went to the local fair/rodeo. The 4H group had their usual presentation of animals about. The one thing that I keep wondering but never work up the courage to ask is: are these animals meant for consumption?

I tend to be a person who lumps animals into three categories; for eating, not for eating, might be a danger. I might add that the lines can blur (snakes anyone?)



These giant, dill pickles were only 50 cents each. It was part of an "old west" exhibition that I assume the county has its hand in, considering there were also penny candies.



And there is my shadow, woefully reminding me that I am inept at taking pictures.

This was a sausage sandwich from a stand I worked at last year. The sausage ingredients are a secret recipe (even the owner's wife is in the dark), but it is a damned fine sandwich with grilled veggies on top.

on a side note, I have always wondered how places can have secret recipes. I mean, curry producers always get around it by keeping the proportions a secret, but the USDA is always like "What if someone is deadly allergic to hog jowls? They need to know if they're in there!". (I actually agree very much with the access to ingredient lists.) Maybe they just haven't caught up to him?



I also purchased a strawberry short cake and promptly devoured it without taking a single photo. It was um... whipped creamy... and um... it had some... red... strawberry bits and um... cake... underneath.

Hey look! A distraction!

Anyway, if you have some fair food memories or comments, feel free to leave them here!

Day Dreams

Lately, I've had the idea that I should buy one of those carts that have a mini fridge and a heat tray in them and open my own ramen wagon.



All this cart would sell (aside from beverages) would be ramen, gyoza (pot stickers for the uninitiated), and maybe rice.

I would just set this baby up near a park in Seattle, and peddle my wares.

Do you ever have day dreams like that?

Egg Drop Soup, Egg flower soup, Egg dropping flowers soup?

To quote a commercial, I love eggs. I mean, it seems like most fields of study have some kind of reverence for them. Biology is pretty obvious, Christian faith uses it as an example of the improbability of being three in one, and if there is chef who doesn't love what miracles eggs can perform then they are probably one of those poor Vegan chefs (so hard to be Vegan!)



In any event, I finally found a video recipe for egg drop soup that showed that vital step of adding egg to soup. Most recipes basically say "Add beaten egg to soup" and that's it. With runnyrunny999's video I got to see that the soup wasn't boiling at all (not even a bare simmer). This may seem obvious to you. It wasn't to me.

I really enjoy Runny's videos. He just seems like such a sincere guy, you know? Plus, his recipes usually turn out pretty tasty and you can usually find all the ingredients fairly easily. Give his other videos a look, they're pretty funny.



So, chicken broth, beaten egg slowly poured into very hot but not boiling broth, and some scallions made a very plain jane but delicious egg flower soup which went nicely with the rice I made.

What "well duh" cooking experiences have you had?

Steak Udon Redeux

Some days, you've already cooked a decent meal, gone to work, helped clean the house and just don't feel like cooking. These are also the days when you have neither the inclination, nor the cash for eating out.

In comes the daughter of necessity, the Leftover Remake!

I actually made The Boyfriend make this meal. It's left over steak, and instant udon from a refrigerated packet with some green onion slices on top.

This isn't the usual brand of udon that I buy (I can't remember the name, but aside from this trip to my local grocer it was the only kind I could find). This is Fortune Brand udon. It's a thinner noodle, and doesn't quite have that chewy texture I crave when I'm craving udon, but the flavor was acceptable for instant soup base and the ingredients didn't make me shudder.



I bought some dried udon once upon a time, but that quickly turned into a disaster though I follow the directions to a tee. This may be why it is so hard to find. Soba (and ramen) are my go to dry, Japanese noodles.

In any event, it was a very tasty way to use up what would have been too small a cut of steak. We've all heard the "Asian cooking uses meat as a flavoring not as a main component" jive enough times, but there's a reason why cliches linger.

Soft shelled crabs, why did you grow such a delicious exoskeleton?

I went to a restaurant in Seattle (on the previous trip no less) and visited a restaurant called "Best Wok". Who could drive by such a provokingly named restaurant?

The wait staff was quite excellent, pulling out my (the lady's) chair, but not The Boyfriend's chair. They even brought out complimentary jello, which seemed a little out of place for a Chinese restaurant. I decided that it was quite all right for an American Chinese restaurant though, and had no trouble scarfing down the jiggling, red flavored desert.



I ordered the soft shelled crab with black bean sauce. That sauce was equally as good or better than the crab and the crab was no slouch either. This was my first time eating soft shelled crab, and I have to admit that its shell reminded me of the shell one might find on a shrimp. If it had not been breaded and deep fried I might have tried to shell it there and then on the table. I figure it probably added calcium or something else vital found in bone like substances. It was nicely crunchy.



Michael got the orange chicken, which was also excellent. It came with a couple slices of orange on the side. The oranges were also very good.



So, while I found the place not very authentic, I enjoyed eating strange sea creatures and well picked orange slices. Plus, how often do I get to eat jello in little parfait glasses?