This dish takes me back to hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Korea where people are sitting elbow to elbow, slurping noodles, while escaping a gloomy day of rain. There’s a level of comfort that can’t be found in a gourmet, five-star restaurant. It’s a dish you can make for just one for a dinner in front of the TV, or for a group of people on a night spent in. The dish is familiar, comfortable, and very homey.
These noodles are a marriage between a stir fry and noodle soup. A broth is made by boiling the shrimp in water which is later added to stir fried aromatics and oyster sauce. The stir fried bean sprouts also let out a little bit of juice which really deepens the flavor and gives it a sophisticated lift that is desperately lost in instant noodles.
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September 15 2009 | Asian and Noodles and Recipe and Seafood and Thoughts | 6 Comments »
Eggplant, for me, is one of those foods that I can’t exactly pinpoint in my memory. I know I had it growing up because I knew what an eggplant tasted like and the texture in my mouth, however I can’t remember exact dishes, or a specific time when I had it. I think it might have been because the dish I had wasn’t spectacular but I was impressed by the natural characteristics of the vegetable. Or it may be that I was freakishly born with eggplant knowledge engrained in my head,I don’t know. But in any case I love eggplant.
Eggplant was one of the first ingredients I cooked with. For me it’s a very forgiving ingredient because I love it when it’s still firm with a nice spongy bite and also when it’s soft enough to melt in your mouth. My timing can be a little off, and I’ll still come up with something I like. When I first started to cook it was really great because I only cooked with vegetables. I’m not a vegetarian but I had this fear of cooking with meat. I was really intimidated because I didn’t think that I could even execute a mediocre dish. With meat timing is key. I wasn’t very fast in the kitchen, so I knew everything I made would be too tough and dry. Eggplant is really great because it has a sort of “meaty” substantial quality to it. It’s sturdy and chewy and a little bit stringy at the same time. It’s no real substitute for a nice piece of steak, but I think in comparison to other vegetables it does a pretty good job.
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September 04 2009 | Asian and Recipe and Thoughts and Vegetarian | 5 Comments »