Week 7 - Century Eggs

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This week I decided to branch out and try something completely different. Century eggs or 1000 year eggs are duck eggs that are buried in clay, ash, salt, lime and rice straw for about three months. This has the effect of preserving the eggs by raising the pH. It also has the effect of turning the yolks green and the whites a translucent brown color. The eggs can be served with pickled ginger root or tofu or a number of other dishes. The can also be eaten raw as an appetizer, which is what I decided to do.

The verdict: There was an odd smell as I peeled it. I sliced it in half and the yolks smelled strongly of cat urine. The whites were rubbery, like Jello made with too little water, but otherwise tasteless. I popped the half into my mouth and as it turns out, the yolks had lots of flavor. And it wasn't good. As a matter of fact, it was downright awful. It had the taste of what I imagine cat urine tastes like. I'm not sure how I even swallowed it. I pitched the other half into the trash. I just couldn't do it. There is no reason that humans should be eating these.

Week 6 - Bamboo shoots

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After the green tea red bean cake thing last week, I went with something that can't miss. I bought bamboo shoots. Although they sell canned bamboo shoots in the super market and they are often in Chinese take out, the bamboo shoots at the Asian market were fresh and whole. The Asian market has bins with items like tofu in water, bamboo shoots in water and cuddle fish. You can use a slotted spoon to scoop them out and put them into bags. They also sell bamboo shoots in the refrigerated aisle.

I sliced the bamboo shoots and stir fried them in my wok with a whole bunch of veggies and tofu. The verdict: It was good of course and the flavor of bamboo shoots is very unique. The bamboo shoots did have a much stronger flavor than I expected. This is probably because they were fresh and because I probably sliced them a little thicker than I've had them before. If you get a chance, try buying them fresh. They're cheaper than the canned stuff and really delicious.

BTW, as a side note, if anyone knows why all of the carrots in the Asian market are absolutely enormous, let me know.

Week 5 - Green tea ice cream

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It was my birthday earlier this week, so I decided to celebrate with ice cream. I picked up a box 0f red bean / green tea ice cream cakes and a container of something "Happy Mouth," which were sesame cookie chunk things. Similar to fried things, I figured that anything mixed with cream and sugar had to taste good. The verdict: Not so good. The sesame things were tasty, but the green tea things, not so much. The ice cream was flavorless, the crust tasted like a communion wafer (think styro foam) and the nice looking red center on the box is actually just a bunch of actual unsweetened beans. To top it all off, the small box of these things was about $6, far more than a good ice cream product at a super market. Out of all of the things I've tried at the Asian market so far, this was the one thing that I assumed would taste good when I got home and it has been the only thing that has been disappointing.

Week 4 - Kimchi jjigae

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I was randomly surfing around when I came across kimchi on some random website about health food. Kimchi, also spelled kimchee, is a fermented spicy cabbage mixture from Korea. There's other stuff in there like garlic and onions. It is the most popular side dish in Korea. It is eaten as is and often made into other dishes, like kimchi jjigae, which translates to kimchi stew and kimchi fried rice. According to Wikipedia, Koreans say "kimchi" when getting their pictures taken as opposed to "cheese". Kimchi is also known for being very healthy, as it is full of vitamins, fiber and healthy bacteria from the fermenting process.

I found many different recipes for kimchi jjigae on the web so I took elements from a bunch of them and improvised. Traditionally it is made with pork, but according to a few websites, some people use Spam after the American soldiers brought it there after the Korean war. Other people use bacon. I used an Asian brand of Spam like stuff. I also used tofu, zucchini, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper powder, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar and kimchi from a jar.

The verdict: I decided to try the kimchi by itself before making the soup. When I opened the jar, the smell was a little overpowering and the spices cleared my sinuses. After heating it through, it tasted good, albeit spicy as hell. The soup tasted excellent. It was spicy, but not too spicy and the flavors all blended nicely. I added extra red pepper, but if you don't like spice then leave that out and it won't be too spicy. I would make this again and maybe try different recipes.

Week 3 - Udon

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I have a bad cold this week and I'm feeling kind of crumby, so I decided to make some hot udon soup. Udon noodles are a thick wheat noodle popular in Japan. There were a number of different udon soup seasoning packets, but I decided to go with the traditional shrimp. Scallions are also traditional and is referred to as kake udon. The Japanese put a variety of things in the soup like tempora and fish cakes. The broth in eastern Japan is made with dark soy sauce and is darker than the broth in westerern Japan which is made with light soy sauce. The soup I made was more of a western udon soup. I added chopped scallions and a bunch of shrimp. The verdict: It was very soothing and delicious for a sick person on a very cold January day.

Week 2 - Lotus Root

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I decided to get a little more adventuresome this week. I decided to purchase a lotus root. The lotus root is actually a rhizome which is a horizontal stem that is often underground. This starchy veggie is one of the coolest types of produce visually. It contains lots of hollow tubes inside that look a little like worm holes. When you slice it, it looks kind of like a wagon wheel. Immature lotus roots can be eaten raw with a little soy sauce I've been told. I decided to cook mine.

After peeling and slicing, I lightly fried them with minced ginger and minced garlic in peanut oil. Then I added scallions and a splash of soy sauce. Once the onions cooked a little I added hot pepper flakes, sesame seeds and sesame oil. The smell in my kitchen was amazing. I got the recipe from this web site here. Although my photography skills aren't all that good, mine actually looked like the picture on the site.

The verdict: It was really good. The flavors all melded together perfectly. The lotus root wasn't a strong flavor, but it matched perfectly with the sesame oil, ginger, garlic and onions. It also had the perfect amount of heat. I will definitely make this dish again.

Week 1

Technically this is the second week of the year, but I didn't think of this idea until Monday when I drove past the Asian market. I decided to start off simple until I've done more research. I purchased baby bok choy, carrots, tofu, water chestnuts and a jar of something labeled, "preserved peanut." It is basically peanuts in some sort of soy sauce solution I think (hope). At $2.49, it was the most expensive part of this meal.

I busted out the electric wok and stir fried everything together with peanut oil and some soy sauce I had in the fridge. Then I served it over rice. The verdict: Not too shabby for the first meal. I probably could have used regular peanuts from a jar and it would have come out the same.