C. sapidus

Sorry, I’m posting things out of order. Among other things, Common Market also has an olive bar . . . . . . cheese . . . . . . and lots of bulk food:

I had a Caribou chocolate mocha bar for a post-volleyball snack. They are a bit sweet for me, but they fight the post-exercise sugar crash. I also had an apple and a banana when I got home. The apples have been really good lately – crisp, tart, and sweet.

While I was playing volleyball, Mrs. C was busy getting groceries. First, she stopped by the Common Market, an organic foods store. The store recently moved to a much larger location. Their produce looks very good . . . . . . and they carry fresh galangal and turmeric - woo hoo! After Common Market, she picked up a few things at Sam’s (no pictures). Crab meat is expensive, and Sam’s has the best prices. If things go well, you should see the crab meat tonight.

After making coffee this morning, started the week’s menu and grocery list. Planning meals increases dinner diversity and reduces the amount of wasted food. After reviewing the week’s activities, we decide who is going to cook on what night. Mrs. Crab is the better short-order cook, so she usually feeds the family on the nights when we have to be in three places at the same time. I have been trying a lot of new things lately, so it takes me a while to plan the week’s dinners. Usually, this involves a comfortable chair, a cup of coffee, a pad of paper, and a large pile of cookbooks – something like this: Here are the cookbooks that we will probably use this week: Mrs. Crab found a clever weekly menu planner with a detachable grocery list. The pad mounts on the fridge with a magnetic strip, so everyone can see the week’s dinners. Things do not always go according to plan, but here is this week’s dinner plan and grocery list:

Thanks, all, for the kind words and encouragement. If anyone has any questions, or wants to see something in particular, just shout it out and I will try to accommodate. Thank you, Klary - that means a lot, especially coming from you. Excellent question! The first time I tasted chilies and garlic, it was like when the Wizard of Oz changed from black and white to glorious Technicolor. I think it was canned green chilies on a frozen Totinos pizza, but it was an epiphany nonetheless. Before discovering chilies I used to coat all foods with a thick layer of black pepper, trying to find a flavor that I did not yet know existed. According to an Indian gentleman of our acquaintance, folks in India did a similar thing before chilies migrated from the Americas. I also had the good fortune to grow up in a very diverse neighborhood just outside Washington, D.C. Even before I was old enough to drive, a short bicycle ride yielded restaurants specializing in Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Indian, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Mexican, Salvadoran, and of course Chinese food. At home we mostly ate standard British-American food, but Mom occasionally threw in an Indian curry or Ghanaian ground nut chop. One time Mom made shepherd's pie with chilies. We all loved spicy shepherd's pie, but she never repeated it. Of course, during the past year I learned a ton through eGullet.

Mrs. C and elder son made pancakes this morning. Apparently she slipped when adding the vanilla, so it had about a quarter cup. No complaints from me! The recipe: Ingredients (Penzeys Vietnamese cinnamon not pictured): Pouring the first pancakes: Elder son deep in concentration. This was his first time making pancakes, and he did a great job. He made one huge pancake, just because (that is a 12-inch skillet). He also made some pancakes with chocolate-caramel chips. Ready to eat. Toppings included cinnamon sugar, honey, and a variety of jams. I had mine with butter – they didn’t need anything else. Mrs. C started Weight Watchers recently. She says that the pancakes were three points apiece. I'm off to play volleyball. Menu planning and grocery shopping afterwards.

I usually make coffee on the weekend, mixing equal parts caffeinated and decaffeinated. I often mail-order coffee from Peet’s, Counter Culture, or Intelligentsia, but we have a Starbucks a block away. This morning’s grind: We have a very old blade grinder. I would love to get a burr grinder, but until then we enjoy a little extra plastic with our coffee. The coffee station is conveniently located next to the fridge and sink. We compost the grounds, which go into the white ceramic container until their trip to the compost bin. I use the stainless steel thermos during the week – more about that later. The silver container labeled “coffee” actually holds sugar. Mrs. C gave it to when we were dating – I think it was her first present to me. Mrs. C also made the trivet – she makes stained glass, glass mosaics, and mosaic stepping stones when she has the time. I usually start the coffee maker while warming the pot with hot water. This lets the coffee grinds get thoroughly wet before I put the pot in place and let the coffee flow. I take coffee with half + half and sugar. Mrs. C drinks hers black with two ice cubes. We feed the dogs twice a day. To control their weight, we cut their dry dog food (“active maturity”) with green beans. Remind me to tell you a story about the boys and green beans. Yellow dog also enjoys a delicious glucosin-chondroitin pill with her breakfast. More about the dogs later. Next: pancakes for breakfast and planning the week's menu.

Abra immediately guessed the style of food from the teaser picture. Dejah and alanamoana guessed the blogger’s secret identity (alanamoana, the plate is new). Kouign Aman correctly identified the wok and mortar . . . . . . but the spires and rooftops seemed to throw folks off the trail. Frederick’s clustered spires were immortalized in the John Greenleaf Whittier poem The Ballad of Barbara Fritchie. The poet probably treated the facts with, um, poetic license, but the clustered spires grace the city logo and the local golf course. Here is the logo on the Community Bridge, a rather amazing trompe l’oeil painting downtown. More information can be found on the Community Bridge web site (click). Tomorrow morning: menu plans and grocery shopping. Goodnight! (and thanks for the kind words, Pan).

Greetings from Frederick, Maryland, USA! Frederick is a historic town of 50,000 nestled close by the Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Mountains (hills, to those of y’all that have “real” mountains). Located about an hour (depending on traffic) from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Frederick features an uneasy mix of historic buildings and high technology, corn fields and shopping malls, housing developments and dairy cows. Yes, we still have cows within city limits. But the housing developments are winning.

Culture-clash vegetable stir-fry for a late breakfast: baby bok choy, Poblano chilies, tomatoes, garlic, and ginger; seasoned with Thai chile bean paste, fermented bean paste, Shaoxing rice wine, and Chinkiang vinegar.

I have no useful advice for little ones, but elder son wakes up at the smell of food. Not a problem in our situation, but perhaps you can take comfort that your situation could be worse?

I happily second the EdgePro recommendation. It did a great job on our sharpened-twice-in-twenty-years Chicago Cutlery set. The EdgePro also did a fine job on a new Hattori HD gyuto (the old knives got sharp, but the steel was not hard enough to stay sharp). EdgePro (clickety)

Klary: I didn’t give your beautiful spring/summer rolls a proper shout-out. As Marcia aptly put it, your picture is mouthwatering art. Judith: I’m intrigued by your parsnip chips – how inventive! Our dinner was kung pao chicken with cashews (gong bao ji ding). Everyone was coughing from the chile fumes, but it was worth it.

Pork belly, scallops, cookies, mapo tofu, shrimp – I love this thread! Our dinner was kung pao chicken with cashews (gong bao ji ding). From Fuchsia Dunlop, of course.

Judith: I’ll trade half of my shrimp for half of yours. I love the celery soup action photo, too. Christian Z: Awesome! Fuchsia Dunlop should get credit for the recipe, of course. Shaya: What an amazing spread! I love the picture of your boys eyeing the food intently. They look very, very hungry (for a very, very good reason). Tonight I made a super-simple recipe from James Peterson’s Fish & Shellfish: flounder fillets baked with butter and sherry. I overdid the butter a bit, but the flounder was delicious. We also stir-fried baby asparagus with lots of garlic, fermented bean paste, light soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, and Chinkiang vinegar.

“Millie Chan’s chile shrimp” from Breath of a Wok. More information on Chinese Eats at Home (post #479). Edited: oops, wrong picture.

“Millie Chan’s chile shrimp” from Breath of a Wok. Simple and easy: stir-fry the shrimp until pink, add Shaoxing rice wine, and remove from the wok. Stir-fry ginger, chilies, and scallions (we were out, so I used shallots), and then add soy sauce, sugar, and chile bean paste. Return the shrimp and rice wine to the wok and stir-fry until done. Good stuff. I love stir-frying shrimp in a wok. With the wok shovel, you can feel the shrimp’s resilience change when they are perfectly cooked. Edited: Oops, wrong picture.

Klary: Looks delicious, and I’m touched – this may be the first time I have inspired anyone's dinner. Nakji: No need to be humble – your red curry looks like spicy, salty, crunchy, tender scrumptiousness. Did the pickled bamboo lend a sour note to the curry?

nakji: Thank you for a fascinating, witty, and hunger-inducing blog. I would love, love, love to have access to the foods and ingredients that you have available. Perhaps the recently arrived Andrea Nguyen cookbook will help with the food, anyway. Many have used the word “fascinating” in expressing appreciation for your blog. This fascination reflects your remarkable ability to illuminate Vietnamese food and culture. Many of us are familiar with Vietnamese people and Vietnamese food, but information on Vietnam itself, especially at a personal level, has been sparse in recent decades. Kudos too, for the photography. Some of the images – the baskets of herbs and spices at your door, street scenes, expressions on faces, rows of tightly-packed scooters, and the kitchen balanced on a bamboo pole – communicate what no words can. Thank you!

I love Southern-style greens, especially collards, although I have never made them myself. Instead, we usually stir-fry greens in a hot wok. A wide variety of greens can be stir-fried successfully, from bok choy and water spinach to Swiss chard and mustard greens. Despite very different ingredients and cooking methods, Asian and Southern flavorings for greens show interesting parallels. For example, we made mustard greens last night. Wash, dry, and trim the greens, cutting the thicker stems in half. Smash garlic cloves, chop into rough chunks, and briefly stir-fry in peanut oil (with thinly sliced chilies, if you like) over medium heat. Raise the heat to high and add the greens. When the greens are almost done (in a very few minutes), add liquid flavorings of your choice. For me, a mixture of meaty fermented soybean paste, salty fish sauce, and sour-sweet Chinkiang vinegar gives a particularly satisfying flavor. Asian and Southern cooking each complement the natural bitterness of many greens by adding meaty, unctuous, salty, sour, and sometimes hot and sweet flavors. Does anyone else find this sort of thing fascinating? If not, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thank you for taking pictures Ah Leung - that is exactly what they looked like. Cool, I learned a new vegetable! I'll be interested to see if they are labeled as Chinese leeks next time I'm in the grocery store.I cut the leeks on the diagonal and added them to the wok while the sauce was "dry-frying" - maybe 5 to 8 minutes total cooking over medium heat. They turned out nicely, and I liked the flavor. Are Chinese leeks typically stir-fried, or are they also prepared in other ways?

Why thank you, Klary! I googled “Fuchsia Dunlop” and “gan bian ji”, and the recipe popped up here (clickety). Scroll down to Monday, September 25, 2006 on the linked site. If that doesn’t work, I will be happy to send a PM. Otherwise, the recipe is from Fuchsia Dunlop’s wonderful Land of Plenty, which I believe is titled Sichuan Cookery in Europe.

Bruce: did you use the American (thick) leeks? Or Chinese leeks (much thinner)? I have seen Chinese leeks occassionally in my neighborhood Asian markets. The flavor seems stronger. They look like big green onions. ← The tops looked identical to thick leeks, but these leeks were thinner - probably about the width of a stubby carrot. Now that you mention it, they did look like green onions on steroids. Does that sound like Chinese leeks? I bought them from a regular grocery store, but I did not notice the label.

Szechuan dry-fried chicken (gan bian ji). Yes, again. This time we followed Ms. Dunlop's suggestion and substituted leeks for celery. Leeks are definitely better.

Shaya: Congrats on the double win – conquering the veal and the anti-anchovy faction. Who would have guessed that veal in wine and stock would turn out the same color as chicken in chile bean paste and black soy sauce. This salad rocks: Happy new year, Nishla! This rocks, too: