Cooking along with my son's travels

[chefmd]

My son is traveling around the world.  Again!  First time he was exploring different countries for two months after graduating from college. This time he is going to be traveling for four months prior to starting B school and visiting 12 countries.  So I decided to explore cuisine of the countries that he will be going to.  Currently he is in Taiwan.  I do not claim to cook authentic Taiwanese food (or any other authentic food for that matter).  Just trying to make an overseas connection with my only child (who happens to be fully grown 6'3" man).  Here is ginger kabocha squash Chao Nan Gua as mentioned in Saveur.  I changed the recipe a little by substituting mirin for sugar and soy sauce for salt.

 

Does anyone ever try to connect with their loved ones via food?  May be I should also cook his favorite dishes intermixed with ethnic dishes?

 

 

[gfweb]

Lovely idea. Will follow with interest.

But it won't work for me. My kids are in Pittsburgh; the indigenous cuisine is beer and pierogies and sandwiches with French fries in them.

[Kerry Beal]

Brilliant!  Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[Shelby]

Your son is one lucky guy--he gets to travel and he has a great parent!

[chefmd]

Researching Taiwan restaurants found these.  Please be aware that links may be not suitable for young children.

 

 

http://www.foodbeast.com/2014/04/16/taiwans-sex-themed-restaurant/

 

http://www.moderntoilet.com.tw/en/about.asp

[chefmd]

This is what my son is eating.

 

 

 

"I have no idea what I am eating. It is 7:30AM, and this was $1.00. Later I am told it is basically rice with cheap, small cuts of meat. I ate at the place where hourly workers getting off the night shift grab a cheap breakfast."

[tug]

What fun.

 

Eagerly following!

[chefmd]

Taiwanese pork sauce with rice.  This dish alone is worth my son's traveling.  Sorry, baby cakes.  I miss you and all but this dish is delicious.

 

 

[chefmd]

My son's meals.  No GI issues so far.  I guess being born in Russia gives him a little extra protection against third world problems.

 

 

[patrickamory]

Wow amazing photos in that last post chefmd!

 

My sister-in-law's Taiwanese family members say that Taipei is the greatest food city in the world - well, they would, wouldn't they? - but I've heard it also from other, disinterested sources 

 

And could we get more details on the Taiwanese pork sauce with rice?

[chefmd]

I found it on Serious Eats.

 

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/taiwanese-meat-sauce-recipe.html

 

You fry shallots first and later cook them for a long time with ground pork (I chopped pork for better texture).  Shallots give the dish flavor similar to french onion soup which you would not expect in asian dish.  Leftovers were perfect for lunch today.

[Smithy]

Lovely, simply lovely.  Keep it coming!  

[chefmd]

Today I am going to take on Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup that takes many hours to cook.  Perfect project for Saturday.  I always looked at beautifully glistening pieces of beef shank in H mart and briefly wanted to know what to do with them.  Never looked it up.  Turns out one of the uses is in this soup that Internet claims to be national dish of Taiwan.  Off to H mart to shop now.

[chefmd]

Taiwanese beef noodle soup is waiting for the flavors to meddle for tomorrow.  For now here is the beef shank picture.

 

And drinking games of thrones beer since it is one of my son's favorite shows.

[chefmd]

beef noodle soup made with above mentioned beef shank

[chefmd]

Left over noodles from the soup became cold noodle salad with cucumbers, carrots, scallions and sesame dressing.  I did cheat a little and used peanut butter plus sesame oil (as a lot of recipes suggested) instead of sesame paste.  Super quick and very refreshing.  

[Smithy]

I hadn't read about substituting peanut butter and sesame oil for sesame paste before. That's a good trick to keep in mind.

[chefmd]

So my son moved to Vietnam.  Here you can see how tough it is to travel the world...

[chefmd]

I never cooked glutinous rice but every country in Asia including Vietnam seems to enjoy it in many dishes.  It seemed very intimidating.  Turns out it is very easy.  Soak it for several hours, steam for about 15 minutes.  That is all there is to it...  My makeshift steamer worked very well.   Served it with pork cooked sous vide and topped with fried garlic.  On the side is bottled sweet chilly sauce with addition of red boat fish sauce and freshly squeezed (very expensive) lime juice.

 

 

[Shelby]

Yeah, he looks like he's having a rough time LOL

[huiray]

My son's meals.  No GI issues so far.  I guess being born in Russia gives him a little extra protection against third world problems.

 

I think you are referring to his meals in Taiwan, yes?  Um, Taiwan is not a Third World Country, just in case you were implying it by referring to "third world problems".  See here for starters.

 

(In fact, the EIU ranks Taiwan as a better place to be born in (#14) than the USA (#16). :-) )

Edited April 28, 2014 by huiray (log)

[chefmd]

Sorry, I was referring to his travels in general.  That boy likes his street food.  Definitely did not mean to offend anyone.  He and I were born in Soviet Union during Communist era, definitely not the best place to be born :-).  Even now Russia is #72 on that list.

[wokkingtall]

Very cool twist to the food blogs..!  Kudos to your son for having a good outlook on trying new and different foods when travelling abroad.

 

If you ever have the time, it would be cool to hear a bit about Russian food in a different thread.

[chefmd]

Wokkingtall,  thank you for you comment.  I should do a thread about Russian food the way it was when I lived there during Soviet times.

 

Weather today is terrible, it is raining hard all day.  I almost gave heart attack to one of my 90 year old patients when my iPhone started to make terrible noise due to flood alert.  Note to self, turn those notifications off.

 

Needed some comfort food, had some left over chicken (mostly bones).  Made Chao Ga, Vietnamese rice porridge.  Stick to your bones food.  I made it in a newly purchased Emile Henry pot, it was on sale at Sur La Table for 109 dollars, there was some random coupon for 10% off and this pot just had to come home with me.  

 

 

[chefmd]

A short detour to Cambodia.  

Unbelievable beauty.  

Unbelievably flavorful steak salad called Plea Sach Ko Khmer cuisine style.  Thinly shave beef (I partially froze rib eye steak and sliced it as thin as possible with my sharpest carbon steel knife) marinated with lime juice, fish sauce, lemon grass, shallots, chiles, mint, scallions, a tiny bit of sugar, roasted rice powder.  Move over steak tartar, this is now my favorite raw beef recipe.