Day 26

Asia is quite a bit of land to cover, you know? So we hit up some main flavor combos and cooking techniques. First we deep fried beef. If you don't like fried beef for breakfast, get over yourself. It was great. Real fortifying like. We marinated our meat in rice wine and then just deep fried it in oil. After that it just gets tossed with garlic, coarse ground black pepper, oyster sauce, soy, szechwan peppercorns, and sesame oil. Serve over iceberg lettuce. I balanced out my meal by eating extra lettuce. I know it helped. I am sure.

It was super good. I just can't be bothered to deep fry at home due to the whole spattering and disposal of oil situation. Next we made wontons. A basic pork, ginger wonton that we boiled and served with a fragrant dipping sauce that had chile oil and cinnamon in it. I tried folding them all sorts of ways but I do not yet have the nimble fingers of an old Chinese lady.


The wontons were good. Not as good as some we will make later this week. We also pan fried and deep fried some just to taste the difference.
Our next dish was mango pork curry. I guess its Burmese. It was my favorite dish of the day. The sweet and velvety mango and spicy savory meat are a killer combo. You sweat your aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, chile flakes) and then drop in the raw cubed pork, mango slices, and a small amount of water to coax the mango into puree. This simmers for about 15 minutes and then you can serve it over rice. The color is much nicer in person. I would have really enjoyed eating this as leftovers but someone beat me to it.

Next time I will hide it in an old yogurt container or in the cheese drawer.

Our last dish was an eggplant salad dish. I usually like any eggplant preparation, especially when it starts with roasting an eggplant until super tender. These were scored and seasoned and drizzled with a little peanut oil before roasting.

We took them out of the skin carefully and mixed the loosely chopped flesh with peanuts, onion, garlic oil, cilantro, red chile, and fish sauce. I was too full to eat it then but it made an amazing breakfast the next morning on toasted pita bread.

Isn't it nice all tucked back into its shell? I like it. And it tastes fresh and delicious. Please note that this is one of the ONLY non meat dishes we have ever made in school. I asked chef if we would be doing any more veg this week and he said "Why? Are you on a diet? Huh!" Please say it with a French accent and make the Huh almost a snort.

Tomorrow: Sauteed balls of lamb. Lets see how many balls jokes can be made in one day. Yes, I am maybe 12.