Happy Tiger Year!

I was invited to a new year party this week, but because I'm lame, I didn't go. It seemed like it would be a lot of fun, though: The guests were to bring a dish they considered to be Chinese, and their favorite Chinese quote. The best quote contributor will be the winner of a grand prize and two shots of sorghum wine!

So I thought that this dish would be a good choice:


Plus, it contains noodles, which are known to bring good luck to their New Year eater.
It's based on Bittersweet's recipe, but adapted to what I had on hand. Also, although I LOVE soba noodles, I decided to try acorn noodles - they turned out to be very good indeed!

Here's the original recipe as well as my adaptations:

Fish-Free Dashi

4 Cups Vegetable Stock
1 Heaping Tablespoon Instant Wakame Flakes [didn't have any, omitted]
3 Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, Finely Chopped [chopped some brown beech mushrooms instead]
2 Tablespoons Tamari or Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Barley Miso Paste [used whatever miso I have at home]
1 – 2 Scallions, Thinly Sliced [no scallions, oh well]

The instructions say to mix all these ingredients together, bring to the brink of a boil, and then pour it over cooked noodles and vegetables. As I mentioned before, I used acorn noodles (yum!) and the vegetables were snow peas from our garden (yum!) and carrots. Both veggies were cooked in boiling water for just a few seconds.

I liked it. Mark didn't care much for it. I suspect it's the miso. I doubt it was the absence of Wakami flakes, as Mark doesn't like seaweeds at all. Hopefully he will get the good luck anyway.

Oh, as for the quote, here's my favorite:

"A book is like a garden you can carry in your pocket".

Chinese Stir-fry with the Best of Meats

My favorite mock meat is the one we get at the Asian Market, Lee Lee. It's called Vege Ham (though it may be flavored differently). I like the chicken flavor, and I swear - if real meat tasted so good, it would have been much harder for me to become vegetarian! It is delicious! As a former co-worker of mine used to say: "It's am-AAAA-zing!!!"
I recommend even the non-veggies among you to try it! The only problem with it is that it comes in a gigantic roll:



And it's really hard to cut when frozen (as it should be kept all the time, I assume). Mark is using his body-builder muscles to tackle that problem. We only use about a third for each time we make something, and, for example, last night's dinner gave us today's lunches and some other day's lunches as well. One third is a lot! In a good way, of course.

Last night Mark made his usual Chinese stir fry: broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. And the chicken-flavored VegeHam, obviously!



I wanted to use the new black rice we got, but found out that it's better for desserts (but also for salads, interestingly). I'm going to try it anyway with some Thai stir fry some time.