Asian in a Strange Land

Beef noodle soup

The best thing about having good restaurants nearby is that you can eat great food without having to cook it.  The second best thing is that it can inspire you to cook great food for yourself.  Here is Exhibit A of that inspirational effect: homemade beef noodle soup.

I was first introduced to this dish at Mr. Chen’s and have since learned a lot about it–probably way too much.  It’s a Taiwanese dish, so the oft-used identifier “Szechuan” beef noodle soup is a misnomer that only indicates that it’s spicy.  Good to know that we here in The States aren’t the only ones to bandy about the “Szechuan” adjective willy-nilly.

Beef noodle soup is so popular in Taiwan that it has become the national dish!  Because of its popularity there are many variants, and my search for a recipe to try on the Internet turned into analysis paralysis.  I finally settled on a recipe at thekitchn.com, which is a site that Denise frequents so I trusted that they would do a good job.  Plus it was one of the least labor intensive, which is always a plus.  Out of respect for thekitchn.com I haven’t reproduced the recipe here, so if you want to follow along feel free to look over the recipe at their site.

» Continue Reading…

Bakmi Goreng

As significant an event as it was that I was actually cooking, I figured I’d document it.  This is the noodle dish I cooked for Penelope’s 1st birthday.  There’s no recipe to it so there’s not really a name for it, but if I had to identify it I’d call it bakmi goreng, which is an Indonesian dish that means “fried noodles”.  The noodles are actually boiled and then seared in the wok with the rest of the ingredients.  The dish has Chinese origins but has a distinct Indonesian twist to it. » Continue Reading…

Delicious ribs

We interrupt the D.C. travelogue for this breaking news story: barbecue pork ribs are delicious.  I repeat: barbecue pork ribs are delicious.

With the economy being what it is and since we had a couple slabs of pork ribs in the deep freeze, I decided it was as  good a time as any to barbecue some ribs.  We already had the meat so we didn’t have to spend money on that, and the results go a long way if you don’t pig out (heh) on the ribs. » Continue Reading…