asian Archives - hello kelinda

July 15, 2016

Vietnamese Artichoke and Pork Soup

I sometimes become incredibly homesick. I don’t know if it’s so much that I miss Texas, but rather that I just miss all the things that were a given back home. I knew where to go to get my favorite broccoli pasta, where to go to get a good banh mi, where to go to get the perfect fajitas, and so on. All the things I miss are decidedly food-related; even the people I miss have some kind of food memory attached to them — Niko Niko’s with Jessica, sushi with Meredith, dim sum with my siblings, and you get the idea.

The ultimate food memories, of course, are linked to my mom. I was one of those lucky kids who always had a homecooked dinner every night, something I definitely did not appreciate enough back then. That’s a major perk to having restauranteurs as parents, I tell you what.

AmyK

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February 2, 2016

Turkey Lettuce Cups

Like most of the American population, one of my goals for the new year is to make healthier eating decisions. You know, like maybe not eating a dozen cookies a night, as tragic as that sounds. But I also don’t want to hate being alive, so perhaps my new eating guidelines won’t be as strict as someone with more willpower, or who lost their tastebuds in a fire.

I don’t agree with extreme dieting, where you cut out all that is good and delicious from your life and replace it an endless parade of tedious salads and boiled chicken. I mean, what if I get hit by a bus? I don’t want to die at a moment when my most salacious fantasy is of eating a cheeseburger, you guys.

With that said, here is a healthier lunch option that doesn’t skimp on the flavor: tangy turkey lettuce cups. It’s white meat (lean protein!) and there’s plenty of vegetables involved to keep things colorful and crunchy. Also, it reheats nicely so you can pack it away for a not-so-boring desk lunch the next day.

AmyK

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August 17, 2015

Vietnamese Hollow Fried Bread (aka bánh tiêu)

I wrote multiple drafts of this post, all trying to be a little funny, a little witty, a little ha ha ha. But the fact is I don’t particularly feel like any of those things today; I just feel tired, but also very much relieved.

After only a few months in my beautiful apartment, I packed all my things up again and hauled it upstairs to the top floor into yet another new beautiful apartment — this time with a view and without a disruptive upstairs neighbor who had made it impossible for me to sleep for the last four months. Best of all, Disruptive Neighbor proved disruptive to his own roommate and got kicked out anyway.

But moving twice in one year — nay, in one season — is a bit much, and I am spent. I speed-unpacked just to get things feeling like home right away, but I’m still very much in new surroundings and very much craving some comfort in the form of foodstuffs that I can stuff into my maw as I melt my exhausted carcass onto the couch and fire up Hawaii Five-0 on the ol’ Netflix.

My mom grew up in Vietnam,* which means that when she craved comfort food, it was typically some kind of Vietnamese fare from her own youth. As she was the primary Provider of Food for our family, my siblings and I grew up eating a lot of these things with her. This means despite being surrounded by the cafeteria pizzas, pot roasts, and mac and cheeses of my Texas upbringing, a lot of my comfort foods are actually Vietnamese too. Funny how that works.

Most weekends, we’d go visit a tiny Vietnamese bakery next to the Asian grocer, and she’d pick up a bag of bánh tiêu, or Vietnamese hollow fried bread. They are shamelessly greasy because they’re deep-fried, though it’s no worse than a donut. They’re also just a little sweet, though not dessert-sweet by any means. In any case, they make a satisfying midday snack.

AmyK

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February 19, 2015

Zongzi (aka Chinese Tamales)

Happy Chinese New Year! Though I won’t be with my family in Houston to trade hong bao or to eat a bunch of dumplings this weekend, I’ll be keeping the festivities alive here in the Great Northwest by devouring some homemade zongzi (pronounced “joong-juh”). I’ve always had trouble describing these things to people until it hit me: these are basically the Chinese versions of tamales!

Instead of masa, we use a sticky rice, and instead of being wrapped in a corn husk, these are wrapped in bamboo leaves, which keeps everything together and also imparts a subtle tea-like taste to the rice. The filling can be anything, though traditionally it always involves a fatty piece of pork belly to keep it luscious. My favorite fillings are shiitake mushrooms, the aforementioned piece of pork belly, cured pork sausage, and a salted duck egg yolk, so that is exactly what I’ve made here.

AmyK

Dry-Fried Spicy Long Beans

I’m back! It turns out that I’m like a cat; I need to lie out and charge in a sunbeam if I’m expected to do anything at all for the remainder of the day. And well, the sun skidattles from the sky by 4pm this time of the year here, so I haven’t been doing much cooking for the past few months. Yikes. But now that it’s somewhat bright when I leave the office — even if it instantly becomes pitch black by the time I reach my front door — I can feel the desire to throw down in the kitchen returning to the frozen cockles of my heart. Hooray!

This weekend’s dinner gathering hosted by my friends Sara and Adrian was the perfect push to fire up the stove again. And what better on a cold Sunday night than something green and spicy?

AmyK

Chinese Chicken and Shiitake Dumplings

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that this past weekend, I made an entire armada of dumplings. A flotilla of delicious morsels. A squadron of alright, I’ll stop with the naval analogies. The point is, whenever you decide to make something like dumplings, you have to commit to it. You can’t just make a dumpling or five, just like how you can’t just eat a potato chip or a family-sized pizza.

The good news is, making these things is kind of therapeutic. I usually just set up my station: bowl of dumpling filling to my right, a baking sheet to my left, dumpling wrappers and a bowl of water somewhat in the middle, and a damp kitchen towel in front of me. Then I turn on some Mythbusters reruns or maybe Adventures in Babysitting and get to work. Once you get the hang of things, it’s almost zen.

Another plus: dumplings freeze beautifully. Just line them up on a baking sheet covered in parchment or foil (making sure the dumplings aren’t touching one another), pop them in the freezer for an hour or two, and then transfer them all into a freezer bag until you want to eat them. Your future hungry self will thank you for the foresight.

AmyK

Salt & Pepper Tofu

I know plenty of people who find tofu terrifying. It’s this weird, beige, jiggly block of something that smells vaguely like stale water — what are you supposed to do with it? I’ll tell you what you’re not supposed to do: eat it plain, straight from the packaging. I know a few traumatized folks who have done just that, the fools. They’re now convinced that tofu is a culinary abomination, but dear reader, this does not have to be your fate.

So what are you supposed to do? I propose that you fry it. And then dust it in a delectable concoction of salt, peppers, and ginger powder so you end up with a tasty, fluffy nugget of goodness. It will make a tofu believer out of you and it will take less than 30 minutes to put together.

But why tofu at all, instead of chicken or pork, or anything else? Because tofu is an excellent vehicle for showcasing rather subtle flavors instead of overpowering them with its own tofu-ness, is super fast to cook, is vegetarian-friendly in case you’re ever going meatless, and the texture just sings with this particular dish — slightly crisp on the outside, and pillowy on the inside. Oh yes.

AmyK

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