Adventures in Cooking: Spaghetti Bolognese

As some of you may or may not know, I'm not the impossible vegetarian I once was. Outside of the hormones, additives, and fillers of the American food system, I've discovered that I actually quite like beef. That, and it's terribly unsociable to be a full-on vegetarian here, though I still don't eat pork even if it is considered a vegetable in Vietnam.

When I said, Let me cook you dinner on Thursday, what would you like?, I was caught off guard when it wasn't a soup. Spaghetti bolognese, a good, homemade spaghetti bolognese. Only spaghetti, none of those weird other pastas. Imagine my broken heart at missing my beloved penne. Please note, I've since discovered that a heartier pasta is in fact better for this dish, I would have been right to use penne over spaghetti, but it still turned out deliciously.

Searching for recipes, as mom never cooked this either, raising us heavily vegetarian, I didn't come across anything that would take less than three hours. How's a girl that spreads her day with tasks spread throughout supposed to allot 3+ hours to cooking PASTA?! I sucked it up, realising plenty of women in the world with full-time jobs and little mouths to feed do this all the time, when all I had to do was an hour of freelance work, two hours of tutoring and 30 minutes of reading at the news station.

Finishing my freelance work, I dragged myself to the market and fresh meat stall. This is arguably the cheapest dish I've made yet. The most fun and equally disconcerting shopping portion was explaining to the "butcher" that I wanted ground beef. I looked up the Vietnamese phrase and I'm still not sure she gave me the right amount. I wanted to take a photo of her chopping it up as she didn't actually have a grinder and had to cut it over and over again until it resembled ground meat, but didn't in the end because I'm never sure about those sorts of social cues. One might argue that her way of cutting it is actually healthier than truly ground meat and I would agree (knowing absolutely nothing about what I'm talking about).

Around 11:30 I dove into the washing, peeling, cutting, pouring, and simmering of it all. The recipe called for milk, which I only used half of what it suggested, as well as white wine, but we only had left over red from Valentine's Day, which also seems to have worked just fine. I added some Italian seasoning with extra oregano as well as a fresh chili, even though no true Italian would ever actually do this according to the internets. This chili would come back to haunt us as it wasn't the smallest of the pack and only gets spicier as days go by. Also, I have a stronger tolerance for spice than Dan does.

Having only simmered for two and a half of the four hours, I really have to head out to the news station. So I do, leaving it turned off on the stove. I rush back, taste it again to see how the chili's doing along with my added Italian spice and I realise I'm going to be chastised for not adding enough salt, yet another thing we didn't really have much of growing up and so I don't especially miss it when it's gone. Adding a bit more, I let it simmer for another hour before heading out to tutor.

I come home to find it well taste tested and a very hungry mister You could have put the pasta on yourself, you know? I chided. Only then remembering how bloody long it actually takes for pasta to cook - a watched pot truly never boils.

Not quite as beefy as a true meat-eater might like, it was still quite hearty with minced carrot, onion, and celery. Over the next few days it ripened even more (as well as got spicier) and quickly disappeared from the fridge. This is the first dish I've made that I think I'll repeat. Unfortunately the recipe for this is locked away on my kindle... which turns out to be a very handy kitchen tool!

Birthdays and other such things

Another year come and gone. I can't believe it's been a year since celebrating my last birthday, more since we were in the Philippines, and all of the crazy things that happened in between. Another birthday means it's officially been three years since I left the US of A. I miss it sometimes - food especially, hence my cooking kick, I imagine - but I'm still so happy to have done this with my life. When I first got here, I didn't plan on turning 30 here, but only 364 more days to go.

Friday was tame, celebrating my old roommate's, who shares my birthday, time with a fancy dinner at Trois Gourmaund, which may well be spelled wrong and frankly I just don't care. The food, all in all, was rather delicious, but we have all since agreed that I will die if I ever go to France for a long period of time. Palate cleanser (egg and truffle ice cream/sorbet), pre-appetiser dish (warm egg and truffle souffle), palate cleanser (weird flavour I can't remember), appetiser (salmon tartar with cheese), palate cleanser (tomato and basil ice cream/sorbet), main course (steak with vegetable quiche), (very stinky) cheese platter, and dessert (peach something or other which was my favourite of it all). So much food, so many WEIRD foods, I will not go back and France and I won't be meeting for a while longer.

Saturday our favourite outdoor park/bar had a melting pot of music, food, clothing, art, and knickknacks - always a time well spent. This bit of day drinking hurriedly came to a close when Dan said, We have to go, and you have to change. Knowing my birthday was just the next day, I was sure he had something up his sleeve, but couldn't be sure what. Our evening panned out as a seven bar venture set over seven hours in golf gear. It was great fun full of pars and mini challenges in the walk to the next location. In the end, only four of us were left standing until three or so in the morning, but I had a great time and well appreciate Dan's effort and everyone coming out to help celebrate.

Originally I was going to plan the same thing for myself, but the idea of putting it all together after having just planned Dan's birthday, I simply decided to have champagne brunch at the InterContinental. Two handfuls of us made out for this lovely and gaining in expense treat. I certainly had my fill of champagne and learned that 29 is in fact NOT remotely the same as 25, woof. All in all, despite minor hiccups, it was a birthday well celebrated

The best news of all and most celebrated bit: I got a job! I'm the new copywriter for branding agency QUO, based in Bangkok with a satellite office in HCMC. The first two months are probationary, as is the norm here, but if all goes well it'll be full time with bennies and the works. Whoop. I start on March 3. And now, I am celebrated out. Happy days.

Update: Check out my cool new painting, courtesy of the mister. Audrey: great. Breakfast at Tiffany's: great. Painting: new fave.

Adventures in Cooking: Chicken and Broccoli

This was practically a staple in our house growing up, brother bear would order it every time without fail from the two Chinese restaurants in town. Unfortunately and perhaps a bit naively, I never considered how different Chinese food would be from CHINA and the US. The US has a bastardised version of classic Chinese dishes, which when I'm being honest, I'm not mad about. It turns out I much prefer American Chinese food to China Chinese food.

Much like G-town, there are only two American Chinese restaurants in HCMC, the chicken always leaves me wondering if I'm going to be sick the next day, the chow mein is far too greasy, and the crab rangoon is either non-existent or lacking in all that I'm used to. So, I took it upon myself to try out a homemade chicken and broccoli.

I think I first went wrong buying frozen chicken breasts. The nice thing about them was that I didn't have to cook the meal on the day I went shopping. The less nice thing was that the meat, once cooked, ended up being a bit tough and very dry. Lesson learned: buy fresh from the hawkers on the street. The LAST time I tried that, though, I failed to communicate boneless, skinless, so you might imagine how tears nearly formed in my eyes upon the mess that is an entire chicken breast. So many lessons learned in the kitchen.

In the end, the sauce was delicious, despite the overcooked chicken. The broccoli was fresh and crispy, which translated very well the next day once reheated. The recipe calls for ginger, which I've decided I can absolutely live without, at least when I'm cooking at home. There's a street food stall in the centre of town that makes the most delicious ginger chicken, maybe I'll ask them to teach me some day, HA!

I'd love to post the recipe and step by step, but I've concluded that I don't really LIKE blogger anymore because it spaces everything so badly. So instead, check out this handy little link: Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry (shockingly, mine wasn't too far off from the photo).

There's no fun being your own taste tester, so I had the girls over for a spot of wine and this dish. Just before they arrived, I realised I'd made no appetisers, which I felt was a massive faux pas for my mini dinner party trio. I attempted Chinese scallion pancakes, which weren't bad, but were a bitch to get off of my hands during the batter making process. Furthermore, the leftovers of which were not worth saving.