{"id":913,"date":"2008-07-01T05:01:04","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T21:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asianramblings.com\/?p=913"},"modified":"2008-07-01T05:01:04","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T21:01:04","slug":"lunch-with-the-stevos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/lunch-with-the-stevos\/","title":{"rendered":"lunch with the stevos"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a little tale about cooking Chinese food<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mr. and Mrs. Stevo work at the same school, live in the same apartment, but rarely see each other. Lunch is a big deal when they eat it together. A meal eaten together, not in a school cafeteria or restaurant setting, is a rare thing.<\/p>\n

Back in those heady newlywed days of 2006, Mr. Stevo often cooked lunch for his lovely bride. This was before Mr. Stevo realized that being a department head required certain sacrifices, cooking a delicious daily lunch for his beloved being one of them.<\/p>\n

A few weeks back Mr. Stevo decided to cook a delightful Sunday midday meal for his beautiful, yet snarky and occasionally demanding, wife. (No that\u2019s not insulting, simply the truth. There\u2019s nothing wrong with snark. Some of you reading this will whole-heartedly agree.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the market Mr. Stevo bought two kinds of mushrooms (he still doesn\u2019t know what kind, exactly), pork, a fish, and Chinese cabbage. While his wife slaved away, tutoring students on a Sunday morning, he sliced ginger and garlic chives, chopped pork, tore cabbage, and washed the delicate fungi. Prep work is the most important part of cooking Chinese food<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Back when he cooked regularly, Mr. Stevo attacked his lack of knowledge of Chinese cuisine as he attacks most things, with a near-religious zeal (yet, he has no zeal for religion. Strange, no?). He had translated Chinese cookbooks, purchased with gift cards from a shithole<\/span> lackluster social networking site (despite gifts<\/a>, some social networking sites do in fact suck), shipped from Canada. He scoured the internet, unraveling the mysteries of Chinese ingredients. He experimented and suffered the disappointment of his love\u2019s fake smiles. He tried and tried again until Mrs. Stevo pronounced an original creation \u201cChinese food.\u201d There is a learning curve involved in cooking Chinese food<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mr. Stevo got busy with the prep work. Washing, chopping, and slicing, require two things: Beer and Barry Manilow. While Mr. Manilow called for Mandy, Mr. Stevo sliced pork, red peppers and garlic chives.<\/p>\n

Beef would have been better with the mushrooms, but there’s nothing wrong with a steaming hot plate of xiang gu chao zhu rou (fried pork and mushrooms). Given that pork is a staple food in China, and Mrs. Stevo’s response to “What do you want for dinner?” is almost always “Pork!” he felt confident in his decision.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mr. Stevo knows nothing about fish, other than they are edible and they swim when alive. The fishmonger prepped the fish and the intrepid cook went about preparing his famous spicy braised variety. First, the fish must be fried. While Mr. Stevo would rather eat a healthier steamed fish, Mrs. Stevo says the texture of fried fish is much nicer. Deferring to her wishes, Mr. Stevo let the fish swim once again.<\/p>\n

After frying some garlic chives, ginger, and hot bean paste, Mr. Fish was added (with some chicken stock) to braise away. No, it’s not pretty. Sometimes food isn’t.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Mr. Fish was over<\/span>cooked the Chinese cabbage met the wok. Mr. Stevo is stymied by the cooking of Chinese vegetables, as are many of his Chinese friends. Luckily, Mrs. Stevo likes her vegetables on the uncrisp side. After a dash of oyster sauce and some salt, the veg was fit for the table<\/p>\n

Next came the pork and mushrooms (and medium-spicy red peppers). Mr. Stevo stir-fried like a man possessed. He served all three dishes to his waiting wife, who was engrossed in a historical drama playing on television.<\/p>\n

The rice was a problem. Every brand requires a different amount of water. Buying the same rice each time would be helpful. The first bowl of rice wasn’t crunchy exactly, just not soft and fluffy. Some more water and an extra seven minutes in the rice cooker solved the problem.<\/p>\n

What was the result?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was edible<\/span> delicious. Mrs. Stevo was happy, as was Mr. Stevo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The End of a tale about cooking Chinese food.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\n


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