Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, Look at These.
When I was growing up, my mother made supper nearly every night. She wanted to make sure that her family always got a well rounded meal. A side effect of this desire was that meals, while always varied, followed a formula. There was always three things. A protein, a starch, and a green. Even when times were tough meals followed the formula except that meat was replaced with beans.1
Now that my sister and I are grown and we cook for our own families, we follow the same formula. Not on purpose mind you, we didn’t even realize it. Wife actually pointed it out to me, and I asked Sister. Turns out that she does it too. And when we cook, dinner seems incomplete without the third leg of the dietary tripod.
But on Theme Night the formula goes out the window. Tonight was Far East Adventure Night.2 And last night was Mexican Night.3
Tonight I made Sesame Chicken and Soba Noodles. The best part was that it took altogether about ten minutes and no measuring.
For the Soba you just need:
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Garlic
Sesame Seeds and Sesame Oil
Sliced green onions would be nice but are not so necessary.
Cook the noodles to the package instructions. Rinse. Add the other stuff. Cover. Put in fridge. Eat when cold.
For the Sesame Chicken:
Soy Sauce
Honey
Garlic
Ginger
Sesame Seeds and Sesame Oil
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Clove
Spicy Mustard
Red Pepper Flakes
1 Bag Quorn Chicken (Or real chicken. That’s good, too)
In a large skillet saute the chicken with the garlic until it starts to brown ever so slightly. Turn off heat. Mix all other ingredients together and pour over chicken, mixing until sauce is thickened and all pieces are covered. Serve over rice.
1 Which I always considered a vegetable, thus making the formula green, starch, green. What a ripoff.
2Chinese night.
3 Mexican night.
Man, the brand of soba makes a difference. You should list the kind we usually get (which these weren’t- they were soft and bloaty). The funny thing is that we bought the inferior ones at the Asian market. hrmph.
Yeah, I noticed that the ones that are mostly yam flour are definitely… slimier? Bloaty is a good word. They also don’t have to be expensive to be good. I started keeping the packages of the brands I like because I always got to the store and realized they all looked exactly the same. Like Asians! Haha! Ha. Uh.