[Sca-cooks] RE: What a Cook eats

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 28, 2006, at 11:44 AM, Michael Gunter wrote:

> I tend to eat Ramen noodles several times a week.
> But these are "fancified" Ramen often cooked in chicken
> stock with things like shitake mushrooms, roasted chicken,
> veggies, curry, hot sauce, soy sauce, sometimes served
> cold Thai style, or whatever.

We've found a brand of commercial, frozen wontons that is acceptable  
to spouse and spawn (apart from homemade, of course), that actually  
list pork, shrimp, and black mushrooms prominently in the  
ingredients, and these appear pretty frequently in the Evil Spawn's  
"Dumpling Breakfast Noodles" (these words spoken in Gamgee-esque  
tones). Never mind that there's almost always Cantonese dan dan mein  
in the freezer, as well as an assortment of homemade and canned  
chicken and beef stock -- E.S. prefers to boil the frozen wontons,  
scoop them out with a slotted spoon into a bowl, boil the silly Ramen  
noodles in the same water, then add the funky soup mix to that and  
pour it all over his wontons.

On the other hand, one good working definition of something that is  
_not_ a travesty is something I don't have to be involved in myself... .

Like AM, I'm a fan of a good steak, sauteed or pan-grilled, with some  
species of fried potatoes (frozen ones are fine, pan-fried in shallow  
olive oil, both faster and about a hundred times better than most  
other methods), or, if I'm not in a hurry, Pommes Anna (which my wife  
refers to as Potato Chip Casserole). Any fresh green veg, or a good,  
dill-and-onion-laced cucumber salad, are good accompaniments. Spouse  
and spawn made faces at my lovely beurre rouge sauce for steaks the  
last time around (basically the pan drippings deglazed with red wine  
and mounted with a big swirl of butter until thick). Spouse ate hers  
straight up, Spawn opted for the slightly-too-sweet-but-still-yummy  
Peter Luger Steak Sauce (is this available outside of New York? --  
the original restaurant is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and they have  
an inferior cell in some place like Great Neck, Long Island).

Other favorites include smothered pork chops, usually with mushrooms  
in the gravy, served with smashed potatoes or a pilaf.

When I'm alone I'm usually busy, and throw together scungilli  
marinara (you can get canned scungilli whelks which are quite a good- 
quality product) or red or white clam sauce for pasta (in my case  
whole-wheat is preferred). Other options include any of several  
simple but too spicy northern and western Chinese dishes (these being  
things I can rarely enjoy fully when I'm with the family). The other  
night I found the makings for real (or very nearly real) Ma Po Dow  
Fu, which is bean curd diced and stir-fried with ginger, garlic,  
fermented black beans or brown bean paste with chiles, minced pork,  
and more chiles (chopped, green or crushed, dried) if using the black  
beans without another chili sauce. Purists add Szechuan peppercorns  
and a finishing hit of sesame oil.

I'm sure there's more, but it's been a long day...

Adamantius


"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04