Some Kitchen Essentials

We had another of our potluck dinners at work the other night. This time, I made the main course. Now I work a night shift and we usually eat mid-way through which is usually between midnight and one AM. We are limited to basically a microwave or George Foreman Grill and I do not have a crockpot, but I do have an electric wok. So I decided to make a stirfry and I am really happy that I did!

With the electric wok, everything was done in less than 10 minutes and we had a fresh meal cooked right in the office. My coworker enjoyed it so much, she went on Amazon.com and bought an electric wok that evening!

Ok, now for the reason for the introduction, in order to for this to have turned out as good as it was, I discovered three things that were essential to workplace woking.
The first is the electric wok. I am convinced that this is an essential part of any kitchen. Our electric wok was inherited from my grandparents and it is probably 20 years old. It is not fancy and I am guessing that it was not a super expensive model when they bought it. I mentioned that my coworker bought one on Amazon.com and she spent about $40 on it. I would think that you would be able to find a good, inexpensive one at Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond or Kohls too. This is definitely worth the investment!

The next thing that made the meal a success was microwavable rice. Lydia uses this all the time and swears by it. So I thought it might be a good option for my dinner. I ended up buying Uncle Ben's Basmati rice that was ready in 90 seconds. It was super easy: break it up in the package, open a vent, microwave for 90 seconds, serve. I used 2 packs and it was really good! Lydia was right and I would buy this again (even if I wasn't cooking at work).

Lastly, was having a good, premade stirfry sauce. Whenever I go to the Asian section of the grocery store, I spend at least 10 minutes looking at all the sauces and trying to figure out which one to buy. Well for this, I ended up with a Mandarin Sauce and it was really good too. I find that the secret to a good stirfry is to add the sauce last, right before you serve it.

Anyway, I hope this inspires you to think about making a delicious stirfry meal at home (or at work). It takes minimal effort and you will enjoy the payoff!

The Teriyaki of Our Discontent

Teriyaki: It's What's For Dinner (on Monday night).

Now that the school year is officially underway, my workload has increased and my schedule is back to “work normal.” This means that I have to work late the first two Mondays of every month. I don’t get home until 6:30 at the earliest, and after pulling a longer than normal day (and sitting through an agonizing meeting) the last thing I want to do is make dinner.

So what’s a girl to do?

Pick up teriyaki, that’s what!

Now, I don’t have any problems with teriyaki in general. It’s a very decent carry-in. It’s just rice and meat, and it’s served up fast. But for me, teriyaki for dinner means I’ve had a long day, that I’ve had to suffer through an extended day at the office (and that’s never a good thing).

Nasty Teriyaki Salad (this usually goes right into the trash)

So for me, Monday nights taste like sweet teriyaki sauce mixed with special blend of stress, apprehension, and work dissatisfaction.

Yummy?

Fast and Easy Stir Fry

I love stir fry! Any excuse to use the wok and cook up something usually makes me happy. Now there are about a million ways to make a stir fry and you can add almost anything and use all types of sauces. The prep time for cutting all the meat, veggies and sauce is about 20-30 minutes and the cook time is about 10 minutes. The one trick that I have learned is to cook the meat first, remove it, then cook the veggies. Add the sauce and then add back the meat; serve with rice - yum! Here is one option to cook up.

Ingredients - all sliced thin:
3 chicken breasts
10 mushrooms
1 onion
1/2 cup Snow Peas
1/2 cup Broccoli slaw
1/4 cup Almonds, toasted
Peanut Sauce

Let your wok heat up and add oil (peanut or vegetable work best). Make sure that the oil is hot, then add the chicken. Cook it until fully done, then remove to a clean bowl. Next add the onion and broccoli slaw. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the snow peas and mushrooms and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the peanut sauce and chicken (including any juices). Right before serving, add the toasted almonds.

Sushi Bowl

Our family is not made up of football fans. As such, we never watch the Super Bowl and could really care less about all the pigskin hoopla. While most of America was sitting home watching commercials--I mean football--we went out for sushi. But not just any sushi, no. We went to Blue C, the home of sushi on a conveyor belt.

I know conveyor belt sushi is not unique to Blue C--hell, it's all over the world--but Blue C's atmosphere make it so much fun. When you go in, you slide into an extra long booth and have your beverage delivered to you. You mix up wasabi and soy sauce to your taste and then let the real fun begin.

Throughout the entire restaurant, a conveyor belt snakes past booths, carrying on it color coded plates, each topped with a plastic dome. Under the dome are all sorts of yummy options: different variations of raw and cooked rolls, gunkan and nigri, hand rolls, teriyaki, katsu, salads, tempura, and, when you're all done with your meal, the yummiest puff pastries. You get to eat as much (or as little) as you want, and the color coded plates tell you how much each plate costs.

As a bonus--or perhaps to make the whole experience more kid-friendly--Blue C sells funny Japanese toys that are a must. They also project anime or street scenes of gothy Japanese kids in Japan.

One of my favorite things about Blue C is the bathroom. Since they're playing up their Japanese-ness, all of the Blue C locations have Japanese hand dryers in the bathrooms. If you haven't seen or used a Mitsubishi Jet Towel, you're missing out (click here for a post I wrote about them on my now defunct personal blog).

Even if you're not a sushi fan, a trip to Blue C will put you in a good mood.

Mongolian Eats

This weekend I managed to completely avoid cooking anything at all. I was in the kitchen for a total of 10 minutes - just long enough to place already cooked food on plates and to make coffee and tea. I had meant to cook a pot roast and blog about it, but Lydia reminded me that it was Super Bowl Sunday and a perfect time to go out to dinner (she is writing about our yummy meal out). Friday night, Lydia and I decided to cheer on the Washington Stealth, our professional indoor lacrosse team (the best in the league too). Before the game, we kicked around various restaurants and decided that Chang's Mongolian Grill would be the perfect accompaniment to the game!

The Food Line on a Friday!

Chang's is always a fun place to go. It is very reasonably priced (cheap), you can pick out food any combinations you want and it is all you can eat. The only thing you have to worry about is the possibility of a crowd - waiting for a table or waiting for your food to cook. The premise is you order your drink, pick a soup (hot and sour or egg flower), then grab a bowl or 2 and head to the food line. There, you add all sorts of meats, vegetables, noodles and sauces and then you hand it over to the cook where they cook it in front of you on the Mongolian grill. For dinners, they have all sorts of meats and seafood - lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, fish, squid, and shrimp (lunches don't have the seafood options).

Noodle Yum!

Lydia and I usually start out with 2 bowls, one for the meat and one for the rest. After it is cooked up, you can top it off with sesame seeds, chili flakes, soy sauce, plum sauce and/or chili sauce. Once back at the table, there are rice wrappers and rice to complete your meal. We both like the sesame seeds on top. Lydia likes to wrap hers up in the rice wrappers with a little plum sauce, while I like hot off the grill with a bit of plum sauce. We both skip the soup too - it is not very flavorful and we like to head right to the line!

To end the meal, they also offer soft serve vanilla ice cream and a fortune cookie - both are included in the price. Again, we opted out of the ice cream and chose the fortune cookies instead!

We hit Chang's at the perfect time on Friday - we got there at about 5:45 pm and did not have to wait at all. By the time we left, there were lines to get a table and lines to go through the line and have everything cooked up. We headed to the Stealth game, where the Stealth beat the Minnesota Swarm and kept their undefeated record. Another fun night out!

Turning Japanese (or Chinese, or Korean, or...)

Living in the moist Pacific Northwest, we're surrounded by some awesome international--Asia, specifically--grocery stores. Even though I am not entire sure how to cook with some of the ingredients found in these stores, it's still fun to take a trip to a more exotic place without ever leaving the state.
If you're ever in the greater Seattle area and are wanting to see something more unique than the Space Needle or Pike Place Market, check out these Asian grocery stores: UWAJIMAYAThis is the granddaddy of Asian grocery stores in the Seattle area. It's located in the International District in downtown Seattle and is a fun place to spend an afternoon. The produce section is filled with fresh, interesting, and inexpensive products like Japanese eggplants, gobo, nappa cabbage, lemongrass, and durian fruit--most of it grown locally. The seafood department is eye-opening. They have sea urchins, geoducks, and super-fresh fish (and fish parts). If you're a ramen noodle fan, Uwajimaya is your place! There's a full aisle devoted to the noodles. Every time we go, we try to find some intriguing new snack or sauce to try out back at home.

Geoducks!

As a bonus, the Seattle store also has a great variety of plates and bowls. The housewares section has been scaled back a bit over the years, but there are a lot of rice cookers, sake sets, tea sets, Asian personal care items, etc. to browse through.

Also attached to the Seattle store are an Asian bookstore and a good-sized food court. You really could spend a lot of time at Uwajimaya!

H MART
If you venture north of the city (closer to where we live!) you can visit the brand-spanking-new Hmart in Lynnwood, WA (right across from the Alderwood Mall). Hmart also boasts a food court, a large produce section, an extensive frozen food area, decent meat department, and fresh seafood.

Unlike Uwajimaya, Hmart offers a kimchi bar, a section of store-made entrees you can take home and eat, and a natural foods section. If you go on the weekends, there are several tables where women give out samples of noodles, soup, pork belly with various sauces, etc. The number of sample stations rivals Costco at times! There's even a guy inside who sells these yummy puffed rice cakes made fresh as you watch (and if you watch for a second, he'll give you a free cake--yum!). I've seen many "strange" ingredients for sale at Hmart. They even had balut eggs one day (not my taste, but whatever!).

There are plenty of other Asian markets around our area, but these are the two best that I know of. I love being able to take an international food journey without the need for a passport!