Scallion Pancakes :: Homemade Delivery

A list of things I miss from home deserves an entire blog of its own. And while I can't make my own Wheat Thins, Cheez-Its or Corgis at home, there are a few things I can recreate pretty nicely here. Scallion Pancakes are one of them since it is such a simple recipe. Before I moved to New York, I didn't quite "get" the whole Chinese takeout phenomenon. But once I was introduced to Mama Buddha (now closed, wah wah) that all changed. Delicious egg noodle soup delivered to your door for less than $10?! Done. Scallion Pancakes were always a must order item for me - salty, crispy, chewy and the perfect vehicle for soy sauce. I imagine if I lived in NY right now, I'd be ordering a lot of Chinese take-out to avoid slipping on black ice and into a snowbank, as I'm prone to do.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour (bread or all-purpose)

1 cup of warm water

1/2 cup chopped green onions/scallions

1 TB sesame oil

1. Slowly mix the warm water with flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. 

2. Once the water has been completely absorbed, knead the dough on a clean surface until the surface of the dough is smooth.

3. Flatten the dough into a large rectangle and brush the surface with sesame oil. Sprinkle with chopped scallions. 

4. Roll the dough into a log (like a taquito) then roll the log into a ball (like a cinnamon bun). 

5. Flatten the dough out into your hands. The point of this is to knead the scallions into the dough and distribute evenly. There are several ways to do it and I'm using the method I learned at ABC Cooking Studio.

6. Flatten the dough again, this time into a large circle, about the size of your skillet.

7. Heat some vegetable oil on medium high, then add the pancake. After about 4 minutes, the bottom of the pancake will be browned. Flip the pancake over and brown the other side. 

Remove and blot with paper towels. Then cut into wedges. You could eat these with just plain soy sauce, but I like to make a soy-vinegar-ginger-sriracha sauce. 

Tokyo Five Foot Runner :: Week 1

The annual New York City Marathon has come and go and even though I'm not living in New York anymore, the excitement and energy of the race has still found it's way to my soft heart. Aside from the US Open, I believe that the NYC Marathon is one of the greatest sporting events to attend. I'm always amazed at the diversity of people running the race (hello Grandma!) and always find myself getting a little teary eyed watching people from around the world challenge time, the city and themselves. This year was extra special since one of my best friends, Ms. Ha, took on the challenge and took one step closer to establishing herself as a true New Yorker. And she rocked it! For just her first marathon, she clocked in at 3:43:34 -- just shy of qualifying for the Boston Marathon! I have no doubt, she'll be qualifying soon. 


Anyways, the point of this is that her commitment to training for a marathon inspired me to sign up for a Half Marathon in January. Actually, Ms. Ha and I ran our first official race together about a year and a half ago and while I have continued running to keep in shape, I haven't run in any races or taken it very seriously since. Well, that all changed this week as I began my preparation for 13.1 miles on January 9th, 2011. 


I'm using Hal Higdon's Novice Half Marathon training schedule because it has the most rest days and didn't muck up my schedule too much. I have to jump in on week 4 since we're only 9 weeks away but with week 1 under my belt, I think I'll be ok. My goals are:

1. Stick to the schedule.
2. Don't get hurt. 
3. Finish the race without stopping. 

So, what does one eat during race training? Well, obviously a lot of carbs and proteins but other than that, I haven't done too much research on the matter. So what did I fuel myself with this week? 

Pasta, duh! I adore this super simple tomato sauce recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It takes less than an hour to make, only has 3 ingredients (canned tomatos, butter and an onion) and is delicious. I made a big batch so it could last the week. Meatballs on day 1, hearty mushrooms on day 2 and just plain on day 3. 

Exercising is a weird thing. Burning all those calories definitely makes you hungry, but not right away. In fact, for hours after my runs, I'm not hungry at all. But then it just hits you. So, in order to avoid a total food coma, I've been craving soups. French Onion soup recipes are floating around the internets at the moment, so I decided to give it a go. Oddly enough, this recipe is very similar to the tomato sauce mentioned above but it takes waaaay longer than 1 hour and instead of tomatos, you add beef broth to the onions and butter. 

Sundays are the long run days. Today wasn't toooo bad - 5 miles. I decided to whip up some wonton soup because I saw some really nice photos on this blog, Joylicious. I added in noodles and lots of veggies to make it more filling - similar to a soup Squidward/Blammo and I used to order from Mama Buddha in the West Village. This soup is delicious and simple, but what I liked most about her recipe post is the story about missing her mother. I miss my mom too Joy! I especially miss her when I get gchats from her like this: 

Mom:  Hi Kimmi,I am online.  I am laughing and drinking , drunk! Have a good day. bye i love you 

I logged in 15 miles this week, more than I've ever run in a 7 day period so I deserve a little treat, no? It's been a very very long time since I've made my chocolate chip cookies so I finally dusted off my recipe and busted out a batch. I missed these little suckers!

Hong Kong :: Hutong, More like Woo!tong

On the our last night in Hong Kong, Squids and I made 7pm reservations at a Michelin starred restaurant called Hutong. Hutongs are narrow streets and alley ways in Beijing and the food served here is a modern take on the food that can be found in hutongs. There are a few cuisines, like Chinese and Mexican, that I think is best in the mom and pop shops with plastic covered tables and sticky floors. But a few of Hutong's dishes really made me rethink this especially factoring the amazing view of Victoria Harbour. Much to the annoyance of our waiters, we ate very slowly in order to catch the 8pm Symphony of Lights shows from our table. Every night, the buildings on Hong Kong Island put on a lovely light show that is best viewed from Kowloon. We enjoyed the show while sipping on lychee wine and chowing down on crispy lamb, noodles and apple fritters. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

Lychee rice wine served in a classic clay tea pot. This would most certainly make my mom sing, as she tends to do when she has a little something to drink. 

 Simple noodle soup with shitake mushrooms. The broth was incredibly flavorful. This was Squidward's favorite. 

My favorite dish of the night, crispy lamb done in a traditional peking style. I have never had lamb so juicy and delicious as this. It has a salty and crispy"skin" (I don't think it was actual skin...that would be kind of gnarly) which gave it some texture. I hope they never take this off their menu. 

Apple "eggrolls" for dessert. This definitely reminded me a lot of my dad. He's doesn't spend a ton of time cooking. He's mostly responsible for stocking my mom's kitchen with the proper tools and gizmos and telling her how delicious her meals are. But he does have a few signature dishes up his sleeve, one being banana fritters with honey and sugar and vanilla ice cream. I think that's why I tend to like fruit desserts over chocolate. 

We actually ordered a lot more food than this, but the restaurant is VERY dark and my pictures were coming out pretty bad and I think my flash was really annoying some of our neighbors. The menu at Hutong, like many Chinese restaurants, is HUGE. I welcome the chance to go back and try some of their other dishes. 

Hong Kong :: Dim Sum Delight

Monday was "Respect for the Aged Day" in Japan, so I went to Hong Kong for the long weekend. You can't really mention Hong Kong without talking about the food and you can't talk about food without talking about dim sum. It's pretty tough to find good, authentic dim sum in Tokyo, so I was happy to be reunited with this Sunday morning tradition.

Really fucking happy, actually. I didn't realize how much I missed it, but once we stepped into our first tea house and I heard the clinking and clanging of tableware, I was transported to a happy place. This despite being seated at the most disgraceful seat in the house -- furthest from the kitchen! You gotta box out for the dishes you want! Naww, just kidding. Since it was lunchtime, we just ordered off an English menu, instead of the morning carts. But I would have gotten East Bay/SF Chinatown on the locals if I had to! Anyways, back to my happy place. I love snacks and can put away a ridiculous amount of food so long as there is variety. If I had to eat a huge dish of just 1 thing, I probably couldn't stomach too much of it. But place 100 little plates in front of me and I'll eat you under the table. That's a threat and a promise.

I wish I had written down the name of this particular tea house next to the Western Market. Basically, if you ride the tram down Des Vouex Road in Central, it is the dim sum restaurant next to the Western Market. There are bunch of cool old dudes off-track betting outside if you need another landmark. I'm almost certain they'll still be there if on your trip to HK.

I finally learned that these pork and shrimp rolls are called cheung fan in Cantonese. This was the first Cantonese word I looked up when we booked our tickets. This has been my favorite dim sum dish since I was a kid. Even though you're supposed to share everything on the lazy susan, my family would order me my own plates of shrimp cheung fan and just leave me alone. These are steamed rice paper rolls with pork or shrimp filling. Sounds pretty bland, but the key is the soy sauce. Cheung fan comes with its own special sweet soy sauce. I could drink it by the tubs and would save my empty plates to sop up the extra sauce with other dumplings and buns. Omagahh...I'm so disgusting. I love it.

The other must have dish at dim sum for me are phoenix talons. That's a fancy Cantonese way of saying chicken feet. Now, trust me when I say that it is not the meat of chicken's feet that appeals to me. I've been served cold, plain boiled, unsauced chicken feet (oddly enough, on a number of occasions) and they're pretty gross. (Special message to Squidward, my sister and mom -- remember those gnarly black ones we got in Vietnam?!) The dim sum style chicken feet come in a spicy black bean sauce and while they're not the sexiest things to eat (you have to spit the tiny bones out on to your plate and you constantly have sauce on your face) they just can't be resisted.

Hey wait a sec. That's not dim sum! That's right, it's not but I'm not afraid to order off the menu. When a restaurant goes out of it's way to hang their roasted meats in their window (basically every restaurant in HK), you'd better order it. This is a plate of chopped pork topped with crispy pig skin -- also a childhood favorite of mine (no seriously, I was a disgusting child! how did I have friends and not develop gout?) Salty, sweet, fatty and delicious.

Look at that shiny delicious morsel! 

Eating Dim Sum in Hong Kong was at the top of my list of things to do. Had we eaten at a tea house for every meal, I would have been perfectly happy. But we didn't. We had lots of other great food! Perhaps I will tell you more about it sometime. (Probably tomorrow.)