Chicken & Shrimp Lo Mein

When my friend, Iva's, mom came to visit her, I was invited back for dinner! Yay! So her mom made a seafood lo-mein, and she got all her ingredients from Whole Foods, so there's no need for an exotic trip to the asian grocery store. Her mom's was way better than mine, but I've only attempted this dish a couple of times. Her dish was a little saucy, and she used corn starch (a staple in a Chinese kitchen), which I don't have with me in Pittsburgh and I was too lazy (and cheap) to buy some.

Stir Fry Ramen

This is a lazy post for a lazy dinner for one. I was so lazy that I only took one photo. Heh.

Many people had made stir fry ramen before, right? Right. Well, who cares? I didn't want to spend money on dinner and I only had enough shrimp and broccoli for myself. Not only that, I didn't feel like rice. So I thought, if other people can make stir fry ramen, why can't I? And so I did.

List of lazy ingredients:

1 package of ramen
1 small thing of broccoli or several florets of broccoli
1 clove of garlic - minced
about 5 or 6 shrimps
sesame oil or vegetable oil
salt
pepper flakes (optional)


Lazy steps:

- Boil some water and cook the ramen without the soup base package. Don't throw that soup base away!
- Mix the soup base with the shrimps. Hahah! I even got too lazy to make my own marinade.
- Wash and cut broccoli into bite size. Like I even have to tell you that.
- When ramen is tender, drain and discard water.
- In a large pan or wok, heat about 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Stir fry the broccoli and garlic for about 2 minutes.
- Add in shrimps. Stir fry for another minute.
- Add salt to taste, but I think the ramen soup base should be enough.
- Toss in the cooked and drained ramen noodle.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil or vegetable oil so the noodle doesn't get too dry.
- Constantly toss and stir the whole thing for 30 seconds or until well mix.
- Remove from heat and serve!
- You can sprinkle on some pepper flakes for fun.

This is an any-wo/man's stir fry ramen so feel free to use cauliflowers, or cabbages, or carrots, or peas in lieu of broccoli. Throw an egg in there for all I care! Go forth and make lazy dinners!

So easy, it's child's play!

Penang Assam Laksa

Nur, my Southeast Asian food go-to person, sent me this penang laksa recipe to try out. According to Nur, it's authentic! How do I know it's authentic? It contains strange sounding ingredients. Let's take a break from my streak of dessert making and go into some real food.

Laksa is a sort of spicy noodle soup and it comes in several types. There's curry laksa and assam laksa. Curry laksa is self-explanatory. Assam laksa is a sour fish base laksa.

Shaking Beef & Garlic Noodles

Yes, I noticed that this is supposed to be an "International Food Adventure Blog," but I just can't seem to get out of Southeast Asia.

Whenever I hear "Shaking Beef," I always imagine a really cold cow shivering... inside my apartment (because it's really cold!). Anyhow, I decided to make some "famous" dishes from some restaurants: Shaking Beef from The Slanted Door and PF Changs' Garlic Noodles. For those who have not heard of The Slanted Door, it's a local San Francisco Restaurant (a kin to Out the Door).

Thai Pad See Ew

Pad See Ew is one of my favorite Thai dishes. Move aside Pad Thai, you're over-rated! This is one of my more complicated dishes, with exotic ingredients that you will have to venture into an Asian supermarket for. Epps! Scary!

Jap Chae

Back in college (it feels so weird saying this because some times I still think that I'm in school), my friends and I would always go to Steve's Korean Barbecue for some bi bim bap or jap chae (also spell chap chae). Steve's Korean Barbecue means a huge plate of rice, vegetables, kim chi, and a mean pile o' meat! Well, unless you get the vegetarian bi bim bap, then there's no mean pile o' meat. After moving away from school for a few years, I was craving for some jap chae a.k.a. Korean glass noodles with beef, but I was too lazy to deal with the lack of parkings and seas of pedestrians near Steve's. So I decide to make my own jap chae! Hah! Let me confess this, I failed miserably the first time around. Like epic fail. The noodles came out too dry, the shiitakes too chewy, the beef was tough, basically the whole thing was a mess. Since the downfall of the first try, I hit the books and studied the art of making jap chae and this time, it was a success! Wanna know how I did it?