breakthesky.net » Food

Dinner With the Family

Manda — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:13:49 +0000

I grew up in a house where every member of my family would gather around the dinner table every night for a hot meal and eat together. My mother would suffer no excuses when it came to eating dinner as a family; it was a constant in her household. The only exceptions I can recall is that if one of us were not at home during dinnertime (frowned upon) or if one of us were sick (excusable).

I think a lot of her insistence on eating dinner together as a family is because it was a part of the day where everyone would gather ’round and eat, talk, and bond. It was her time to catch up with her children and for my brother and I to argue about something stupid. As my mom always cooked dinner, eating dinner together also had something to do with politeness and manners. She cooked the meal; it would have been the height of rudeness if one of us had taken a plate of home-cooked food and eaten it on our lonesome in our bedroom or something.

Now that I’m on my own and have a packed schedule, I find that I’m often eating dinner on my own, and usually on the go. I’ll grab a burrito at Chipotle and eat it once I get home from my internship. I’ll eat a bagel sandwich from Einstein’s Bagels during my afternoon shift at work. I’ll eat a bowl of Special K in the morning before I take off for the day. I’ll cook dinner for myself and eat it in front of the TV, saving leftovers for the next day. My schedule often allows me to get dinners with friends, but we almost always go out to eat.

I love the food and conversation I have with my friends when we go out to eat, but I miss the dinners at my house. I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up in a house where family dinners didn’t exist. It’s not even the home-cooked factor (although I miss that dearly!), it’s the fact that I can’t understand how families don’t, or can’t, or won’t, come together for dinner. It makes me sad, because I have some great memories of dinners at my house when I was growing up!

Question of the Week: Does your family have family dinners where you all eat together? Or is dinner an individual occasion?

Nothing Beats Mom’s Cooking

Manda — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:17:11 +0000

Tonight, I made my first home-cooked meal in my apartment. Since I’ve been missing my mom’s home-cooked Chinese food, I decided to go with one of my favorite dishes of hers: chicken and broccoli stir fry. It’s incredibly simple to make, but it tastes really, really good.

I’m happy to report that my dinner was a success (the stir fry was served with a side of steamed white rice). However, it still didn’t taste as good as my mom’s. I guess nothing will ever beat my mom’s cooking – not even my own!

Today Was a Fairytale

Manda — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:59:49 +0000

Yesterday¹ was one of those days when all the stars aligned and everything fell into place effortlessly.

I had bubble milk tea with taro, one of my favorite drinks. I had a delicious home-cooked Chinese lunch. I saw Chinglish, an absolutely fantastic play. I went to KTV and, for an evening, could pretend that I was back in my beloved China. And I finally heard something I’ve been waiting to hear for far, far too long.

Oh, and I made these coconut-grapefruit cupcakes with matcha (green tea) frosting:

Yes, the title of this entry is ripped off the Taylor Swift song, but “Yesterday Was a Fairytale” doesn’t quite have the same ring. Ah, well.

Lemon Basil Olive Oil Cake

Manda — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:11:58 +0000

I haven’t baked anything in a year. In China, traditionally there are no ovens in the kitchen, so I could never bake anything. In the weeks leading up to my homecoming, I’d given a lot of thought to what I wanted to bake now that I’d finally have access to an oven. I could opt for something I had done before, like a red velvet cake, or try something completely new.

As you can see, I went for something completely different.

I’d never, ever heard of basil being used in a cake recipe. Lemon, basil, and olive oil go splendidly together, but I’ve only ever tried the combination in savory dishes. It all ties together surprisingly well in this recipe. When it was baking, I was afraid I’d inadvertently made “basil bread” instead of a cake! However, the cake is sweet and has a lovely basil flavor, with just the slightest touch of olive oil and lemon.

It’s a pretty damn good “welcome back to baking” cake, if you ask me. It’s flavorful, memorable, and sure as hell unique.

Tianjin: A City of Glorious Food

Manda — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:06:15 +0000

Glorious food days are hard to come by in China. This is mainly because by now, at roughly six months into my year in Beijing, glorious food days have come to be defined as days that involve eating copious amounts of cheese. Obviously, these are hard to come by unless I want to fork over hundreds of RMB for small blocks of cheese. But my day of exploring Tianjin was a glorious food day beyond all glorious food days, largely in part due to visiting Little Italy.

Breakfast

Two pork 包子 (steamed stuffed buns)
White grape juice with aloe

Lunch

Fried mozzarella on toast
Gnocchi alla sorrentina¹

Teatime

Chocolate cream mochi

Dinner

Korean barbecue (beef, pork, lamb, assorted veggies, etc)

Dessert

Cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crumbs and Heath bars²

Needless to say, I had an excellent day traipsing around Tianjin. While one full day is ample time to see the city, for the food alone, I would definitely consider going back again. And again. And again. And again…

This was positively smothered in cheese. Not to mention the restaurant we went to gave us a dish of grated Parmesan in case we needed to add more cheese to our food. I have not seen a plate of grated Parmesan since leaving the States last August!
This was from COLDSTONE! Something else I haven’t seen since leaving the States, although there are several Coldstone locations in China.

Food I Wish I Could Find in China

Manda — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:03:55 +0000

(Or find at an affordable price. Or in a form that remotely resembles what I can find back home.)

Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits
Doritos
Kraft Mac and Cheese
Parmesan (or pecorino romano) cheese
Bagels
Cream cheese
Pesto pasta
Blueberry muffins
Cheetos
Pop tarts
Chipotle
Red velvet cake

This list could go on for quite a bit but now I’m getting cravings for foods I won’t be able to have till I return Stateside in July/August. Sigh.

Oreo Milk Tea

Manda — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:26:10 +0000

I have a new favorite drink. As in, my favorite drink in the entire world. Will drink any place, anytime, preferably in mass amounts. That kind of favorite drink.

From the moment I was introduced to Happy Lemon, a popular Shanghainese milk tea chain, I’ve been in love with their drinks. Blood orange black tea with aloe, hot cocoa with taro, milk tea with black sago pearls, lemon yakult green tea… everything I’ve had there has been wonderful. But the oreo milk tea? Oh my God. Drinking it was like having an orgasm in my mouth. No lie; it was that wonderful.

I mean, think about it. Milk tea and oreos separately are wonderful. But together? A combination made in heaven. It’s like liquid cookies and cream with a kick of milk tea! What’s not to love?

Photo courtesy of Bergstrom Trends.

Today’s Budget: 36RMB

Manda — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:46:36 +0000

I woke up this morning to find that, in some marvelous stroke of stupidity, I had left my wallet at my friend’s place last night. The simplest thing to do would be to either borrow money from my roommate today until I get my wallet back, or to head over to my friend’s place and retrieve it. However, my roommate is out of town for the weekend and my friend is out and about for the majority of today. I won’t be able to get my wallet back until at least the evening.

I have exactly 36RMB (equivalent of a little over 6USD) on hand, which is basically what I hadn’t spent last night on drinks and taxis. If I want to stretch 36RMB to my two meals today, these are the options I have:

Jiaozi (饺子) (6-7RMB)
Baozi (包子) (4RMB)
Jianbing (煎饼 ) (4RMB)
Bubble tea (6RMB – 12RMB)
Yogurt (4.50RMB) and a croissant (3.80RMB)

Not gonna lie, I was a little panicked when I realized that I didn’t have my wallet on hand, which has both cash and my ATM card. But now it seems totally feasible that 36RMB can feed me for a day. I just can’t eat anything super fancy… which, after last night, is more than fine with me. Oily, greasy Chinese food sounds wonderful right now!

Indian Food

Manda — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:49:09 +0000

Confession: up until four weeks ago, I’d never had Indian food before.

I know. For someone who prides herself on being as cultured and worldly as I do, this is unforgivable. I don’t exactly know why I’ve always been so averse to Indian food; I guess it can be blamed on some traumatizing childhood experiences where I encountered bad (by that, I mean poorly made and/or tasting) Indian food. Still, it was about time I finally caved and tried some.

My apartment in Beijing is near this really, really fantastic Indian restaurant. Indian food also happens to be my roommate’s favorite type of cuisine. When she discovered I’d never had Indian food before, she and my best friend decided to take me to the restaurant to try good, proper Indian food, whether I liked it or not. (I kid; I was very excited to go!)

And my God, it was delicious. It didn’t hurt that the restaurant is famous for top notch food, but I couldn’t believe that I had steadfastly avoided Indian food for so long when it tasted this good. I ordered chicken biryani and garlic naan and enjoyed every single bite.

I’ve been back at the restaurant since, always eager to appease new cravings for Indian food. However, I’ve run into a slight problem. I know nothing about Indian food, so I don’t know what new dishes to try out. I’ve read some descriptions of various dishes on the menu to try and get an idea of what I’d like to try, but I’m just so overwhelmed by the choices. Rice, curries, roti/naan, yogi diet… the different sections of the menu confuse me, let alone the contents!

Essentially, I’ve ordered the same thing every time I’ve gone back. While I still love chicken biryani and garlic naan, I want to try something new. Which is where you guys come in:

Question of the Week: Do you like Indian food? If so, what are some of your favorite Indian dishes?

Food Poisoning

Manda — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 05:17:20 +0000

Well, it was inevitable. My friends and I took bets the first week we arrived in Beijing as to who would be the first to get sick. No one, not even me, placed their bet on me. After all, I’ve been to China before and have had the most experience with Chinese street food. So obviously I wouldn’t be the first to get sick, right?

Wrong. Last Wednesday, I was hit with a (thankfully, rather mild) bout of food poisoning. I felt absolutely awful all day, and for the first time ever I got a migraine. I was seeing spots for a good portion of the day, and the little food I managed to eat didn’t stay in my stomach for very long. It was gross, and awful, and I felt disgusting. The worst part was my friends and I always have meals together and share our food, so for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why I was the only one sick and no one else was.

I ended up figuring out what gave me food poisoning, though. It was half a chocolate croissant I ate from a local supermarket. This is depressing on so many levels! I love croissants, and they are my staple go-to food when I am in a rush and have no time for a proper meal. Not only that, but… getting food poisoning from a chocolate croissant in China? Who even does that?