I’ll not be trying it. No wish to put other diners off their food.
As for tonight’s dinner - a trip to Manchester’s “Curry Mile”, or Kebab Kilometre as it’s becoming. Lebanese place that opened, then closed and has reopened. We’ll see if it’s got better.
Well, it was actually for breakfast but I do these for dinner also. I sliced bacon into 1/4" pieces and cook with onion, mushrooms, s&p. Then added beaten eggs, swirling and lifting. When partially set I added a handful of arugula. When set a bit more I added grated cheddar. Cooked til done. I’d not used arugula before. It tasted great, toned down but super.
Momofuku nor Chairman Bao (food truck in SF Bay Area) came up with this version of bao. Gua Bao is a common street food in Taiwan.
But I’m betting if you say “pork bun” or “char sui bao” in the US you won’t get “gua bao.”
WFD: ~ Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu). Hoisin sauce, Chinese rice vinegar, Red Boat fish sauce, dark soy sauce, local honey, garlic, ginger, Chinese five-spice powder, brown sugar, garlic-chili paste, 3 1/2 lb pork butt. For a recipe like this one I usually marinate the meat overnight, then oven roast. However, “due to circumstances beyond my control” the roast and sauce have been in the slow cooker since 9:00AM and ought to be finished cooking at around 5:30-ish PM. The temperature will then turn down to Warm which will give us plenty of time to cook the accompaniments.
The aroma wafting through the house now is inducing tummy-rumbles. My hope is that the roast tastes as good as it smells. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Just like coffee.
~ Stir-Fried Chinese Broccoli.
~ Egg Noodles.
Your Chinese meal sounds better than my Chinese meal, Gio.
We had a change of plan from the Lebanese place (Mrs H spotted TripAdvisor adverse comments about cleaniness in the toilet areas) and went Cantonese: [Manchester, U.K., city centre] Glamorous
Your description of the restaurant and food are so vivid, Harters. As for our Char Siu, I just tasted a snippet and Wow! I’m surprised at how delicious it is. Tangy, spicy, salty, juicy. Not too sweet which is what I was worried about. There are even caramelized ends, a kind of char if you will.
Grabbed a bite after my appointment, cup of chicken tortilla soup, (not the best version of this soup I’ve had) and I have no idea what motivated me to order this rack of ribs but they were very good!
Pub food (and libations) at a work outing. Nachos, veggie spring rolls, potato skins, Buffalo chicken wings, and something else or another.
Works for me.
But damn. Jr’s ribs look AH. MAY. ZING.
Someone was grilling steaks in my neighborhood this weekend and set off a craving…had a gift card for The Fresh Market and bought two ribeyes last night. My friend did the grilling tonight. I cooked 2 slices of bacon to crumble over baked potatoes. Bacon fat was used to cook spinach in. Chives and sourcream and butter with the 'taters. Sauteed mushrooms as a side. Perfect!
Damn fine ribs, sir.
It’s wingsover for the lazy residents at casa lingua…mostly b/c nobody here feels like making anything at almost 10:30 pm, and I already had some yuvetsi for lunch 
My man is currently out picking up a six-pack and the wings. Works for us.
So, i have actually never had mapo tofu… I’m a spice wimp so just ordering a vegetarian version wouldn’t work. (And I certainly wouldn’t ask they make it at a restaurant and ya know, just not make it spicy)
I used the regular recipe from seriouseats (their vegan mapo uses mushrooms which is kind of a totally different dish all together)
I used the peppercorns and swapped in crumbled tempeh for the meat. I used soft tofu and can’t imagine that silken tofu would ever stay in larger pcs with the boil/drain/atir process.
Really yummy, eaten with some white rice and steamed green beans.
I adore mapo tofu and make it frequently. The first time, I followed the instructions and poached the tofu before adding it to the sauce, but I didn’t feel like it added anything to the dish, so now I just dump the tofu straight into the sauce. IMO it tastes the same! I’ve made it with both silken and regular tofu, soft and firm, and we tend to prefer firmer tofu even though it’s not traditional. The silken tofu does tend to break up more but oddly not as much as you might expect.
Thanks for the pointers! Then i totally skip the boiling step next go around. I liked it with the soft tofu but good to know if i just have firm that works too
Here’s Fuchsia Dunlop’s version, considered by some to be the go-to.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/14/pock-marked-old-woman-s-tofu-recipe
We had a pub lunch so dinner will be later than usual. Chicken breasts are in a marinade of soy, lime juice & zest, garlic and ginger. It’ll all go in the oven. Rice & purple sprouting broccoli to accompany.
Yes, I also just chuck the soft tofu in (sliced in huge chunks). I have also tried making Mapo Tofu using the harder type of tofu but somehow it’s not as nice. The Sichuanese must know best then, because all the Mapo I ate in Chengdu (and in Lhasa) was made with silken/soft tofu. From dirt cheap roadside/pavement-low stool-low-table places (where I often ate in near total darkness) to the more expensive Mapo “specialist” kind of restaurants… they were all wonderful and never quite exactly the same.
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TTrockwood, you could also make those green beens “Sichuan-y”. It’s one of the most popular Sichuan dishes.
Good marinade. Might have to appropriate it for dinner tonight, if the Frankenchicken breast has defrosted by the time I get home. Or wait until tomorrow.
Himself is out for dinner so it’s a baked potato, chorizo, and salad, raspberries and yoghurt, glass of wine and a crime drama for me.
