Romance Language

A few nights ago Sour Dough mentioned that he had a craving for Chinese food.  Since Sour Dough doesn’t usually make requests or mention cravings I figured that he must really want it.  I decided to make Chinese food last night to appease him.

Now I know that when my kids say they want Chinese food, what they really mean is they want ribs and wonton soup.  While I make a pretty mean rib, if I do say so myself, I don’t make them the way the Chinese restaurant does.  So, I decided to make fried rice and beef stir fry and then go to the Chinese restaurant to pick up ribs and soup.

The fried rice was easy to make because I basically just copied what I had seen the chef at the local Hibachi restaurant (which is technically a teppanyaki restaurant) do a dozen times.  I simply cooked rice in my rice cooker, then on the stove in my wok I heated olive oil, scrambled two eggs, added corn, peas and diced carrots, rice and soy sauce.  Super easy and quick to make and it was just like the restaurant fried rice except I knew exactly what was in it.

The Beef stir fry was a little more time consuming, but just as simple to make.  The trick is in the tenderizing of the beef.  Generally the best cuts of beef are not used in stir fry so how does one make the beef nice and tender?  I’m glad you asked, let me explain.  The Chinese use a process called velveting, which is a marinade technique.  

So, we have our stir fry, our fried rice, our soup and our ribs.  We sit around the round table and say grace.  As we dish out the food, I tell everyone “Bon appetite”.  Then I say, for effect, “That’s Chinese you know, for enjoy your meal.”

Sticky Buns says, “Is it really? I thought it was French.”  I said “French? Why would you think it was French? It doesn’t even sound French.”

Sticky Buns: “I know, it’s Italian.”

Me: “No Babe, it actually is French.  I was just kidding.”

Sticky Buns: “It is?  Well from now on I'm just going to say thats how they say it in Utah.”