- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
Some have said I am at war with flavor. For example:
- Burger King burgers generally taste better than "real" burgers - I don't much care for the taste of plain beef, and any "real" burger I've had generally has a lot of it, such that its blandness overwhelms anything else present.
- The usual "Chinese food" found in the relevant establishments tastes quite good.
- To cook chicken legs or breasts, I use boiling water with salt.
- I don't think I've ever met a gourmet food I like. Hershey's tastes better than any genuine Swiss chocolate my mom's ever bought.
Anyway, I bought this book. I tried to make their lasagna. It failed, but that was my own doing. Fresh basil != dried basil, and "no-cook" noodles seem to stay extra-crunchy, even though the recipe says it has adequate liquid. The resulting dish had, besides the mentioned crunchy noodles, a severe excess of basil. That whole thing I can cure.
What I tried tonight is just godawful: Lo Mein.
Their recipe:
1 tsp salt
12 oz Chinese egg noodles
1 T sesame oil
1/4 C chicken broth
2 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
2.5 T vegetable oil
8 oz flank steak
1/2 small head cabbage
1 med bell pepper
4 med scallions
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 C bean sprouts
Alright, some modifications were made. The grocery store I went to didn't have scallions or bean sprouts. No big loss, I only recall seeing scallions in lo mein from the local Chinese place, and I don't much care for them - too crunchy and stringy. And no cabbage either - it's only good as sauerkraut.
Besides that, I followed the recipe. The result: Well, it tastes like I figure the authors wanted it to come out.
My opinion of it: I hate wasting food. Again. This stuff is fucking nasty, no nice way to say it. And now the apartment stinks of this stir-fried atrocity. (Plus the smell of the oyster sauce kind of reminded me of some epoxy I used several years ago.)
The soy sauce, Kikkoman's, or however it's spelled, apparently is "good quality" stuff - it stinks like wine, and is nothing like what comes in the packets from the restaurants. (I'm not a fan of alcohol.)
I did have a bit of a bad feeling from the start, which I stupidly ignored. The book said this of traditional Chinese restaurant food:
"The lo mein served in many Chinese restaurants is frequently oily and uninteresting; the noodles are often a tasteless mass. We wanted something different - flavorful strands of noodles coated in a light, tangy sauce."
Or noodles that may have been soaked in Charles Manson's bathwater, either or; I always thought that the lo mein served in many Chinese restaurants is rather good, and I was hoping to recreate it at home.
Cliffs:
- I suck at cooking, but don't like to rely on expensive frozen/prepared food.
- I don't seem to like "complex," "interesting," or "gourmet" foods.
- HALP!!!
So then, if anyone's still reading this and hasn't gone into shock, wondering if I have a single working taste bud, I am left asking:
- Where can I find a recipe for lo mein (shrimp, beef, chicken) that is quite spot-on with what the restaurants serve?
- What brand of soy sauce most closely resembles what they use?
- Any recommendations on a cookbook for people who vomit profusely at the sight of gourmet food, and who are also intensely lazy at the same time?
I have a feeling I might also have a cookbook for sale in the not-too-distant future.
- Burger King burgers generally taste better than "real" burgers - I don't much care for the taste of plain beef, and any "real" burger I've had generally has a lot of it, such that its blandness overwhelms anything else present.
- The usual "Chinese food" found in the relevant establishments tastes quite good.
- To cook chicken legs or breasts, I use boiling water with salt.
- I don't think I've ever met a gourmet food I like. Hershey's tastes better than any genuine Swiss chocolate my mom's ever bought.
Anyway, I bought this book. I tried to make their lasagna. It failed, but that was my own doing. Fresh basil != dried basil, and "no-cook" noodles seem to stay extra-crunchy, even though the recipe says it has adequate liquid. The resulting dish had, besides the mentioned crunchy noodles, a severe excess of basil. That whole thing I can cure.
What I tried tonight is just godawful: Lo Mein.
Their recipe:
1 tsp salt
12 oz Chinese egg noodles
1 T sesame oil
1/4 C chicken broth
2 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
2.5 T vegetable oil
8 oz flank steak
1/2 small head cabbage
1 med bell pepper
4 med scallions
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 C bean sprouts
Alright, some modifications were made. The grocery store I went to didn't have scallions or bean sprouts. No big loss, I only recall seeing scallions in lo mein from the local Chinese place, and I don't much care for them - too crunchy and stringy. And no cabbage either - it's only good as sauerkraut.
Besides that, I followed the recipe. The result: Well, it tastes like I figure the authors wanted it to come out.
My opinion of it: I hate wasting food. Again. This stuff is fucking nasty, no nice way to say it. And now the apartment stinks of this stir-fried atrocity. (Plus the smell of the oyster sauce kind of reminded me of some epoxy I used several years ago.)
The soy sauce, Kikkoman's, or however it's spelled, apparently is "good quality" stuff - it stinks like wine, and is nothing like what comes in the packets from the restaurants. (I'm not a fan of alcohol.)
I did have a bit of a bad feeling from the start, which I stupidly ignored. The book said this of traditional Chinese restaurant food:
"The lo mein served in many Chinese restaurants is frequently oily and uninteresting; the noodles are often a tasteless mass. We wanted something different - flavorful strands of noodles coated in a light, tangy sauce."
Or noodles that may have been soaked in Charles Manson's bathwater, either or; I always thought that the lo mein served in many Chinese restaurants is rather good, and I was hoping to recreate it at home.
Cliffs:
- I suck at cooking, but don't like to rely on expensive frozen/prepared food.
- I don't seem to like "complex," "interesting," or "gourmet" foods.
- HALP!!!
So then, if anyone's still reading this and hasn't gone into shock, wondering if I have a single working taste bud, I am left asking:
- Where can I find a recipe for lo mein (shrimp, beef, chicken) that is quite spot-on with what the restaurants serve?
- What brand of soy sauce most closely resembles what they use?
- Any recommendations on a cookbook for people who vomit profusely at the sight of gourmet food, and who are also intensely lazy at the same time?
I have a feeling I might also have a cookbook for sale in the not-too-distant future.
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