My family’s barbecues tend to be a mash-up of foods. There’s no cohesiveness and usually no one bothers to ask if this dish complements that dish. Our most recent barbecue saw the table covered with chicken wings, turkey sausage, lamb, papaya salad, potato salad, noodle salad and of course, rice. My dad doesn’t think a meal is a meal if it doesn’t include rice. Rice is a staple, hot dogs and burgers are not.
Sometimes leftovers are the best part of a good meal – you can go to sleep happy, knowing that something delicious awaits you the next day. Some leftovers are more versatile than others, but generally, the minimal amount of effort you need to put in to make something new is amazing.
Growing up, there were always dumplings at home. We would eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Even now, if I head over to my parent’s place and take a look in the freezer, I can pretty much guarantee that there are at least two bags of frozen dumplings. My mom’s big on frozen dumplings, mostly because the convenience of store-bought frozen dumplings is too alluring to pass up.
I know it sound sacrilegious, but a lot of people I know are disgusted by pork belly. They think the discernible layers of meat and fat are disturbing. On the other hand, I have friends who love pork belly – sometimes it’s the only thing they order.
Like lots of Asian kids, the first thing I learned to “cook” was instant noodles. I felt so grown up putting a pot on the stove, boiling the water, and adding the noodles and flavour package. Instant noodles used to be my standard after-school snack, but if I was feeling extra hungry and I was lucky, I’d make myself a bowl of meat-sauce noodles. The luck had to do with whether or not there was any meat sauce in the fridge.
The Momofuku name is a registered trademark of Momofuku and David Chang. I'm just using it (fair use?) to refer to his restaurant and cookbook.
All original content and photos is © 2010 copyright & all rights reserved Stephanie Le.
momofukufor2.com is where I document the little tips and tricks I learned while cooking through the Momofuku Cookbook by David Chang and Peter Meehan.
Subscribe via RSS
Follow me on Twitter