March 7, 2006 Archives

In the midst of all this racism-related talk, my brother and girlfriend and friend rented Crash, which we finished watching just now. Definitely a topic more fundamental to treat of. Forbidden loves can wait.

I'm making chicken congee, b/c I can. :D If I could, I'd make something fancier, like pork fillet and thousand years eggs... and actually, what I don't find fancy is plain 'zhouk' with a random meat. We had this rotation going on for too long (ground beef, chicken thighs, fish pieces), that I am intrigued by what I could actually do with a good congee base. And it's not like I've never been to snack-bars serving only congee. There was one I disliked, with pork stew meat and peanuts. I think I had some with squid, but it doesn't add fancy, and is not something I actually feel comfortable having with congee. (I saw ... bacon in the freezer XD) Hey, so what about fusion? I mean, the Italians have risotto, don't they? Chinese 'shrooms are actually standard in congee, and we regularly put porcinis in our 'lap mei fan' (preserved meats rice - modified with, err, ground beef). (Must try to make this blog less of a conversation with myself - it screws up the connections indeed)

Oh, now that I remember it, we sometimes put choy in the congee (something I don't hear of in restaurants), and many times substituted the Chinese variety for rapini? It was so un-good.

I don't exactly know where I read this article of information on pâté chinois (it wasn't on L'Épicerie alright). The article (I don't even know if it came in paper, or electronically, but it was written for sure) had a few anecdotes on the Pâté Chinois, a French Canadian meal made of ground beef mixed with corn, and a layer of potatoes. Its deeper origins are probably not from this land (as every European nation seems to have their own dish mixing beef, potatoes and corn), and the closest cousin is probably the English Shepherd's Pie (was it made with mutton meat - I dunno), and it other closer cousin from New England. The article in question proposes that the first recipe of a pâté chinois came from a New England town called "China", where many French Canadians emigrated to at the turn of the 20th century. I always thought they are the exact same concepts (and for certain purposes - like producing frozen meals for the entire North American market - they are assumed to be), but there's something in the little things you add/tweak, and where you add/tweak them. Like carrots in the potatoes (I would put mine with the ground beef / corn), or cheese you put on top. Apparently creamed corn is also a variant.

(Actually the info got on Wikipedia (b/c I know it isn't from Wikipedia that I read it), so maybe I dreamt reading the article - which would be really weird)

Typically, I would use ground beef and creamed corn. Lest time I added carrots in the beef too. This time (yesterday night), I had the semi-bad idea (no one in the household complained) of using nibblets instead, which makes the thing awfully dry. Actually, my mother complained it was dry - which is a combination of using nibblets instead of creamed corn, and for once having more mashed potatoes than beef/corn mix. The mashed potatoes has been home-made in recent years. As a kid, I was too lazy - or actually *did not know* (-_-) that it was as simple as it was to obtain mashed potatoes and instead bought the Shirriff brand potato flakes - expensive, and not necessarily tasty.

I really made too much of the mashed potatoes, such that I had some left. I actually don't know, b/c I've been in a sort of food coma, and even "napping", since dinner time (7PM, now 2AM). Too much carbohydrates at once perhaps. It lacked "tasty", and could have used a lot more butter (but I prefer to restrain myself when it comes to particularly bad-for-health types of animal fat). Cheese was shredded swiss non-Kraft brand, but I would want to try with a Cheedar-ish variety (with its spicy spikes).