Day fifteen: Hello China and good bye (for good) to Complaining Girl

Posted on | June 15, 2009

We get two days of dedicated international cuisine (as well as some international dishes along the way). Yesterday, we did Middle Eastern food (with some Greek dishes thrown in for good measure).

Today?

Today we’re cooking Chinese.

“A lot of Americans are baffled by the concept of flavor in food.”
~ Chef Rushmore

We had lost the mirepoix challenge a few days ago because I bled all over my onions after the “special learning opportunity” given my earlier team. So, as punishment, we were not allowed to choose the international cuisines we were going to cook.

The Chef choose for us. And he selected Chinese.

And of all the dishes we made, I took chow mein for my own.

“If you use dry beans instead of beans from the can, you’ll be paying only 10%.”
~ Chef Rushmore

I found it awkward dicing vegetables for my chow mein with one finger encased in a bandage and a finger cot, so I just took them off. My hands are pretty beat up, anyway, with the never-ending washing, so one more ding is no big deal. What does concern me a bit is that I cut through the cuticle and nail. So I’m being cautious with that finger.

Compared to yesterday, we almost had too much time on our hands. Yesterday, we made eight dishes; today, only six. And, except for the soup, the dishes were fairly simple (the simplest being jasmine rice: 1 cup rice plus 2 cups water, rinse, simmer, cover).

In fact, we had so much time on our hands that I made rice unbeknownst to Asian Guy and he made rice unbeknownest to me.

That was a lot of rice. So we only plated the first one we grabbed: His. But it didn’t turn out nicely so we should have plated mine which turned out perfectly.

And so ends our two days of international cuisine education.

“The breakfast cereal you buy costs more than steak per pound.”
~ Chef Rushmore

Starting tomorrow, we are learning beef cookery. In this segment, we’ll do more sauces. Now, I found sauces so interesting that I did as many as I could in first term. So I’ve already made half of the sauces we will cover.

So I’ll focus on ones I haven’t done.

We’re also doing a risotto in this segment. I also seemed to corner the market on that in first term, so I’ll try and avoid making another. We’ll see how successful I am.

Gone, but not forgotten
Oh, and rumor has it that Complaining Girl, who was supposedly bounced into the night class after the blow up in my class where she commented on the diminutive size of a classmates’ penis, never showed up. So she is gone, but not forgotten. Because, apparently, she is still sending hate email to the classmate with the woefully inadequate package.

I can’t think of anything to help her, but I get emails all the time that can help him.

Comments

4 Responses to “Day fifteen: Hello China and good bye (for good) to Complaining Girl”

Jason
June 15th, 2009 @ 11:38 am

That comment about beans is so true. Dried beans may take longer, but they are cheaper and worlds better than canned.

What other international cuisines do they teach? Which would you have chosen?
student
June 15th, 2009 @ 1:13 pm

Two days of international food is all we get. But, throughout the terms, we do the odd curry and French dish and so on, so while the pickings are slim, they are not nonexistent.

As for what I would choose – I’d love a term on just French food. Than, maybe, Japanese. Or Moroccan. Or African.

Cheers!
chef max
June 18th, 2009 @ 8:55 am

Just a comment on your question as to why tzatziki and spanakopita were on a middle eastern menu:

You are right that they are Greek- but versions of both are used throughout the middle east. Street vendors offer tzatziki as an alternative to tahini on felafel sandwiches, and filo stuffed with savory fillings are common from Greece all the way around the Mediterranean to Morocco. They can be done as pies (similar to spanakopita and b’stilla) or as individual pastries (such as tyropites, bourekas, and all of their variations). One of the joys of exploring the cuisines of the region is seeing how the same basic dish morphs into local variations. Remember, the peoples of that region have traded, warred, and intermarried for millennia- each time bringing their food with them.

Keep writing: I do so love following your blog!
Chinese Cooking Class
July 8th, 2009 @ 5:15 am

I’ve been looking a long time for a blog like this one, and now my questions needed answering for so long have been dealt with here at (Day fifteen: Hello China and good bye (for good) to Complaining Girl . great! Kind regards, Betty Ann Carter.