THE WARM EMBRACE OF ... SOUP

After a long day of dealing with the poopy-heads in Marin County, a man might want some comfort. Which meat and vegetable noodle soup most definitely is. It's better than cocktails, but not quite as good as a steamy romance, so all things considered it's pretty darn swell.


青菜肉絲麵

Last night's dinner. Bellpepper shreds and coarsely separated great green vegetable, (大青菜 'daai ching choi'), a smaller amount of slivered pork, soup stock. Sliced green onion, slivered ginger. And chili peppers.

Precook the noodles as per the package directions, drain and rinse.

Sliver the pork, marinate in a little sherry, cornstarch, sugar, and soy, for fifteen minutes. Heat some grease in a pan, briefly cook the green onion and ginger, then add the pork and bell pepper and a drizzle of the marinade and stirfry. At the right moment add stock and water, bring to a boil, dump the great green vegetable into the pan to blanch, then add the noodles for a brief reheat followed by decanting everything into a suitable bowl.
Garnish with chilipeppers as desired.

Do please note that the chilipeppers can also be added at any time during the cooking, and that most Chinese would not add the bellpepper.
But I also had bellpepper, and I like the crunch.
It adds a niceness to the dish.

All quantities are based on common sense.

Photo: Wikipedia (大青菜), and Bok choy.

In both written and spoken Chinese, unless particularly specified, all meat (肉 'yiuk') is pork, all vegetables (菜 'choi') are cabbage, and all noodles (麵 'min') are made of wheat.


椒

Per the dictionary, the bellpepper is 柿子椒 ('chi-ji chiu'; "persimmon pepper"), but at Cantonese markets it will usually be called 甜椒 ('tim chiu'; "sweet pepper"), or 青椒 ('ching chiu'; "green pepper"), sometimes 燈籠椒 ('dang lung chiu'; "lantern-basket pepper"). Hot peppers (chilies) are 辣椒 ('laat jiu'; "pungent pepper") or 尖椒 ('jim jiu'; "pointy pepper", Jalapeño), black pepper is 黑椒 ('hak chiu'; black pepper) or 胡椒 ('wu chiu'; "Turkish spice"). Anciently 胡 ('wu') meant the Turks and other savage heathens from the wastelands, but nowadays it is usually used for recklessness, stupidity, and things that are not quite done.


On Friday I didn't think to eat until after teatime, and ended up having two little pastries at a bakery in Chinatown. I do not do well on low bloodsugar, it may have affected my sanity yesterday.

I also don't do breakfast. Except for coffee.



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