Asian Night

I don’t know about you, but when I go out for Asian food, I want VARIETY! I want the noodles, rice, a few different dishes, the whole megillah. Oh man, if my daughter-in-law is reading this, she just said, “HUH?”. She thinks I speak in some strange foreign language half the time.

OK Angela, “the whole megillah” means having it all, “the whole nine yards”, “the whole ball of wax”, “the whole shootin’ match”, “the whole shebang”. It has nothing to do with the cartoon character Magilla Gorilla, although he was pretty big. And you probably have no idea who Magilla Gorilla is anyway do you? Ah, that darn Generation Gap.

Anyway “megillah” is the Hebrew word for scroll. Reading from those scrolls on holy days was long and tedious. The “whole megilla”started out meaning a long, tedious, or complicated story. Then it also started being used to just mean the whole darn thing.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Asian dinners. Anyway, last night the kids were coming for dinner so I thought I’d give it a shot. I managed three dishes, Broccoli Beef in Oyster Sauce, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and Sumi Salad, with a side of steamed rice courtesy of the rice cooker.

Actual cooking is easy, it’s the prep work that sucks. But I got all my ducks in a row earlier in the day, and with Angela’s help we got dinner cooked in short order.

The rice cooker took care of the rice, so I didn’t have to think about that. Angela manned one skillet, fixing the chicken dish. I had broccoli beef going in another skillet. Or, I could have made the chicken and kept it warm in a crock pot, just stirring in the green onion before serving. That works too. You could even hold the broccoli beef warm for a while if you want to get real crazy and make another dish, like some pot stickers. But I wasn’t that ambitious. Maybe another day.

Author: MOM

Cards on the table, I'm NOT a chef. Most of the time, I don't really even like to cook. But, I ALWAYS love to eat!....and I've had a lifetime of great cooks in my family showing me what good food's supposed to taste like. People are always asking me for recipes, asking what I'm cooking, so here you go. What I cook is probably as bizarre as my kids think I am. Sometimes healthy, sometimes artery clogging. Sometimes gourmet, sometimes just a quick fix to fill an empty place. Sometimes secret Italian family recipes, sometimes quick dump and stir out of cans. That's the way I roll. Take what you please, leave the rest. It's not brain surgery.