daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
Here are a few photos from a farewell dinner we had at Asia Cafe. My favorite dish “Spicy Fish” is the last photo. We got a double-order! 😀
Tonight I made some Chinese-style seasoned ribs and Oyster-sauce greens for Mariko’s birthday. She didn’t have a specific request, but I offered to try a new dry rub recipe on a tried-and-true baby-back ribs cooking method, and she said that sounded good. The ribs turned out great!
At the same website where I found the ribs recipe, I found a recipe for the greens and they also turned out nicely:
I hope Mariko enjoyed her birthday dinner!
Here are the recipes:
I braved the freezing weather to pick up a few dishes from Hunan Bistro, which is a Chinese restaurant we really like. Our favorite dish is Toothpick Lamb, but we also got mabo tofu, Sichuan eggplant, pork with tofu, and fried rice. For Lunar New Year, we usually travel down to San Antonio to celebrate at my cousin’s house, where she throws a huge party. But because of COVID-19, we’re spending a quiet dinner at home. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to travel to see more family… crossing fingers!
Anyways, here’s to a prosperous year of the Ox!
As the temperature outside starts to drop, it’s time to turn up the heat inside our stomachs! This hot pot was made using the Little Sheep brand hot pot mix, and included tofu, chicken, fish meatballs mushrooms, noodles, and greens. I ate so much and got so warm! We don’t have Chinese hot pot often, but I think we need to change that. 🌶🔥
Tonight we tried the Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp, and enjoyed it very much! It has a lot of flavor, but not a lot of heat, so it’s a nice sauce for those who don’t like things too fiery. The website sums it up nicely: ” Intensely flavorful yet not off-the-charts spicy, it’ll make your food taste bolder and the world around you seem a little bit brighter.”
We have lots of other sauces to try, and I have a feeling we’ll get to them pretty soon because we were gobbling up tonight’s Sichuan Chili Crisp with gusto. 😄
I’ve been enjoying the Spicy Fish from Asia Café for years now, and it surprises me that the taste is still as I remember the first time I ate it. The to-go container has changed a couple of times (and the portion my be slightly smaller) but the flavor is still yummy, oily, and hot. It’s great! I’m not sure what kind of fish fillet they actually use, but someone once said it was catfish. But another person said tilapia. I guess I could just ask the restaurant next time, but I like the mystery of not knowing. 😆
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
This evening I had to fend for myself, as the saying goes, since my wife and kids were all out. I thought it would a nice night for some pho, but then I decided to check out the local Yelp listings for noodles. I almost went to try a ramen restaurant that recently opened, but decided on Chinese noodles at Xian Sushi and Noodle. Despite the name listing on Yelp, the restaurant no longer serves sushi (and the menu just said Xian Noodles on the cover), which is fine since they can devote their efforts on the signature hand-pulled noodles. There were a couple items on the menu that I wanted to try but ultimately went with the Red Braised Beef Noodles, which was highly recommended by Chinese reviewers.
The broth was flavorful and the noodles were chewy and substantial. You can actually choose from perhaps six different types of noodles, but I asked the Chinese waitress what she recommends, and she said she likes the “thick spaghetti”. That sounds like a description that someone might use to describe the noodles to Western diners actually. They were really good, and I would choose them again. There was a good amount of beef in the soup as well, although the noodles were definitely the star of the show, at least for me.
Years ago I lived in Monterey Park, California, which has a sizable first-generation Chinese population and therefore a huge number of authentice Chinese restaurants to choose from. My roommate, who was from Hong Kong, and I used to go out to eat quite often, and the noodles that I had tonight at Xian were reminiscent of the beef noodle soup that I used to enjoy in Monterey Park. That’s definitely a good thing!
The other item on the menu at Xian is the Dan Dan Noodles, so I will need to go back in the future. Maybe next time I can convince my family to join. 😀
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
