photo by Love and Lemons

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with soba noodles.

I am constantly on a quest for quick, easy dinner ideas. I am often ready to eat as soon as I walk in the front door after work. It’s important for me on those nights to have some quick and healthy dinner options to prevent me from eating cheese and crackers for dinner. The short cooking time of ~3-5 minutes for the noodles means dinner comes fast.

After searching the internet for soba noodle recipes, I came across this one from Love and Lemons : a bowl of soba noodles chock full of kale, edamame, peanuts, lime and cilantro.  It’s a nutritious, quick meal loaded with veggies that is almost as quick as take-out.

I even make the sauce the night before and then just pull it out of the fridge as soon as I get home while I finish the rest of the ingredients.  Super easy, super fast, and super nutritious. I mean, do you really need anything else in your weeknight meal?

And after a dinner like this one, I feel I deserve that little square of dark chocolate for dessert. Or two.

Enjoy!

After getting our room key at our new hotel in Chengdu, the first order of business was to locate dumplings. Locating dumplings were easier than ordering them!  We tentatively entered a restaurant near the hotel where we were ushered upstairs. Thankfully, there were a few people in our group that spoke some Chinese. We managed to order some pork and veggie dumplings, and some side plates including peanuts and spicy tofu. We took pictures of the menu and tried to memorize the characters for tofu and pork. More importantly, we learned the words for dumplings, jiaozi and beer, píjiu.

Translation apps on the iPad.

Old school language tools.

Dumpling Palace

This restaurant, dubbed “Dumpling Palace”, quickly became one my favorites. It was our cafeteria since the hotel had no kitchen facilities. Thanks to translation apps, a library book with Chinese characters, and a little pamphlet from a software tutorial, every meal was a learning opportunity.

The sweetest server in Chengdu

The sweet young girl who was our server was always entertained by our attempts to order. After two weeks of ordering the same side plates and dumplings, she presented us with an English menu that she had translated for us.  Oh, that was an exciting day to be eating at the Palace!

A little jiao zi and pi jiu with friends

The search for food in the street of Beijing

My first encounter with street food in China occurred after the perfect storm of jetlag, low blood sugar, achy feet, group dynamics, and an elusive Peking duck restaurant. Abandoning the search for the Beijing specialty, we started walking back to the hotel through the alleys (hutongs) with eyes wide open for some sustenance.

All of a sudden, we smelled something delicious as we passed by a long line of Chinese people. We jumped in line in spite of the fact that we had no idea what they were serving or how we were going to communicate when we reached the counter. Thankfully, a young woman in line who spoke English overheard our discussion and told us that it was “chinese bread”….”delicious”.

A sweet man in front of us ordered for us and helped us pay the correct amount of yuan. We sat down on a bench nearby, eating our delicious Chinese bread (that cost us only 1 yuan (~16¢) per steamed bun. Perhaps it wasn’t the most savory of all Chinese street food. It definitely would have been delicious in combination with some Peking duck. But it was definitely a great way to start our China adventure and introduction into food stalls and street food.

Chinese bread in Beijing

With our blood sugar levels elevated, we walked home and reflected on what a privotal night it had been.  We had ignored all the warnings about street food. And we satiated. We had found a motto for the rest of our time in China.  Follow the lines. It’s the safer way to eat street food and definitely the most delicious way to eat it. Occasionally, our peers would even follow suit.

Each morning in Beijing started with an abundant continental breakfast at the Oriental International Hotel. It was a nice way to get acclimated to the Chinese style of breakfast of savory congee, noodles, and bao zi while still having Western options, including coffee, cereal and croissants. Congee is a rice porridge to which condiments are added, depending on your preferred taste. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, a warm, cooked breakfast is preferred to a cold cereal as it’s better for the spleen and stomach, which is the source of energy, blood and qi for body. It strengthens the digestion, warms the digestive organs, improves the metabolism, and helps eliminate excess fluids. It can be especially beneficial for fertility issues and digestive disorders.

Overall, the Chinese breakfast is more flavorful and savory than a typical Western breakfast, involving ingredients like ginger, garlic, scallions, fermented and pickled veggies.  The bao zi is a steamed bun filled with a variety of ingredients.  The dough is airy and kind of sweet.  Delicious.  Even though I didn’t always know what I was eating (a common theme in my eating adventures in China), I loved trying all the different flavors and foods. After the initial curiosity, however, I realized my morning taste buds weren’t always ready for such a flavorful wake up call.  I missed my Paqui breakfast tacos.  

However, upon returning to the States, I found myself wanting to expand my breakfast options beyond the Austin staple of breakfast tacos. Congee is so simple to make on the stove top and even simpler if you have a rice cooker.

Congee Recipe

For the rice cooker method of congee: add the recommended amount of rice and fill the water up to the porridge line and hit the porridge option on the menu. The rice cooker will turn off before all the water has been absorbed, leaving you with the right consistency.

For the crockpot method of congee: add one cup of organic rice to 8 cups of water. Cook on low overnight or on high for 4-6 hours until it has a soupy consistency.

For the stove top version of congee:

1. Add 1 cup of organic rice and 7-8 cups of water to the saucepan.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, keeping it partially covered.
3. Continue to simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Stir the rice occasionally – the more frequently you stir, the creamier the rice will become.  If it is getting too thick, add more water.
4. Remove from the stovetop when the rice has reached the consistency that you prefer.
5. Variations: Make it sweet or savory depending on your mood and tastebuds.  Instead of water, use chicken stock.  Stir in an egg to make a breakfast version.  Add dried fruit, almonds, ground flax seed and coconut oil or butter.  Congee can also be a lunch or dinner by adding in leftover chicken with spinach and mushrooms. Season it up with garlic, onions, chili paste, or soy sauce. The options are endless!

If you want to improve digestion, metabolism, and fertility, skip the breakfast tacos and try some congee!