#CAFB Food Blogger Project Day 2: Garlic Fried Rice

At the Hunger Awareness Project kickoff meeting last week, Lisa Goddard, the Online Marketing Director at CAFB, said that she had no real ideas on what to expect out of the food bloggers this week, and she liked that. She said that each face who comes into the Capital Area Food Bank has a completely different story, from the homeless man living on the street, to the mother of three who, although still fully employed, still just needs a little something extra to fill her pantry because she's unable to do so on her own means.

We're a few days into the project and I continue to be amazed as to the different stories that are emerging out of everyone else's experiences who are also on the project (Check out the other blogs as well, if you haven't gotten a chance already). Many of the bloggers, such as Something to Chew On and Austin Farm to Table, are diving full on into the hunger experience, eating nothing but stuff from the sample list for an entire week. As for us, we kind of made the executive decision to work with the list kind of like a Top Chef challenge. We want to produce some reasonably tasty Asian-inspired dishes made largely from the sample list with a few low-cost additions. The reason for this is, first, because we're much more familiar with Asian cooking than any other kind. But also our hope is that maybe (just maybe) a family who takes from the CAFB regularly who might be a little weary of Hamburger Helper and spaghetti marinara might somehow stumble upon these recipes and eat some dishes they might not normally get to eat.

Today's recipe is probably not one that's unfamiliar to any of you: garlic fried rice. Once again, the ingredients are mostly taken from the sample list of items visitors to the Capital Area Food Bank may receive:

• 4 cups of white rice
• 1 can of mixed vegetables (any mix will do, but we used peas and carrots)
• Any protein that is available (chicken, pork, beef)

In addition, we are adding the following, which might already be available in many kitchens or at most would cost a few dollars at the grocery store:

• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup chopped green onions
• Soy sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Oil

The first step is the heat up a big wok or any large frying pan (with high sides, if possible) with a tablespoon of oil. Break the eggs open and scramble. Once the egg is mostly solidified, mix in the garlic, followed by the rice. As an aside, Mama Ren insists that the rice you add should be as old as possible to fully maximize the flavor of the rice. I will add that freshly cooked rice seems to work just fine and rice that is over 3 days old should probably be thrown out for safety's sake.

Stir-fry the rice and eggs until everything is hot (should be about 5 minutes depending on how cold the rice was initially). Next add in bite-size pieces any pre-cooked protein and stir fry for 2 minutes.

(Just like the congee, this dish goes great with whatever you have, leftover rotisserie chicken, pork chops, whatever.)

Drain the mixed vegetables and add them in as well, mixing while you add. Add in some soy sauce (to taste, although adding too much may make the rice soupy) and add salt and pepper (also to taste). Lastly add in the green onions and stir fry for another minute. Let sit for 5 minutes while the sauces absorb into the rice and it's ready to serve.

We make this dish a lot because it is fun to make and there is a lot of room for creativity. Sometimes we like using some green curry, other times we'll mix in some oyster sauce, fish sauce, and fresh basil for more of a Thai twist. But in almost all instances we like to use fresh vegetables, whatever we have lying around. Sometimes in a pinch I've used frozen vegetables, but this was the first time we've used canned vegetables and it was a pretty noticeable difference. Even as someone who is pretty adamant about the importance of eating vegetables with every meal, for a split-second I wondered if I should leave the canned vegetables out of the recipe.

This brings to light something which, in my mind, is a key issue in hunger awareness. Even if you are provide enough food for you family in terms of sustenance, it is simply not cost-effective to make the choice to eat healthy.

If we were making this dish like we normally do, I would have added in some bell peppers, celery, some broccoli, and maybe some carrots, but that would have increased the cost of the dish by about five times. Even just adding one fresh vegetable ingredient might double it.

A few weeks ago in the Austin Chronicle, Belinda Acosta wrote an article about the ABC show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" that pointed out the fact that it's somewhat unfair to lambast middle Americans for making poor food choices when in reality it's not that feasible economically:

"[W]hen it comes right down to it, it's more profitable to create processed, unhealthy food than food that is good for the American people. When a person of limited means is trying to decide between a bundle of fresh broccoli and a bag of processed food that only requires the addition of a cheap cut of meat or pasta to feed a whole family, what do you think the logical choice is?"

With this in mind, it makes it all the more impressive that the Capital Area Food Bank boasts one of the largest fresh produce distributions in the country. The Fresh Food for Families program distributes an average of 30 pounds of food to more than 3,600 families each month.

When it comes right down to it, my distaste for canned vegetables might be seen as just me being overly picky. But it is quite the blessing that so many families, thanks to the CAFB, actually get to make that choice.

Day 1: Skipping lunch

Hi there, Han here. I am not a big lunch-eater. I tend to have whatever Justin makes for breakfast, and bring a few snacks with me to nosh on during the day in lieu of an actual lunch. As a graduate student, my time is limited, and whatever break I take for lunch, comes out of my own time. I would much rather eat at my desk at my research job and get paid for that hour, then go somewhere to eat. Even microwaving something quick is too much effort in my book. My nutrition probably suffers because of this, but I do try to bring healthy, easy snacks.

On most days, I have gotten into a habit of bringing these snacks with me to class/work: Lara bar (or Luna bar), trail mix, piece of fruit, diet coke, and chocolate (what can i say... I'm a stressed out woman!) On Thursdays, I go up to a high school to do individual therapy with students as part of my practicum. This involves the rare day of the week where I must dress like I'm older than 15, and carry a bag that isn't a backpack. Yesterday morning, I forgot to transfer my prepackaged snacks from my backpack to my grown-up-bag. Alas, I found myself at lunchtime, without any food, and not even my diet coke. What to do? On a usual day, I'd probably head to Subway and spend the $5 on something quick. But in the spirit of this project, I opted to truck along on an empty stomach. The afternoon passed by quickly, and I made it back home around 4 p.m. It had been 8 hours since I last ate, and my body had made it past grumbling hunger to the "I'm so hungry that I don't even feel hungry anymore" stage. I ate something, but don't even remember what I ate because I was so fuzzy headed. What I do remember is the absolutely foul mood I was in. I was so cranky and emotional, for no particular reason at all. It took me a few hours and snacks to get back into a decent state of mind. The whole afternoon/evening was disorienting and not enjoyable.

This was just one day of skipping lunch. Now imagine the countless number of people who do this every day. There are so many children whose only solid meal each day is lunch at school. They are expected to make it through the afternoon, using their brains, and then go home and do homework, without the chance to eat a filling dinner. How can they realistically function without the necessary brain food? When I was teaching, the mother of one of my students told me that her secret to staying thin was that her only meal of the day was dinner. The rest of the day, she would cook for her children, but not eat any herself. It amazed me then, and it astonishes me now. Not merely the fact that she had to live like this, but also her ability to joke about her circumstances as a weight loss plan. She has to take care of 3 young kids, go to work, and maintain her sense of humor, all on one meal a day... WOW. I couldn't even smile after skipping 1 meal! For me, hunger is temporary-- the few minutes before dinner, the week of doing a blogging project, the hours between breakfast and dinner. For so many others, hunger is perpetual. Let's not forget that when we eat our next meal.

#CAFB Food Blogger Project Day 1: Congee

So as Han wrote about earlier, we are participating in a food blogger project with the Capital Area Food Bank. The idea is to spread awareness of hunger issues by experiencing some of the same issues first hand.

At the kickoff meeting we talked about some of the options that are available for those who are in need of food assistance. Families can receive one bag per month, filled largely with unperishable or canned foods, such as canned vegetables, dry carbs, cereals, etc. And families can also receive food stamps that can help supplement their pantries as well.

This week we will be eating meals prepared largely with ingredients that families would receive in a monthly bag, with a few additions that could be purchased rather inexpensively with food stamps.

When we first decided to sign up for this project, we pretty knew one of the first dishes we would prepare is congee. Congee is known by a lot of different names, depending the ethnicity of restaurant or household, jook or xi fan just to name a few, but the dish is almost always the same: rice porridge.

Now, if you've never had it before, it probably sounds strange or maybe a little disgusting. But if you grew up in an Asian household it probably evokes warm feelings of breakfast nostalgia.

There are a number of reasons why I thought this would make a perfect dish to start off the project:

1. It's a very authentic dish. Some of the other stuff we will try to make later on this week will no doubt need some artistic licensing due to the available ingredients, but this is a long-standing tried and true recipe.
   
2. It's very inexpensive. Just one cup of dry white rice can make as many as 8 servings. And it's very filling to boot.
   
3. It's easy! Seriously, no Chinese cooking experience is needed. I guarantee.

As I stated, the main ingredient in this dish is rice, which is a common item that families can receive as part of their monthly bag. In addition, we also add some fresh ginger and green onions, both of which total to about a dollar.

The first step to preparing congee is to soak the rice. In a big pot (bigger than you think you might need) put 1 cup of white rice and 10 cups of cold water. Let that soak for about 30 minutes with no heat.

Next turn on the heat and bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling turn the heat down to low, slice the ginger (about a thumb) with a vegetable peeler and add it to the water. You can also just leave the ginger in bigger chunks if you don't want to actually eat the ginger and just want some for flavor.

Now another reason why this ended up being a pretty good dish for this project: At the food bank we also learned that families will sometimes also receive portions of meat. This can vary from month to month from whole chickens to ham hocks. Part of the beauty of congee is that it goes well with almost any type of ingredient. If you would like to add in some fresh uncooked chicken, beef, or pork, go ahead and add it in now so that the meat will cook and the flavors will soak into the rice.

Once the water is at a low simmer, let it cook for 90 minutes, stirring regularly. Be sure to monitor the consistency after about 60 minutes: if it seems too thick, go ahead and add more water.

With about 10 minutes to go, if you have either already cooked meats, like leftover chicken, or maybe some fish, go ahead and add it now. When the meat is hot and cooked, the dish is ready to be served. Top with some chopped green onions for added flavor.

We ended up making a big pot of this a few days ago and have been eating it for breakfast every day. As I said earlier, this is a great dish for families because just one cup of rice makes several servings. Han and I are just two people, and so while it certainly has been cost effective to eat like this, I'm a man who really likes to have a lot of variety, especially for breakfast.

I think in the short time that we've participated in this project so far, this is the first lesson I've learned: variety is a luxury that I have taken for granted. I love congee, but it's been harder getting up in the morning knowing that I'm going to be eating the same old stuff I ate yesterday.

Seems like a silly thing to whine about, right? People who are truly hungry are probably just happy to get anything at all. As much as I grumbled about having to eat congee again for breakfast, I got to go to Wahoo's for lunch today, but at least this time I got to appreciate being able to make that choice.

P. S. Be sure to check out the other bloggers participating in this project: http://austinfoodbank.wordpress.com/austin-food-bloggers/

Hunger is UNacceptable

The food blogging community in Austin is incredibly welcoming and collaborative. This week's blogging project is another reason why I am so grateful to be part of this community. We are working with Capital Area Food Bank to cook, eat, and blog for a week from a bag of food that is typical of what the food bank distributes to a family in need. The goal of this project is to create our own "hunger stories," to experience first hand some of the struggles so many families face in trying to feed their families healthy, nutritious, and delicious foods with limited means. As compassionate Chinese-American foodies, we jumped at the opportunity to put our own spin on this challenge. Hopefully while learning a bit more about ourselves and hunger in the process. Our goal is to make deliciously affordable Asian-fusion cuisine from our bag of groceries, with minimal addition expenditure.

This evening, we had the opportunity to tour the warehouse and learn a bit more about the organization and structure behind feeding 300,000 people each year. This food bank is really quite amazing: floor to ceiling boxes of donated food, loading docks that accommodate vehicles of all sizes, 6000 volunteers annually, the second largest food bank distributor of fresh produce in the country, and 23 MILLION pounds of food distributed in the last year alone. The landscape of hunger is changing, with unprecedented numbers of families reaching out for help, many of them middle class. Hunger is a growing reality.

Justin and I have different visions for this project, he will focus on the logistics, recipes, and economics, whereas I will focus on the process, reflections, and ego aspects of this experience. Together, we will try to duplicate what this experience might be like for a young Chinese couple, possibly recent immigrants to this country, trying to reproduce the familiar flavors of home with our available ingredients. This is not too far from my childhood reality. I was born in China, and joined my parents in the U.S. when I was 5. My parents struggled financially, as my dad was a graduate student, my mom worked a labor job, and both sets of grandparents lived with us. We were a family of 7, sharing a 2 bedroom graduate housing apartment, on 1 income. Needless to say, it was a difficult time for us. However, we were able to scrape by on careful budgeting, a small community garden plot, and yes, donated food. I don't remember ever going hungry, and I thank the generosity of our community for it. My childhood gives depth and meaning to this project. I have no idea how my parents were able to do it so deliciously. But I am so thankful that they did.

After our visit to the food bank, we went to the grocery store to pick up our necessary essentials, to duplicate what we might find in a typical bag. Here is what we came home with, at around $13. A few of these products would have been included in our bag, such as the rice, spaghetti, and canned vegetables. The rest are assumed to come out of a food stamp (or "snap" as I learned it is officially called) budget. Our goal is to keep our total additional expenses under $20, and cook our dinners for a week from that budget plus the food bag. We will also be making a trip to the Asian supermarket for affordable accompaniments to our staple meal items, because as I told Justin, no self-respecting Chinese person will substitute dill pickle for traditional pickled cabbage in our congee. Stay tuned for day 1, officially beginning tomorrow!

How Do You Roll?: The Chipotle of sushi restaurants

If you're like me, and your wife goes on prolonged craft/crocheting binge, you might find yourself up at JoAnn's Fabric up at the Arbor Walk at 183 and MoPac pretty frequently. There, you may have noticed a funky little sushi joint called How Do You Roll? that looks absolutely nothing like a sushi restaurant typically looks like.

And if you're like me, you're probably pretty skeptical of strip mall sushi (as you probably should be), but if you like your sushi (and if you like it good and fresh and without a whole lot of pretense and/or techno music) then you're not going to want to shy away from this place.

For starters, despite its mod fast-food-like appearance, the folks at HDYR know what they're doing. In fact, one of the owners was the long time sushi chef at Azuma in Houston before deciding to get out of the fine dining industry and start a more approachable way to bring sushi to the masses.

Some of the changes from traditional sushi places that you will see are pretty creative and complex. For instance, they've managed to automate the rice spreading as well as the slicing of the maki into individual sushi pieces.

But other changes really seem like no-brainers. Instead of picking from a set selection of sushi rolls, you create your maki just like at Chipotle. First, you pick your wrap (seaweed or soy paper). Then a machine spreads the sushi rice onto your roll. Then you pick your fillings.

Fish selections include traditional favorites, such as tuna, salmon, and eel. For the more adventurous, I definitely recommend the crawfish tails. (BTW, what is up with Northwest Austin and their Asian/crawfish fusion?? All I gotta say is keep it coming!!) Seasonal specials are also available as well.

For the "veggies," once again, traditional favorites such as cucumber, tamago (aka egg, yeah i guess egg is a vegetable), and cream cheese. But also available are asparagus, jalapeno, and sprouts.

Finally, you can opt to add some masago or tempura crumbles. Then, they put it through the automated maki slicer (I deliberated asking them not to cut mine so I could eat it as a sushi-rito), add a side of miso soup or seaweed salad, and you're good to go.

The end result? A pretty good set of sushi, with taste and presentation that do not suffer because of the new format one bit.

Oh did I mention, its about 10 pieces of sushi for under $10? Well enough for most sushi eaters looking to eat well for not a lot of money.

Even better, their happy hour specials make eating here an even bigger steal. Beer and cold sake are available, but I would have to say that I definitely miss having hot sake with my sushi. Hopefully, they'll make it available in the future.

So in closing, strict purists may still scoff, but if you're still saving up for that Uchi dinner, and Sushi Sake's happy hour already ended, you might want to give this place a try. Once you go low-cost, low-hassle sushi, you may never want to go back.

Guatemalan Topado Soup: Don't Try This At Home

So about a month ago, Han and I took a post-holidays "vacation from your vacation" cruise through the Western Caribbean. One of our favorite stops was at Santo Tomas de Castilla in Guatemala. There we took a boat trip down the Rio Dulce and stopped at the small town of Livingston.

Unknown to us at the time, Livingston is famous for two things: catering to tourists from cruise ships from all over the world, and a special seafood soup called topado.

Our tour guide took us through the town and stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants off the main road in town. Being a river town, there were all sorts of seafood dishes available plus some of the more common dishes you'd come to expect. We knew we at least wanted the conch ceviche, but when we asked our server to recommend their best dish she said we had to try the topado, as it was the local specialty of Livingston.

The soup features this red creamy base with giant pieces of crab and fried fish and pieces of plantain. It was very flavorful and the meats were delectable. I seriously couldn't get enough of it. Once we left the restaurant and continued to walk around the town, we noticed that a lot of the restaurants also had signs that said "Try our Topado!"

Anyways, when we got home, being the daring amateur cooks that we are, tried to find a recipe on the internet to replicate the topado soup. The closest thing we could find was on Recipezaar so we gave it a shot. Unfortunately, as you'll see later, we didn't have a whole lot of success.

Ingredients:
-2 cups coconut milk
-1 onion
-1 red bell pepper
-2 lbs red snapper (we used tilapia)
-1 lb shrimp
-1 Tbsp corn oil
-1 Tsp oregano

-1/2 Tsp salt

-1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

-1 plantain

-1 medium tomato

-3 tsp freshly chopped cilantro

-2 cups water

Now, the directions get a little hazy here. I'll post what we did:

-Slice the onion and saute in the corn oil.

-Add the coconut milk and spices and simmer for about 5 minutes

-Add the fish and shrimp in whole and simmer for another 10 minutes or until cooked

-Slice the plantain and dice the tomato and add to the soup and simmer for another 5 minutes

Here was the resulting dish:

Now, it doesn't look TOO bad, but it did not look anything like the soup we had in Guatemala, and it sure as heck didn't taste anything like it either.

I can tell you first and foremost that adding the fish in whole was a mistake. The soup we had in Guatemala was fried first, which in hindsight was key. The recipe we used said to dice the fish into 2" cubes, which probably would have turned out better as well.

Also the soup we had in Guatemala, not only more flavorful, was also much more, um, redder. Not really sure what happened there but I'm guessing it had something to do with stewing the red peppers or tomatoes?

So now we are reaching out to all of you, our loyal readers. Where did we go wrong? What could we have done instead? Does anyone actually have a real topado recipe they can share with us?

We welcome all suggestions!

Hot Boiled: The Ultimate Mardi Gras/Lunar New Year Spot

Welcome everyone to the Year of the Tiger! What a holiday week it's been. Valentine's day, Chinese/Lunar New Year, my birthday (ahem), and to top it all off Mardi Gras is this Tuesday!

If you happen to be looking for a place to celebrate both Mardi Gras and LNY, a restaurant that serves both Vietnamese food and cajun/gulf coast food, look no further than Hot Boiled.

Located on the corner of Mopac and Parmer Ln, the sign at Hot Boiled says it all: "crawfish and pho." The owners of Hot Boiled are Vietnam natives but come to us by way of New Orleans.

A quick look up and down the menu and you will find many favorites from both cajun and Vietnamese culinary cultures, everything from pho and bun to etouffee and poboys. We opted to go with the crawfish pho and crawfish fried rice. Both were very tasty. The fried rice was moist and light and had plenty of big and juicy crawfish tails. The pho had a very flavorful not-too-salty broth, even for pho. My only real complaint about it is that they were exactly just that: fried rice with crawfish and pho with crawfish. There wasn't a whole lot of cajun flavor in either dish, or any further "fusing" of the cultures.

And I understand that maybe that isn't fair. After all, they advertise "crawfish and pho" and that is exactly what we got. But I really would have like to see more dishes that took it a step further. (Later that night I had a dream I ate a BBQ alligator banh mi... I wonder if it's a sign?)

But in the end, it's hard to have complaints about a place where you can get a bowl of crawfish pho with a side of gumbo and spring roll. Combine that with courteous service and a great happy hour ($2 domestics, $2.50 imports) and it's kung hei fat choy every day of the year.