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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: How often do you cook? Should we cook more?
Hi Everyone,
I find myself cooking very little while living in China, and I am just wondering if you have the same experience...
I should potentially start cooking more, but it is not always easy with ingredient availability. What dishes from home do you like to make in China (with ingredients that are not too complex)?
I cook whenever I can, like today. It's healthier and also makes more sense to cook than to drown in the oil that's surely in every meal outside. Pasta is easy to cook so is Chinese noodles. Sometimes I make Guinness stew (weekends) when I have time. Weekdays are usually simple meals. Easiest is still the old sandwich.
I used to be the same. Now I cook every day. Even on a lazy day I still throw a pizza in the oven.
When I was living alone, I was not cooking often, no motivation. Now, we cook often at home. We use local ingredients. We used to do simple Chinese dishes only (wokked vegetables, tofu, eggs with pre-made sauces), but we are increasingly doing Chinese/French fusion dishes ^^ We bake cakes sometimes too.
We eat out 2-3 times per week. My wife is an excellent chef and the MIL isn't but she is often in the kitchen anyway. I used to cook a lot more, but less so the last half year. I do make sure we always have fresh home baked bread for breakfast and in between snacking.
The trick is. Go out and eat. You get some dish where the meat is f'ed up, things are drenched in oil and soy.... go home and make the same dish. This is how you get hte awesome Chinese food.
I've always been big on cooking since Silence of the Lambs. Now that Hannibal is a series, I've revived my culinary explorations.
Y'all should come for dinner some time!
I used to always eat out, then with time you get bored because most local food taste roughly the same.
Now my I cook everyday for lunch and dinner, I can get any imported ingredients I want at Metro, 10 minutes from my doorstep.
My girlfriend loves my food and she is also a great cook, we often cook together of sometimes I cook for her/she cooks for me, we taught many dishes to each other. Cooking is really something that we have in common.
I come from a big family, so cooking for just myself seems pointless and depressing.
2 Twice a day every day. Usually miss out on lunch or eat in the restaurant if I'm with the wife. Not a fan of KFC, McDonald or Pizza Hut.
Pasta or spaghetti is so easy there's no excuse not to do it. Plus that broccoli and garlic dish is super easy to recreate and do , but with olive oil and not drenched in it. Pressure cooking makes unchewable beef chewable if you want a pretty okay pot roast. You can easily make pancakes from scratch here for breakfast to have with your eggs.
I cook rook at least twice a day counting real fast since that is easy. Usually I cook a ton of food at once so I can enjoy it for another meal that same day. Your gut will thank you for this.
My entire life I've had GFs that could burn water. I've always cooked, both of my parents worked when I was a kid. I can cook, bake etc and I enjoy my own cooking. It's either cook or starve. The only praise I've ever had for my GFs was,,,,,, well carbon is a major food group !!!Cooking in China, meat, potato, veggy,,,, spagetti sauce sucks+ can't make it from crappy tomatoes, grilled cheese and ketcup, eggs and fried bread for breaky, I tried making cabbage rolls but didn't have an oven, cream potato leak soup, fried squirrels tongue, fillet o rat with crunchy cockroach
I try to make breakfast and dinner at home Mon-Fri. My GF likes to cook so that's nice, sometimes we cook in the weekends as well.
Yeah I think I should move towards the cooking path like you all have seemed to do. My biggest issue is just that when I go to a Chinese supermarket I am not inspired to make anything because, due to my own ignorance probably, I just cannot think of how to put together a meal with the stuff they sell!
So my main dishes have been pasta, with mushrooms or tomatoes and a jar of imported tomato sauce (NOT Hunters/Hunt/Hunt's or whatever that AWFUL AWFUL stuff is), omeletts with the same vegetables, or just fried rice with minimal rice and a lot of veg. I don't really eat much meat here...
DrMonkey:
You can wok together selections of vegetables & eggs, with a bit of a sauce. Try various set of vegetables and sauces, it's fun to experiment :) Pre-made sauces are easy to find. If you have a mixer, in winter, you can also do the same thing for vegetable soups.
If you have a small oven, you can bake simple cakes or cookies. Here's an example of a very simple cake to bake, that will be great for your breakfast
http://frenchfood.about.com/od/desserts/r/poundcake.htm
RiriRiri:
I made the mistake of buying Hunt's one day. It is unuseable for tomato sauce, but it makes a decent ketchup for fries.
Guys, as I said several times, buy from the Internet, there's an incredible choice of imported stuff. Except for cheese, it can get you anything.
sm90:
Thanks for the recipe DrMonkey, my tiny oven may be able to handle little portions of that.
And Riri - where do you buy online? I'm in Beijing but haven't been able to find a good grocery delivery service!
icnif77:
Why do you need tomato sauce can? Buy 5 ripe tomatoes, cut them in tiny slices. Use pan with bit of oil, some chopped onion and garlic, cook on oil till brown, stir often. Add chopped tomatoes, add some red wine, a bit of water and cook in covered dish. Stir often. There's recipe in 'Godfather I' 1972....
RiriRiri:
I usually buy from YHD.com. It's not the only one but it's the one I use anyway. It's Chinese only but a girlfriend or a colleague will set you up an account in no time. Then you can browse imported products by country of origin or type, and save what you like for future supply.
Depending on what you buy, you can really cut the prices comparing to what you would buy in your usual grocery. Lately got sparkling water 6 pack for like 36 yuan, Barilla tomato sauce for 15 yuan, tuna for 10, rum for 60 (and it's genuine) etc etc... damn cheap if you get to know how to look.
sm90:
Thanks RiriRiri! That looks incredible, I am definitely going to force someone to set up an account with me
sm90:
And icnif - I need it in a jar (not a can, that is too much) because I am lazy.
i prefer cooking at home. my gf has developed into quite a good cook,though leaves the kitchen a mess. nevertheless, cooking at home is more healthy, inexpensive, and better tasting. be creative and create your own fusion dishes. best investment an oven to bake. i think a crock pot would also be wise.
I do not cook but I wish I could. Yes we should cook more if we do not want to eat the toxic food in China.
Very rarely eat out, all is drenched in oil, salt, soy and pretty much taste the same, I can make the same food with very little oil and salt.
I have an oven so I make a lot of western style food like baked chicken, breaded pork chops, casseroles ect...
I always cook, but to hit the board with recipes will be too long.
So, Yahoo-gle one of the 'kitchens' you like, i.e. Italian cooking. Then browse over the recipes and buy/prepare ingredintes and cook.
Don't listen to Sino. In mentioned movie, best recipes were ''tailor's 'recipes'', as 'how to sew winter parka....in cottage' and suchLector was real nutter comparable to 'tailor' guy.