Chinese Eat-In

Mondays are my grocery shopping day. For the record, Monday is not a terribly good day to grocery shop because the shelves are often nearly bare following the busy shopping weekend. Nevertheless, when I retired, I designated Mondays as my shopping day, and, despite frequent frustration at not finding certain items, so it continues to be. But I’m not stubborn….

I used to like grocery shopping. That’s because I really like to cook, and it’s fun strolling around leisurely (now that I’m retired) looking at the various ingredients I can use in my recipes. Any more, however, I find shopping to be extremely depressing. Prices haven’t just crept up; in some cases, they have sprung to nearly unaffordable heights seemingly overnight. I picked up a pound of bacon today and nearly fainted at the cost. I’m not exaggerating. When I gasped, a woman who was also considering the bacon looked at me and said, “No sh**!” True story. Grocery prices are making nuns swear. (That part’s not true; she wasn’t a nun.)

Anyhoo, I am always looking at ways to save money. I recently watched a cooking show on television that is specifically focused on feeding your family inexpensively. This particular show featured Chinese recipes so delicious, the perky cook promised, that you will no longer feel any need to order Chinese delivery. Now, I appreciate her attempt to help me save money, because there is no way around it – when you order Chinese, you spend at least $20 to $30 plus tip. But, homemade Chinese food, unless you are Ming Tsai (the illustrious host of PBS’ Simply Ming) just does not compare to Chinese take out. Plus, you don’t have those cute little white boxes or the fortune cookies that taste like they have been in the restaurant’s pantry since the Ming Dynasty.

But remembering the price of that bacon, I went to my old recipe box in which I knew I had some Chinese recipes that I had clipped out of newspapers years ago and never made (because homemade Chinese food does not compare to Chinese take out). The first recipe I found was for hot and sour soup, which I love. As I perused the recipe, I noticed that the first ingredient was tree mushrooms. Ah ha. That’s why I never attempted homemade hot and sour soup.

Having said all of the above, I believe we can make really good food with the taste of China if we put our minds to it. We just need to recognize that we are not going to be making food for which a Chinese mother-in-law would yearn. But let’s face it. If your mother-in-law is Chinese, you will be eating as often as possible at her house anyway.

I recently found a wonderful and easy recipe for Chinese chicken wings at one of my favorite websites, Allrecipes.com. These wings are delicious, healthy (since they are baked rather than fried), and are really good if you serve them with some stir-fried vegetables. I like steamed broccoli sprinkled with soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Or if you want to make it really easy on yourself, just buy a bag of frozen stir-fried vegetables.

The recipe is for five pounds, so cut it down to meet your needs. Also, it calls for marinating the wings for eight hours or overnight. While you can make them without marinating them, they really are better if they sit in the marinade for a day.

Xiǎngshòu nǐ de shíwù (which means "enjoy your food").