asian essentials

I have too many bad habits.

Always looking for inspiration but never acting on it.

 Sleeping with radiation.

Snacking on wayy too much candy at my desk.

Procrastinating.

Breaking my resolutions.

Two more weeks until home.  The visits are getting fewer and further between.  And I miss the dinner table full of all my favorite things.  I miss having a rice cooker.  I miss chopsticks that aren't worn and warped.  I missed having a little container of fire to put on everything, so solved that issue with a giant bag of dried chilies.
-Pulverize the chilies, sending the fumes into your tiny apartment kitchen and don't expect to stop coughing for awhile.
-Put in heat proof container with salted black beans, salt, sugar, and five spice.
-Fry up diced onions in much peanut oil.
-Pour all that over the chilies.
-Use on and with everything.

For some reason, being a student makes me less inclined to purchase meats to make at home, so when I finally get around to doing so, it's a special occasion.
Force fed some friends some trial pork belly.  But now I know I don't have to wait for a visit home to savor these wonderful meat blocks that are like little French opera cakes but with layers of meat, fat, and skin.  Appetizing, I know.  But it actually is.

Chinese fermented sausage is like my bacon.  Chinese bacon is even better.  Good to have on hand when you want a little savoriness in a last-minute-spontaneous-fridge-clean-out meal.  With lotus root.  With fried rice.  With cabbage.  Especially purple cabbage.  Pork and cabbage are best friends.

I miss greens I never knew the English name of showing up on the table.  Often just sauteed with garlic.  Eaten with a mountain of rice.  I'd ask my dad to repeat the name millions of times just to forget and do it all over again the next time it turns up again.  But I know this one: water spinach = love.

If you don't have the biggest sweet tooth or the best breakfast habits and you're looking for a way to deplete that giant bag of emergency oatmeal that you'd rather starve for, I have a list of essentials for you.  Oatmeal for lunch means I need savory.

Build your own oatmeal congee bowl.
The best case scenario is if you work above the land of leftover and reject candies, which is where I found and laid claim on this great Hershey's bowl that is as crucial to my work life as my Big Daddy tea mug and coffee pot.
Things to get:
chicken stock
scallions
HK olive preserves
salted duck eggs
century eggs
kimchi
bamboo shoots
pickled radishes
sardines
furikake seasoning
soy sauce
sesame oil

Bonus items:
leftover fuqi fei pian chili oil from Ichiban
leftover twice cooked pork also from Ichiban
leftovers in general

And stash it in and around your desk and tiny work fridge for those days you realize you forget to pack a lunch and don't have the time and money to remedy the situation.  Or for those late nights.  Or for those times when you've somehow managed to stay alive without grocery shopping for three weeks.

If my life seems sad to you...don't think too much about it.