Trailing Off....

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Cures for a Sore Noodle

I think this soup's name translates to "5 ingredient noodle soup"

It’s a cold, grey, smoggy Saturday in the cold winter of Nanjing. I’m hung over from drinking too many Tsingtaos the night before. I’ve no desire to cook and even less desire for the only western food nearby: McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, or KFC. Next door steam rises from several basin sized bowls and people huddle in their puffy winter gear as they slurp up the noodles in a flurry of motion with spoons and chopsticks. I point to the first option on the menu and hope for the best.

What I get is a rich broth in which slices of sweet sausage, strips of pork, pickled cabbage, bok choi, a pound of noodles, and a poached egg float and bob. It takes me half an hour to finish and I'm full for two days. The hangover is gone and I feel like I could leap from tower block roof to tower block roof.

a man gets his soup on at a local shop

That and many subsequent bowls of a variety of noodles were some of my favourite dishes in my year and a half in Nanjing, China. There were fast food chains that served big bowls of spicy beef noodles with few ingredients, but depth of flavour and never-ending noodles. Most places (like above) served simple bowlfuls on plastic tables and tiny stools set up in alleys. Muslim restaurants served beef or mutton with handmade noodles and broth containing spices like cinnamon and anise. Even in summer, there's something about a bowl of noodles that is rejuvenating. The occasional food poisoning was worth the gamble.

I was happy to discover that my new apartment in Dublin was a few blocks from “Chinatown” and Charming Noodles seemed to fit the bill when I woke up on a cold, grey morning craving noodles. The spicy beef noodles and the noodles with pork and pickled cabbage were as good as any I’d had in China, but with a painful 10 euro price tag. So I set out to make my own, knowing that my usual attempts to make Chinese food usually failed.

successful experiment!

Even though I didn't have beef noodles as often as the others in China, I decided it was the one I might be able to do the best as it involves braising beef for hours and we all know not much goes wrong when you combine beef, liquid, a low cooking temperature, and time. As with many old, popular foods, there are a gagillion recipes for this soup ranging from “put a stock cube in boiling water, add soy sauce, chili, and noodles” to recipes that take all day and involve ingredients that are only found on special trees in the middle of nowhere. I hate having to brown things, cook things in batches, and strain liquid, so I just cobbled together my own version and made it a one Dutch oven pot deal. Most of my inspiration came from this site: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/taiwan-eats-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-recipe.html

The result of these ingredients together are amazing. I would recommend sieving out the peppercorns as they can be a spicy, tongue-numbing bite when you reach the bottom. But some people like that kind of thing. Put all the following in a pot and cook in a low oven (150 degrees) and cook for 2-3 hours.

300-500 grams of beef (I’ve used both stewing beef and boneless ribs. I prefer the latter.)

· 3 large slices of ginger

· 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

· 2 dried red chillies

· 1TB sugar

· 2TB chili bean paste

· ½ cup rice wine

· ½ TB Szechuan peppercorns

· 1 star anise

· ¼ cup dark soy sauce

· ¼ cups light soy sauce

· 5 cups of water

· 1 beef bouillon cube (optional)

Cook noodles separately. Any noodles work: thin, thick, egg, rice, flour. Whatever floats your soup.

Put noodles in a bowl, top with uncooked bok choy, green onions, sprouts (optional) and ladle the soup on top. Slurp slurp to heaven.

Another soup available in most neighbourhood restaurants is wonton soup. I often passed on this dish because the bowls were small, the broth was bland and the wontons only had a small bit of love stuffed inside. Granted, the tables are full of soy sauce, chilli sauces, and condiments to put in the soup, and the tab is only a few cents. But I thought I could make a bastardized version that would leave me more sated (and likely full of more calories).

When I look for recipes, I often look at about a dozen and choose the ingredients they mostly have in common and then throw those things together without really measuring. This is more due to being too lazy to haul out the measuring spoons rather than creative spontaneity. For this experiment, I also consulted the master cyber teacher, youtube to see how to fold those square wrappers.

Filling:
150 grams of pork
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
piece of ginger, minced
3-4 spring onions, minced
1TB soy sauce
1TB rice wine
salt

For the soup:
5 cups of chicken broth
1TB sesame oil
1TB soy sauce
1TB rice wine
1TB yellow miso paste
bok choi
bean sprouts
carrot ribbons

Cook the wontons for 2-3
minutes in the broth.
Add
vegetables.

big spoonfuls of yum

This was a very satisfying bowl of soup though I think the wonton filling could have used more flavour and a little zing. The wontons took me ages to fold and so was much more labour intensive than the beef soup. The next time I wake up on a foggy day with a foggy brain and a craving for a liquid cure, I will definitely choose the beef noodles.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Napoli: Three Days of History and Pizza

Chaotic tiny streets with wash hanging above, 27 centuries of history above and below the ground, the sea and islands, and pizza. I was sceptical about dividing our holiday between two places, but I am so glad we decided to spend three days in the fascinating city of Naples.

The 6 hour bus ride from Lecce was through countryside that gradually became more mountainous. It was a bright sunny day and we arrived in the central station in the heart of Naples just after noon. Luckily, our accommodation was only a 10 minute walk away. Again, a dodgy looking building in an old neighbourhood that had within a modern and cosy apartment. Ciro greeted us warmly and insisted on taking us for a coffee and pastry. Strangely enough, this was the only time I had coffee outside the stuff I made in the morning. I just don’t get the concept of taking a shot of coffee and moving on in the space of two minutes.

view from our balcony

Ciro gave us a map and pointed out some main sights we should see. We were only a 5 minute walk from the National Archaeology Museum considered one of the best in Italy. But history could wait. We needed to get pizza and after days and days of drinking wine, a nice cold beer. Pizza was invented in Naples and the most popular, the Margherita is the cheapest and most delicious. We went to de Michel’s because it is considered to be the best in the city but didn’t want to be part of the insane queue outside.

everyone is waiting for a pizza!

sauce, mozzarella cheese, basil. wood fire oven. 3 euros. divine.

We ate a lot of pizza for the next three days but also found time to actually see the city. Here are some highlights.

Christmas Alley (Via San Gregorio Armeno)

This area is actually full of Christmas kitsch year round but is over the top at Christmas time, full of mass produced and handmade props for nativity scenes, football souvenirs, pastries, and culinary paraphernalia. Though I had been warned by an Italian student about pickpockets in this area, it seemed to be a safe place full of festive spirits.

Catacombs of San Gennaro

We arrived one minute before a guided tour in English. This was one of my favourite activities of the entire holiday. The catacombs are underground paleo-Christian burial sites. There are two layers that have been renovated and the earlier/lower one is from the 3^rd century. During the renovation the bones were moved to the nearby Fontanelle Cemetery but sadly it was closed the day we went there.

Teatro di San Carlo

This opera house was built in 1737 and for a while was the largest in the world. Neapolitan opera was ground-breaking in the 19^th century. There was originally a secret passage to the Royal Palace next door. The boxes were originally for the families closest to the royals. Each one has a mirror so the king could see what people were up to from his central seat. For the first few decades the theatre was more of a social event than a place of music appreciation. People would have parties in their boxes and ignore the performers or worse yet, throw food at them if they weren’t good enough. The lower classes sat at the ground level and were apparently rowdy as well.

Walking Around

In between eating pizza and visiting historical and cultural sites, we just wandered in and out of the narrow streets of the historical district and watched and listened as the Neapolitans shouted, laughed, negotiated, and just lived everyday life. Though I still prefer my quiet and green Puglia, I could have spent weeks exploring this huge, beautiful, scruffy, treasure-filled city.