Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cooking Attempt #23: Chicken chow mein

Today's recipe is a simplified version of this one.

Guess my excitement when I found Chinese egg noodles in the posh grocery store (from which I only buy tofu and watercress because everything else is so bloody expensive)! Oh yes, I said, I shall master chow mein and it shall be delicious.

Instead of the pepper, broccoli and bean sprouts suggested in the original recipe, I just bought bonsai bok choy (smaller than mini bok choy) and snow peas from Metro (on sale until tomorrow, huzzah huzzah).

I was thinking of the chicken chow mein that Linda so favoured at China Garden, a dinky Chinese restaurant that we used to frequent near U of T. I think the last time we went together, we were with Kevin and all of us wanted to get the chicken chow mein. I didn't see a problem with this, but Kevin and Linda thought it was embarrassing if we all ordered the same dish. Weirdos. Did we end up getting the chow mein anyway? I can't remember.

Anyhoo, their chicken chow mein *is* awesome and very simple. They use only bok choy and no other veggies, but I saw snow peas and thought that the green looked pretty.

I used fish sauce instead of oyster sauce, because it's what I had and I figure that they're pretty much the same thing, right? They're both salty fishy things. I think I added a touch too much of garlic and soy sauce. I also need to figure out how to make my chow mein crispy. And next time, I'm going to be halving this recipe, because my skillet (which I thought was ginormous enough to handle anything) could barely contain everything. There are bits of garlic all over the stove now. This is what I get for cleaning the kitchen before cooking. *grumble grumble*

It turned out yummy. I'm going to have enough to have for dinner tonight, to take to the hospital for lunch tomorrow and to eat for dinner tomorrow night. ^_^ I hope I don't get sick of it.

5 comments:

Kevin Lau said...

Wow. That takes me back to the days, and makes me want to have China Garden chow mein again. (And for the record, I believe we did all order the same thing...)

JG said...

Mmmmmmm. I must try making this. I think I might have had this when I went to China Garden with Bryan in January.

Kevin Lau said...

So yeah, I went there this afternoon since I had a craving, and it's been a while. It turned out to be not so good. I suppose I should know that, but I seemed to remember it tasting better...oh well...

Ladyjutea said...

Heh, doh~~~
I seem to remember hearing that the management changed. Or was it all in my imagination? Ah well, memories are good, I guess!

Linda said...

Yum, chicken chow mein! God I miss the food in Canada...