Jellyfish

I grew up eating jellyfish. In Hong Kong, I remember eating jellyfish at every wedding.

I found a package of cooked and prepared jellyfish at my local Chinese grocery store. I was excited to try it. It came packaged separately with a seasoning and chili sauce packets. As simple as opening each bag and combining the ingredients, the jellyfish dish was ready to devour. It is as I remember--a bit rubbery, but not tough, with a distinct indescribable taste. Flavor is mild and fresh, not fishy. Jellyfish is best eaten fresh so that it has that "crunch" of a cartilage-like texture.

Did you know that jellyfish does not have a brain, heart, or lungs? It is an entire nervous system, providing calcium binding proteins for nutritional benefits.

Stir Fry - Pork & Bok Choy

Meat and veggies over rice is my comfort food. I never feel miserable even after a large meal like this.

Substitute any type of meat or vegetable to this dish. White rice is the best staple to this dish, without over-powering or competing with the flavors of the other ingredients.

Salt and pepper it, satay it, garlic it, or five-spice it up, etc. It is MY fast food health food.

Curry Chicken with Potatoes

The more spicy you prefer, the more curry powder you add. I like it mild to medium spicy, but I mainly cook it mild for the entire family. I sear and saute everything separately starting with the onions, potatoes, and chicken drumsticks. You do not have to cook those ingredients thoroughly since they'll be cooked further--simmered altogether in chicken broth. I like to brown the outside to give the dish more flavor. This type of stew can be made ahead of time and left overnight for a higher intensity of flavor. The sauce will automatically thicken from the starch of the potatoes. Add salt accordingly and you could leave out the pepper since the curry is spicy enough. This dish is great to add on top of rice and eaten as a comfort food on a cold day.

My Comfort Food

Simple to prepare, this combination bowl of what I consider to be comfort food, satisfies my hunger late at night.

Prepare rice ahead of time and you will have it ready for nights like these. TIP: I pre-separated and frozen smokies ahead of time so that when I need to cook just a few, they are easy to take out. Fried egg over-easy or sunny-side up with soy sauce drizzled on top makes the perfect accompaniment.

For a healthier version, there are organic, antibiotic and hormone-free sausages "smokies" available at your local health food grocery store. They taste great!

Cookie Monster

Monster cookie, bitten from one large cookie monster.

Breakfast meets dinner food, for supper

Have you ever had breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast? This is soy sauce scrambled eggs with tomatoes and bok choy all-in-one. Stir-fried separately and then combined together makes a combination to eat over rice.

Scrambled eggs salted with soy sauce transforms to a Chinese version, that even a young child prefers it over regular-salted scrambled eggs.

The sweet and sour flavor of the tomatoes plus the savory and saltiness of the eggs completes this combination of flavors.

Shrimp crackers

Shrimp crackers or shrimp chips are very popular in Asia. It doesn't actually taste like shrimp but it has a distinct seafood flavor, unlike the regular American potato chip. Most versions of shrimp crackers (which may be from various Asian countries) differ slightly in flavor. MSG is a common component, which makes it more or less "tasty" to certain palettes...To "eats" his own!

Sweet Potato Casserole

There are many versions of sweet potato casserole. The one with a crumb nutty topping is my favorite.

Sticky Rice with Taro

Thai dessert -- glutinous rice dessert filled with taro paste. It is sweet with a milky and a hint of coconut milk flavor.

You can purchase this at the frozen section of an Asian market. To prepare, simply steam it, covered, for 10-15 minutes in a simmering pot of water. It is already sweetened so there is no need to add any sweeteners. It is best eaten warm while soft.

You will normally find it wrapped in leaves (possibly bamboo). Make sure to steam while wrapped in the leaves to prevent the sticky rice from sticking to your dinnerware and falling apart in the pot of steam.

Grass Jelly

A refreshing Asian dessert made from a type of grass/herb, in the mint family. If not made fresh, it is normally sold in cans in a whole jellied state. You can cube it, slice it, dice it, or cut it up in any form. As a child, my mother would cube it and mix it with sugar or "block brown sugar" syrup (sold in Asian grocery stores and different from brown sugar as we know from American grocery stores).

Best to cool the entire can prior to serving, then sweeten it to balance the bitterness. Strips of grass jelly can also be found in some Asian dessert drinks, or mixed with evaporated milk along with sugar for a different variety.

Acquired taste--its combination of the name, its bitterness, and the color may be offensive; therefore, recommended for food adventurists.

Eat Local

Grow your own vegetables. I make mine organic, without pesticides. Less is best. Certain herbs, such as rosemary, mint, and cilantro deter insects. Flowers like marigolds are also good insect deterrents. There are healthy versions of insect deterrents you can administer if you choose to go that route. Rain water is better than  community water--no added chlorine plus other chemical and contaminants. Growing your own is the freshest and most local you'll ever get. Nutrients are kept best when it is picked when ripe and eaten quickly afterwards. Fresh is best.