kimchee grilled cheese

the other day, rita came home with a tub of kimchee. "i read about some shop where they make kimchee grilled cheese. we should have it tonight", she told me. so i stopped at gristede's on the way home because, in a rare moment in chez twin history, we had no cheese in the fridge. after staring at the variety of cheeses for way too long, i decided swiss was the way to go.

it was a good decision.

this is pretty self explanatory...the recipe is basically in the title. just make grilled cheese as you usually would (i like wheat bread and 2 slices of cheese. grilled in butter or earth balance), but spread a spoonful of kimchee on one of your bread slices. like i said, swiss was good, but you could experiment with other cheeses too. and taste the kimchee before you put it on the bread to see how spicy it is, because you don't want to end up with a too spicy sandwich.

-Lola

Chinese Barbequed Pork with Garlic Sauce

We had a ton of pork left over from the pulled pork we made earlier, so me and Lola looked for ways to use it without having to buy anything (and therefore avoiding generating more leftovers). We both love Chinese barbequed pork (the red kind that's in pork buns), but all the recipes for that required ginger, which we didn't have, so we ended up making a different variation on Chinese barbequed pork using this recipe from Gourmet. We managed to make the pork and the side (rice vermicelli with cabbage, edamame, and peanut sauce) without buying any ingredients. We did momentarily think we would have to buy hoisin sauce, but that was averted when we realized we could make our own using this recipe.
Although our pork wasn't red, it was still very good. We tried to make it pretty by lining it up, but as you can see from the second picture the prettiness was lost as soon as it got on the plate.
-Rita

avocado strawberry smoothie

one of my favorite things about growing up in san francisco was getting to try an amazing array of ethnic foods. i have an obsession with asian desserts (actually, i've barely scratched the surface in terms of trying those. but i still love them madly and frequently try to convince my friends from the mid-west and the south that shaved ice with red beans, grass jelly, and condensed milk is a perfectly acceptable, and delicious, thing to eat. if you've never experienced the magic of asian desserts, here are a few more for you to look into: sago pudding, eggettes, and anything with red bean paste). one dessert that i have always been intrigued by but never tried is the avocado milkshake. unfortunately, we had no ice cream on hand, so i decided to try an avocado smoothie instead. with strawberries, which may sound weird but is delicious, trust me.
avocado strawberry smoothie makes 1 large smoothie
*1 1/2 cups soy milk (i used plain, but i think vanilla or even chocolate would be good)

*1/2 a ripe avocado

*frozen strawberries (start with a medium handful and add more to taste)
blend all ingredients until smooth and combined.
1/2 of the smoothie, partially frozen (i was impatient) and topped with cereal, dark chocolate chips, and a dollop of peanut butter. yum!!!
-Lola

thai noodles with edamame

rice noodles with chopped sauteed onion, shelled edamame, peas, and coconut galangal sauce (i think it was from trader joes?)
-Lola

pineapple fried rice

even though it seems like we've been back at school forever, its really only been 2 weeks, so we're still posting some recipes made over winter break. like...
leftover rice, fried with an egg, cabbage, chopped onion and caramelized pineapple (saute pineapple cubes in butter/butter substitute for about 5 minutes, until golden brown).
even if you don't want fried rice, try the pineapple, its ridiculously good.
alright, i'm tired after a fun weekend...time to get ready for bed. goodnight everyone!

check out kailey's awesome giveaway!

-Lola

thanksgiving break

its been a while, hasn't it? no new recipes today, but i just wanted to do a quick post. we had a great time over thanksgiving break. my fabulous friend A. was visiting for the weekend, and we spent most of our time in chinatown, with some detours to upstate (thanksgiving dinner with our aunt, yay!), columbus circle (black friday shopping. we went in the afternoon, we're not crazy enough to go at 5 am. but still, it was insane), little italy, and soho.
food highlights (sorry no photos! hopefull A. will upload hers soon and i can steal some):
-Szechuan food in Chinatown. Famous Sichuan. we met up with A.'s friends, who are all from China. super spicy and delicious. from now on, i need to go with people who speak Chinese whenever i eat Chinese food...more authentic dishes and we got a discount! fave dish was the dan dan noodles. we got a huge feast, even though this was our lunch before heading upstate for thanksgiving dinner.
-Cannoli in little italy! amazing, but overpriced. i don't remember what restaurant we went to, but cannoli seems to be the same at most places in little italy.
-vietnamese sandwiches at paris sandwich. delicious, but if you're going to get banh mi, san francisco is better and cheaper. i reccommend saigon sandwich for true amazingness.
-grilled corn at cafe habana. with cheese and chili powder. yum!

-Lola

Super Taste Restaurant

On a cold day, there are few things better than a giant bowl of warm noodle soup. Especially when those noodles come from a tiny, crowded restaurant in Chinatown. And when they are only $3.45. Rita and I both got the hand pulled noodles with vegetables and a fried egg. A few minutes later, we were presented with ridiculously ginormous bowls of deliciousness. You can also get many other toppings, such as beef, or fish balls (my favorite at most places...but it was slightly more expensive and was being cheap that day so i didn't try it at Super Taste), with the most expensive bowl coming to $6. And, like any good restaurant, they have big bottles of sriracha at every table. They also had dried mustard greens to add to your soup. At the restaurant, we each ate half our noodles, plus the fried egg and the vegetables (leafy greens) that came in the soup. At home, we added spinach, shiitakes, and more sriracha (this is what's pictured above).
Super Taste Restaurant
26N Eldridge St., New York, NY 10002
nr. Canal St

thai curry with bamboo shoots and tofu

yesterday on the way home I realized we didn't have any ingredients for dinner, so I stopped at Sunshine. Sunshine is a Japanese grocery store, but that description does not do it justice. It is a magical land of canned congee, unidentifiable (to me) veggies, a million different kinds of noodles, and most importantly, pocky. But unfortunately, I cannot live on pocky alone and I wasn't sure how to cook the strange veggies, so I came home with rather normal ingredients. I did get some bamboo shoots, which I had previously only had canned and pre-cooked, but that was about as exotic as my ingredients got. Here's what we made with my purchases:
Thai Curry with Bamboo Shoots and Tofu pictured above, serves 2, as usual no measurements are exact
ingredients:
-about 8 oz winter bamboo shoots, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup snow peas
-fried tofu (I bought it pre-fried), cut into bite size chunks
-1 cup shitake mushrooms, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup thai green curry (we used TJ's)
-rice for serving
- about 1 tablespoon butter/ butter substitute for frying (we used earth balance)
Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet. Add bamboo shoots and saute for about 5 minutes. add the shitakes and snow peas and continue sauteing until the bamboo shoots are browned on the edges. add the tofu and the sauce, simmer for about 2 minutes, then serve over rice.
This turned out very good. The best part was the bamboo shoots, which were crispy and almost caramelized from the butter.
Today, I used the last little bit of bamboo shoots to make a delicious curry.

This was just bamboo shoots, chick peas, rice, and peas, sauteed in earth balance and loads of curry powder and cumin, topped with some delicious mango chutney that our mom sent us for our birthday.
and lastly,one of the awesome plates our mom sent us (with the remains of a curry on it):


thanks mom!
ps. there's a giveaway for probars here

noodles with kimchi and sweet potato

i know, noodles again. but this is my favorite recipe we have made in our dorm so far. after we ate it for lunch, i looked forward to eating the leftovers for dinner all day.
we hit up our local asian market for some kimchee (with skate fish) and...

SRIRACHA! but don't use any in this recipe, because kimchi + sriracha would be too spicy, even for us.
anyhoo, the recipe:
makes about 3 servings
*200 grams (7 oz) dried asian noodles (ours were flat and white...i'm not up on my noodle terminology and the package didn't have a specific name. but you could also use udon, soba, or many other types of asian noodles)
*an 8 oz package of kimchi (like i said, ours had skate in it too, but it would be just as good with standard kimchi)
*a splash of soy sauce
*1 small to medium sized sweet potato
*half a yellow onion, sliced
*2 teaspoons butter, or butter substitute (you could probably use any oil too)
*a handful of baby spinach.
*a handful of peanuts, to garnish
1. preheat oven to 450 degrees F. cut ends off sweet potato and place in pan in oven for 40 min-1 hour, or until soft.
2. heat butter in a pan. cook onions until soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. cook noodles according to package directions. drain.
4. add soy sauce, spinach, and kimchi to noodles. stir.
5. cut sweet potato into bite sized pieces. add potato and onion to noodles. stir.
6. top each serving with a sprinkle of peanuts.
ps-check out the giveaway at lucky tastebuds

Udon with veggies and fish

In a radical change from the usual soba, we decided to make udon tonight. The recipe is pretty simple, but the udon turned out delicious and flavorful. It would also be great with some yams and ginger, if you have those.

Udon with veggies and fish
serves 2
*10 mushrooms, sliced
*2 cloves garlic, diced
*1 cup bokchoy, chopped
*1/2 lb flounder (or any other firm white fish), chopped
*2 T soy sauce
*2 T curry powder
*2 packs udon, the kind that comes with seasoning packets
*handful of peanuts
1)Cook the udon according to package directions, but without the seasoning packets. Drain, then toss with 1 T soy sauce and the seasoning packets.
2) Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Once it's hot, add the garlic and mushrooms, and saute about 5 minutes or until mushrooms start to get soft.
3) Add the fish, plus 1 T soy sauce and the curry powder. Saute until fish is opaque and flaky, about 10 min. If you like you can leave the fish in one piece and just put it on top of everything else at the very end.
4) add the bokchoy and saute a few seconds, until it starts to wilt, then remove from heat.
5) toss everything you've just cooked with the udon. Add more soy sauce to taste, then sprinkle with the peanuts and enjoy.

PS-chocolate covered katie is having a giveaway of granola bars, "superfoods" and I think some other stuff too. Check it out!

Tofu with eggplant and zucchini

I normally try to avoid chain restaurants, especially if they serve some kind of ethnic food. I guess I'm kind of a snob about it, but I refuse to eat at Taco Bell when La Gallinta or El Buen Sabor is just down the street (or even all the way across town). But I admit I do love Panda Express. For one thing, their logo is a panda, which is adorable. Also, I love their eggplant tofu. I have had eggplant tofu other places and liked it just as much, but Panda Express is the first one I tried, so I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Anyway, when Lola called me frantically at 6 pm, saying she was hungry and all we had in the dorm was tofu, I rushed to the Union Square farmer's market to get some eggplant. Around 6 pm is the best time to get to the farmer's market because everything is on sale. When I got there,I saw a bag of zucchini for only $1, so I decided to get that too. And thus Tofu with eggplant and zucchini was born.


We used 2 small eggplants, 1 small zucchini, and a small block of medium firm tofu, all cubed and sauteed in olive oil with about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and about 1 teaspoon of five spice powder. We also threw in a small handful of chickpeas, which we had leftover. I recommend you put the zucchini in first so it can cook the longest. we didn't and it consequently ended up a bit too crunchy.
We served it over some whole wheat couscous and it made a good, satisfying meal.
p.s. from lola--the eggplants were in honor of the best character on tv (and rita's future husband?) chuck bass. because he wears so much purple.

soba with five spice tofu and acorn squash

i know what you're thinking. "soba again? and another not so good picture? boring." but i promise you, this post contains both excitement AND thrills (not to mention fun and games). see:
(coney island, which has been revived and is worth the hour and a half subway ride from manhattan).
anyway, we decided we needed some vegetables in our lives, so i picked up an acorn squash (for just 90 cents!) at the union square farmers' market and we made some soba.
soba with five spice tofu and acorn squash serves 2
*120 grams soba
*about 6 ounces tofu (our package said "medium firm" and "regular")
*1 small to medium acorn squash
*half a yellow onion, chopped
*soy sauce, to taste
*about 1 1/2 TBSP five spice powder
1. pierce skin of squash several times with a fork. put in the oven in a baking pan at 350 degrees F. cook for 1-2 hours, until it yields to a gentle touch (ours took an hour and 15 minutes).
2. cook soba according to package directions.
3. cut tofu into bite sized squares. saute with onion, five spice powder and 2 TBSP soy sauce. saute, stirring for about 3 minutes.
4. cut squash in half and scoop out seeds and pulp (you can save the seeds and toast them for a tasty snack). chop squash into bite-sized, but on the large side, pieces.
5. mix all ingredients. add more soy sauce, if desired, to coat noodles. add sriracha to taste (we don't have any yet, and this deficiency needs to be fixed immediately. sriracha would definitely be great with this recipe).

spicy soba noodles with shiitakes and cabbage

first of all, i love this dish because it has so many fun to say ingredients. you've got the alliteration of "spicy soba", then "shiitakes" which is fun because it has two i's in a row, and also the word looks like "shit" (well, that is fun if you're immature. i am obviously way too mature to be amused by such childish things), and to top it all off, you've got "edamame", which really rolls off the tongue.
anyhoo, both of us twins have long been fans of soba salads and soups. the salads, served cold, are perfect for a rare san francisco hot day, and the soups are exactly what you need when the fog inevitably rolls in.
so when i saw this recipe on smitten kitchen, i knew i had to try it.

yum! we used straw mushrooms (1 can) instead of shiitakes because that's all the grocery store had. we also used the thai chili paste, but this dish was not super spicy.

kitchen staples + soba with peanut sauce

If you cook a lot, it's important to always have certain things around that you can use to throw together a quick, delicious meal. Here's a list of what we consider to be kitchen staples:

* couscous
* pasta
* Asian noodles of some sort, could be soba, udon, or cellophane noodles
* jarred sauces. some of my favorites are peanut sauce, thai green curry, and pesto sauce (or whatever pasta sauce you like best)
* sriracha
* canned beans or chickpeas
* canned stewed tomatoes. these are good for making quick soups, since you can use the tomato liquid as a broth
* jarred veggies, such as artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers
* peanut butter
* spices and dried herbs. I find we use cumin, chili powder, basil and oregano the most, but it depends what kind of food you like most.

Using some of our staples, we made some soba noodles with peanut sauce (as you may have gathered from the title), various left over veggies, and sriracha sauce, which is amazing and pretty much makes everything better. I have heard that peanut butter and sriracha sandwiches are delicous, although I have never personally tried one. I guess this is a less odd version of that. It was great, and included 3 of our "kitchen staples", asian noodles, sriracha, and jarred sauce. This is also a good recipe for using up leftovers, since you can just throw in whatever leftover veggies you have.


anybody want a peanut?


Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

* about 2 cups soba noodles
* sriracha sauce to taste
* about 1/4 cup peanut sauce
* 1 cup green onions, chopped
* 1/4 cup roasted peanuts
* 1/2 onion, diced
* 1 cup carrots, sliced
* about 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. cook soba noodles according to package directions. meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet
2. saute onions, 3/4 cup green onions, and carrots in olive oil until onions are soft and translucent
3. Remove soba from heat, drain, return to pot, and stir in onions, green onions, and carrots
4. Add peanut sauce and stir until coated, adding more if neccesary
5. Add siracha to taste and stir
6. Put in 2 seperate bowls. Sprinkle with peanuts and remaining green onions

why cheap food: a history of my employment + dim sum!

We here at "hungry like the wolf" are dedicated to cheap food. Why? Because, like most college students, we're broke. I, Lola, am the twin with the more impressive resume, and to show you just how pathetic that is, and how necessary cheap food is, i'd like to offer a brief history of my employment. bear with me, i promise it'll be entertaining.

We'll start with my high school days, when became a poll worker. this was a one day job, allowing students to take election day off from school to wake up insanely early and sit in someone's garage all day for aboug $100 pay. If you are a poll worker, you should know that every single person--i am not exaggerating at all here, seriously EVERY PERSON--with a dog will make a joke about how the dog is going to vote too. you should also know that you will get a lot of papercuts from the ballots, and old ladies may try to stick their ballots into the lamps instead of the voting machines.

Next, my most lucrative position yet, which also happened to last one day. So I went to my mom's office to help out. They were hiring me for deliveries for the day. I'm having a good time, walking around in the sun, dropping off packages, when all of the sudden, a car comes out of nowhere and hits me. Don't worry, I was fine, just some stitches in my head. We settled with the driver and I made $4000. Most of which is now going to pay for my ridiculously expensive education.

Now, my current position. Intern at an office. I file. Sometimes I put address stickers on envelopes. Its not even an office for an industry I'm remotely interested in. I make $30 a week. Although, my boss is nice, so I do like it.

I applied for a job to be a costumed character at Chuck E. Cheese's a while back. I applied to work at Hot Dog on a Stick, known for it's hideous (their website calls them "iconic") hats. Neither called me back.

So that is why I need cheap food. Like Good Luck Dim Sum on Clement Street between 8th and 9th ave in San Francisco. There may be a line, and no open tables to eat at, but it is worth it. A delicious dim sum feast for about $2.50 a person. We had potstickers, pork buns (i've been eating "pescetarian" and honestly i never crave meat but dim sum is the exception), fried taro, and a lotus bun. i also highly recommend the shrimp and chive dumplings and the peanut coconut buns.

squid fried rice

Some parents send care packages with home baked cookies. My mother sends dried squid.

"Do you wanna try some?" I asked my roommate as I hesitantly lifted a piece to my mouth. "No, I'm good" she told me.

So I gave it to my lovely sister, who has the luxury of a kitchen in her dorm room. A few months later, I trooped over to her room and we created some squid fried rice. Delicious!

Squid fried rice (serves 2)

• 1 package dried squid (find in Japanese grocery stores)
• 3 cups cooked rice
  
• half an onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup bell peppers, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons curry powder

1. heat up olive oil in a skillet. once it's hot, add mushrooms and onions. cook for one minute, add peppers. cook until all veggies are soft.
2. add curry powder and rice. saute for 1 minute.
3. crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until mixed. add to skillet and stir together quickly so egg gets incorporated into rice.
4. cook until egg is nearly done. add dried squid and a splash of olive oil. cook 1 minute more, or until egg is done and everything is heated.

et voila! le fried rice extraordinaire!