...ASIAN (II)

i am still asian. of course. that is because it is still the same week. only tuesday.

i have had a busy day at work. although i only sat there in mcdonald's and watch the little one - who is apparently not my son but my boss' son - shooting for a MD's advert. he was brilliant. and i had some time to think of my asian dinner which was already formed in my mind - i cannot stand MD's food so i did not eat. i did not even try the chips there they just look so lackadaisical (this is the absolute right word for it!) and not quite tasty. so i decided to stay MD sober - drinking water and some sprite...

(this is my mango. i have cut it so perfectly) 

and my thoughts went off to my dinner. asian it should be. there was still some of the coconut ramen left. alright, so i would not break my decision to eat asian for a week. at least i would last the first week. right. and there was this mango i bought the other day. and miraculously sohyi kim helped out again. she must be such a fantastic cook. if i had the money i would go and eat there but i think a student does not earn enough to enjoy the food there (except i ask my parents to go there with me...). right. thank you, sohyi kim you saved my life twice. although it is not about surviving or similar stories but it feels like betrayal if i gave up on my ideas the second day of starting to fullfill them.

tuesday's meal: mango salad with soy-sauce and groundnuts.

it was more than wonderful to sit there and eat some of the left overs (the most amazing left overs i ever had in this kitchen, which is not profoundly much but it was better than most left overs - the only exception would be my granny's meal-left overs...). and then in there came the extraordinary salad - courgettes, bean sprouts, soy sauce, coriander, red peppers, mango and moooore mango.

the taste of it. not only it was spicy because of the spices (i could have said it at least a bit more elegant but im not in the mood to look for some special phrases ...) - meaning soy sauce and coriander - it also tasted really sweet. like a pop song. there are some spices but there is still some sweetness left. i do not know how to explain it differently. it was like an explosion in your mouth. my whole tongue was involved getting to know new flavours.

♥ lucie xx

...ASIAN

i have actually thought i would not make it to start cooking asian stuff monday. i had to travel back and forward from my parents' place to vienna and to my granny's. so a lot of traveling this monday. but however, i changed my mind to just order sushi or a bento box, which would fit into my asian week, i bought some ingredients and cooked coconut ramen.

i have to announce i did not invent coconut ramen which was delicious (and there is still some left for today's lunch in the fridge, yippieh!). but sohyi kim did. she is supposed to be one of vienna's or even austria's best cooks concerning asian food. she has got her own restaurant in vienna (kimkocht) where i definitely want to go one day. sohyi kim also offers workshops where you easily learn how to make sushi rice, how to eventually roll sushi and how to - you know - get into asian food.

sohyi kim's cookbook does not only show how to make sushi or ramen, it also tells you how to cook miso soup the right way and how to make sweet and sour chicken whether too sour nor too sweet :-)

monday's shopping list for coconut ramen:

• 1 bag of carrots

• 1 courgette

• 1 leek

• 1/4 l coconut milk

• 1 bag of miso

• 1 fish filet (gilthead,

• 1 sea food mix

i paid 15,00€ which did not surprise me but was under my expections. i also bought some ingredients for further recipes, so not too bad.

after i cut the vegetables i started to boil water for rice noodles, which are part of ramen. they only cooked like 4 minutes.

when i added the noodles, i heated some olive oil in my wok (a normal frying pan is alright) and stirred in the vegetables as well as the fish filet (cut up in pieces) and some of the sea food mix. a

after like 3-4 minutes i added the seasoning and miso, stirred and added 1/2 l of boiling water and the coconut milk to the veg.

after that i prepared a bowl with rice noodles. table had been set then, i just needed a spoon and with the rest of the boiling water i made myself some mate-tea, which is supposed to be exhilarant.

Maté Tea

i have absolutely enjoyed this asian dinner last night. it was not only spicy but something different to taste. i am totally into sea food but if you do not like that kind of food just take tofu instead. or try it! you will be amazed how tasty it is!

lots of love, xx

...JUST MYSELF

this week i am just myself.

what is this blog about, you may ask yourself reading the title.
"this week i am" should not suggest another i-want-to-find-myself kind of blog. i have been inspired by the film julie & julia (starring meryl streep, amy adams. i have not watched the flick but i would say i will buy it on dvd later this year. i will certainly not quit my job nor college to become a full-time blogger and post 365 recipes and how they worked out. i am definitely not julia nor am i julie the full-time cook.

but how does the film inspire my blog if it has nothing to do with the topic?
well, it does.

in my mind there is this crazy idea to cook myself through different cultures and cuisines every week. so the three points after "this week i am" lead every blog title to what i was trying to cook, how it worked out, which recipes i tried and if people liked what i cooked.



this week i am just myself.
the title suggests the type of cuisine, the type of traditional food i was cooking during a whole week. i will definitely not be able to post everyday because i know i will get fed up after a while doing the posting. but once a week there will be a new blog entry, saying f.e. this week i am mexican. and you can read about my experience buying mexican products, trying to find the right recipes and how cooking worked out or did not.

enjoy ♥