Tag Archives: asian

Kiam Pung, Salty Soy Rice

Kiam Pung

I cooked my mother’s dish on mother’s day.  I was not able to make a trip to Southern California then, but loved that she had made it on the past 2 occasions when I visited last. Kiam Pung translates into Salty Rice, with “kiam” being salty in my parents’ fukienese/ fujianese dialect, which I’m told is very similar to Hokkien, or Taiwanese.  Basically I like to think of this easy dish is a Chinese Paella — it’s open to an infinite number of variations, but should always contain 3 essential ingredients (besides the rice, which is a given):

  • Soy Sauce
  • Some kind of green vegetable
  • Some kind of meat or seafood or meat substitute

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Small note: I started this post before we left Osaka on the 29th.  Since then, we’ve been to Takayama and Shirakawa-go where we didn’t have broadband access.  We’re now in Kanazawa, in a little guesthouse called Minshuku Ginmatsu. We wish we had another night here but we journey to Kyoto this afternoon.

What does one do when one has just spent a somewhat stressful and bewildering wandering about of one of Osaka’s wards, looking in vain for an address that does not appear to follow any rational arrangements of ordering principles? What to do when you are the lucky beneficiaries of Japanese helpfulness and generosity, in the form of a wonderful couple out on a walk back from the suupaa, complete with cute long-haired daschund puppy and armed with gentle graciousness and working mobile phones with maps?  What to do when the above-mentioned angels deliver you quite efficiently to your destination, just in time for your 7:30pm yoyaku (reservation) and you awkwardly burst upon a teeny, tiny sliver of a room where there are 2 seats left at the 8-person counter and all eyes swivel towards you?  And, after getting through the formal bowings and greetings to the chefs behind the counter, after you’ve managed to order some sake somewhat successfully,  what to you when you realize that you probably can’t decipher in any meaningful way the beautiful calligraphy on the hand-written menu and that the chef does not appear able to communicate back, despite his smiles and goodwill?

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Pea Sprouts/ Snow Pea Leaves


Sauteed Pea Sprouts

Note: I originally wrote this post on my old blog, delectation.  I haven’t found a great way of easily porting old posts over, so I’m attempting this manual method for now. I’m also slightly editing and updating the post from its original.

I adore this vegetable. It is, without a doubt, my favourite green, the foodstuff which I am constantly craving if I go more than a couple of days without it. Some of the Chinese restaurants in the city offer pea sprouts. Sometimes they are indeed the sprouts themselves, tiny, thin-stemmed multitudes, like so many green needles, crisp and crunchy in fragrant garlic sauce. Other restaurants, such as Brother Seafood Restaurant on Irving and 19th, the Go-Go Cafe on Irving and 19th (note: now closed), and Ton Kiang on Geary, actually serve pea leaves (Ton Kiang lists them as “Snow Pea Tips” on their menu) — which I’ve come to prefer over the more traditional sprouts.  If you’re near the Tenderloin, Ken’s Kitchen will deliver within a certain radius (i.e., Alamo Square).  In the restaurants I believe they can also be called Tom Yau, or To Miao, or even Tau Miao.

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