Soy Sauce

After a couple weeks of fairly unhealthy activities and lots of beer, I decided to go on one of my week long health kicks. After a few days of only eating salads and seeds, I was really craving a hearty warming meal, especially on a rainy early september afternoon. After thinking a bit about what flavors I was specifically craving, this dish was created in my head and I went for it. The results were totally different from anything I have had in awhile and amazingly flavorful in a unique way. It’s totally vegan too!

These noodles use hummus as a shortcut to making something that tastes like Thai takeout.

The premise of this dish was to to create a textural study between 3 different gummy ingredients, braised octopus, potato gnocchi, and korean rice cake. All 3 of these things can remind me of each other, so I thought it would be fun to put them all together in a korean flavored sauce. It came out pretty tasty in the end, but I don’t feel that I fully achieved what I was going for. The main issue was the size differences between the 3 main ingredients. I was aiming to make them all a similar size and shape but failed. Regardless, if you like octopus you will enjoy this dinner, but on a normal night I would make it with either gnocchi or rice cake, and not both.

This was one of the best things I cooked in the past 3 months of healthy eating. I knew I wanted to make a healthy version of a chicken salad, and happened to be craving the flavors of vietnamese bun vermicelli, so this dish was born. This chicken salad would taste awesome anywhere chicken salad normally tastes awesome, like in a sandwich, wrap, or pita, but I just popped it on top of some lettuce and rice noodle.

When I was frying some tofu one day, I noticed that it sticks together really easily. As the tofu cooks, it basically binds to any other tofu cooking nearby. This gave me the idea to one day stuff cubes of tofu, considering that whatever the stuffing may be, the tofu would hold it in nicely. When “one day” finally came, I made a vaguely Asian turkey meatball mixture to stuff into the little cubes.

A pizza loaded with chimichurri instead of sauce, and lots of marinated flank steak.

A version of the classic Thai spicy noodle dish with fresh bay scallops.

Baked beans are cooked all day with lots of pork and a spicy Korean sauce.

A Mexican and Thai fusion dish that combines tamales stuffed with spicy beef, and a creamy coconut green curry

A Japanese take on traditional carbonara, with some charred pork belly in place of bacon.

A twist on a satay dip with banana and habanero. It\’s spicy, sweet, and salty, the perfect balance.

A big spicy and delicious tofu and pork stir fry that has everything I love in it.