The Verdict is In: My Cooking Sucks!
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Our friend Shao-hui agreed to let me try cooking at her place this Saturday. I brought my 12″ Dutch oven and all the stuff needed to cook a chicken dish.
This is the setup outside Shao-hui’s place. The Dutch oven is on the grill, “burning out” in preparation for cooking.
People say they could smell it down the street. That is another Thai place in the distance. There are no less than 5 Thai places on this block. There are 2 more on the previous block.
Dutch oven full and cooking.
Inside, lots of Thai and Taiwanese people were enjoying the afternoon drinking and singing.
This shot is strictly for our male readers to enjoy. It serves no other purpose than pure eye candy. All joking aside, Hui-chen and I know this woman and she is a relative of Shao-hui.
This is Shao-hui looking good in the kitchen. Actually she looks good everywhere.
One of the Thai chefs.
People having fun while the food cooks outside.
Although it doesn’t look very good, this is a chicken dish that I cooked for about an hour and a half. It features a whole chicken, carrots onions and potatoes (traditional stew vegetables), mushrooms cilantro, garlic, tons of basil, cayenne pepper and finished with Sang Som Thai rum.
The flavor was mostly basil with the cayenne pepper and some sweetness from the Thai rum. Notice the cayenne pepper on the potatoes in this shot. I thought that this dish turned out well, but Sheo-hui’s Customers didn’t like it. Some people tasted it and politely said it was good but then pushed the plate aside. Seems that American style Dutch oven cooking is not for everyone, especially in Taiwan.
technorati tags:Taiwan, Hukou, dutch oven, Shao-hui
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August 11th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Hey MJ.
I miss camping out and cooking like that. That brings back great child memories.
I remember any a stew cooked in a camp oven and it always tastes so much better then what you can create from insode a house and a traditional kitchen.
The dish looked good to me and also the company as well.
How spicy was it? The cooking!
Thanks for including the “eye candy”, The Chef looked really nice as well.
Brunty
August 11th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
that looks like it’s a prefect dish to drink beer with. we’ve gotta go bbq some day some where
August 12th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Brunty, how observant of you to notice that i was using a camp style oven with the legs and rim to hold top coals. the last few years before i left the States, i cooked outdoors on a wood fire instead of using my kitchen stove. camping was always fun because we ate so well.
the dish wasn’t all that spicy, but the cayenne has a different flavor that the red chillis used here.
you are welcome for the eye candy, hehe.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Andres, i’m always up for camping/exploring/hiking man. the only trouble with the dutch ovens is their weight. in the old days you would have a horse-drawn chuck wagon and it wouldn’t be any trouble. i’d have to haul them somewhere. needless to say it would be better to go car-camping rather than bushwhacking with dutch ovens! that being said, there is nothing wrong with portage into a nice area not too far from the road, assuming that we have enough porters to do it!
August 12th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Your peach/yellow pepper chili is the best chili I have ever had. I did not know if the next bite would be sweet or savory,
I think it should be named “Total mind fuck chili”
-thinkliberty
August 12th, 2007 at 6:07 am
wow man, thanks for the compliment of the century!
i have been unable to find the beans that i used back in the States, plus i can’t smoke ribs here like i used to. so, my chili would be entirely different, but perhaps i should try to develop a Taiwan chili recipie. i think i am losing my skils because i don’t cook DO very often anymore.