a week of stir-fries

last night's foray into the blue box notwithstanding, i did a lot this week with stir-fries. the inspiration came on sunday afternoon when uncle mikey took me on a field trip to the two asian grocery stores he frequents. i came home with a bag of thai bird chiles, a bag of thai basil, a jar of "life-changing" sweet chile sauce, and a hankering for stir-fries.

started off easy with an old favorite, the classic wagamama chicken tama rice, which is really just chargrilled chicken in a thickened oyster sauce with some shiitakes. it's meant to have zucchini, but i had a childhood trauma involving gourd vegetables and so i declined to add those to my wok. by a nice stroke of planning, i managed to make just enough for my 1 meal without having to clog my refrigerator with (more) leftovers. i took this, coupled with the extended daylight, the weather that made it warm enough to walk home, as a good sign.

on tuesday the weather was even nicer than it was on monday, but i couldn't walk home. not and still make it to the dry-cleaners before they closed at seven (it is times like this that i really miss new york city, where the dry-cleaner would deliver and my doorman would keep it for me. *sigh*). i compromised by getting off the metro a stop early and by walking to the whole foods in georgetown instead of taking the metro to the one with the really nice butcher shop in tenleytown. at whole foods i procured a half-pound of seriously good-looking skirt steak, which i sliced across the grain and utilized with the bird chiles, the thai basil, some fish sauce and some rice wine vinegar. i swear, the beef practically melted into the wok, it was so tender.

wednesday i went back to kylie kwong and decided that we needed to get along better, so i gave her sung choi bao of pork another go. this time, i had lettuce and carrots and bean sprouts and as i suspected, these added a nice bit of crunch and color to the light and salty pork flavor.

only i still didn't like it.
no worries, kylie. we'll find common ground soon enough, i am sure of it.