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Old Tue, Jan-09-18, 15:01
Meetow Kim Meetow Kim is offline
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Plan: Atkins Concept
Stats: 225/190/175 Male 70.5"
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Location: Central Virginia
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You have to force yourself to learn chopsticks. Like holding a fork or spoon, we all (especially non-Asians who didn't grow up using them) have a slightly different "hold" on them. I'm still not perfectly proficient at them but can grab almost anything. What I cant do really well is eat rice with them. Sticky rice is easy but loose rice...I dont know how they do it, and sometimes if you watch them, they hold their bowl to their mouth and kind of nudge the rice in. Now that I'm not eating rice...no worries!.

I still have to re-position the chopsticks here and there, they get all slipped off in one direction or another.

If you try to hold them like authentic Asians you will drive yourself nuts. They seem to hold them way back near the ends with them nearly touching. The disposable chopsticks that come in the red sleeve usually have pictorial instructions and I'll bet youtube is chock full of help. I find, for some reason, maybe is psychosomatic, certain foods taste better eating with chopsticks. It forces you to enjoy the individual parts of a dish more I suppose. They probably forget your silverware trying to encourage you to use the chopsticks. Ask them for a lesson, I find most immigrants are very happy that you want to learn THEIR culture.

As far a micro-eggs. First, never put an egg still in the shell in the microwave, that's bad explosive stuff. Something I saw on these very boards is people putting a scrambled/whisked egg (that thing you do for scrambled eggs, you know, whisking it up with a fork or whisk?) and pouring it on smooth plate and microwaving to make a flat wrap type shape to wrap up other foods in.

What we have done in my house (my wife actually got me doing this) is take a small glass bowl (or other microwave safe bowl) that is about 2 to 3 times the the size that will fit the egg exactly (because the egg will swell up when microwaving), spray it with cooking spray or wipe it with an oil or butter soaked paper towel, crack an egg in it and whisk with a fork, or you can leave it whole but the yolk will not be runny when cooked...for the most part.

We microwave that 1 minute as 50% power with a folded paper towel over top. Check and make sure its set up or done, if not, hit it again at 30 second intervals until done. A little salt and pepper before you mix it up and microwave is tasty. This is how we used to make egg muffins...before I started low carb...now sadly...there is no muffin.

You can do more than one in a larger bowl just like you would make scrambled eggs, even with a little cream or milk mixed in. Just nuke it in small doses, pull out and whisk with fork, and re-nuke at short intervals until your preferred doneness. DO NOT skip the oiling of the dish. Trust me...unless you have some newfangled non-stick microwave thingy you are using that doesn't require it.

Again, YouTube can be your friend

I'm new here but I think kitchen talk is where they want general discussion on stuff like this. I'm happy to be corrected...as I said...new here.

I would love to switch with you for a few months. I would shadow your Vietchef every day if I could, learning everything I could soak up, I'm a pretty accomplished home cook, and proper Asian is very hard to get right...and all Asians who are not Americanized yet grow stuff everywhere they can...its in their DNA. The biggest hindrance to your roommate's cooking is probably burner size. The reason none of us can really get the proper Asian/Chinese flavor is we dont have a burner big enough to create enough heat to make the flavor. It's called "breath of the wok"...and its something that can only be achieved with a huge burner and a proper wok, preferably seasoned with thousands of meals. If you ever get a peek in the pro kitchen of an Asian restaurant, you will see the big burner with the wok sitting on a ring over it. Almost no Americans have that at home and thus, can never replicate what that cook is doing
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