* Stir fried wikipedia with pimientos ……. 168 Y
* Stir fried wikipedia ………………………….. 168 Y (i’m guessing its wiki which is the expensive ingredient here!)
* The meat miss the bean curds………………….. Y (huh? what did it catch then??)
* The meat fries the mushroom ………………… Y (am sure you can give the chef a few days off, right?)
* The temple explodes the chicken cube……….. Y (wow…. and you want us to eat here? I dare not even pray!)
* Wheat joss stick cow willow…………………… Y (ahh… errr… ummm… hmm… still thinking about this one!)
* Fried rape with dried mushroom………………. Y (hmm… imported from Delhi?)
* The city flavour explodes a belly……………….. Y ( well, they’re honest!)
* Fry to infuse bowel………………………………… Y (err… no, i’d rather not… just now!)
and most tellingly of all…
* Fry Mao ……………………………………………… Y (if anyone ever doubted where China stands today!)
List of items on a menu in China!
Travel in China is always an education and sometimes a veritable quadratic equation – go figure exactly what “stir fried wikipedia” is!! A couple of years ago, my husband spent a good deal of time traveling in the interior of China. Even in the major cities of the East, it’s very, very tough to get by because of the language. In cities two thousand miles in the interior, life was, to put it mildly, a tough one! Being a vegetarian was tough enough but trying to get across the concept of vegetarianism was well nigh impossible. A vegetarian friend of his had smartly come prepared with all the words for “no meat, no fish, no shark, no eels, no octopus” and so on and carefully went through the list with a waiter in a restaurant thinking that he’d cracked it. The chef and the waiter put their heads together and went through the list and came back with the one thing they figured he could eat, the one item that our pal had forgotten to include in his list – chicken!
Hubby too had his share of troubles. He tries to explain carrots to a waiter and finally decided to draw one (with a colour pen) to make him understand. The waiter comes back – half an hour later – having successfully tracked down an orange-coloured umbrella!
He finally decided to click pictures of everything he needed on the phone camera – next time you want a carrot or peanuts or maybe just a loo, just show the pic!
Finally, he tracked down one item which was completely vegetarian and incredibly – rather tasty – incredible for a South Indian who can survive only on idli, dosa and thayir saadam (curd rice)! It was so good that he met the chef and managed, with the help of an interpreter to figure out how to make it. So now we have it as a regualr feature – I have no clue what it’s called in China but in our home, it goes under the moniker “Chinese breakfast”!
CHINESE BREAKFAST
- Atta (wholewheat flour)- 4 cups
- Capsicum – very finely chopped – 1 cup
- Beans – ditto – 1 cup
- Carrots- ditto – 1 cup
- Spring onions – ditto – 1/2 cup
- Green chilies – minced – 4
- Coriander – very finely chopped – 3 tbsp
- Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
- Salt
Mix the flour with water and salt to a medium thick batter. Add all the other ingredients and whip well. Heat a saucepan and pour a few drops of oil on it. When it’s hot, sprinkle a few drops of water – the sizzling will ensure that the oil spreads all over the pan. Pour two ladlefuls of batter and spread out to a pancake about 2 mm thick. Pour a few drops of oil all around. Lower the heat and cover. Cook for about ten minutes till the bottom surface is golden brown and crisp. Turn over and cook uncovered for a further 7-8 minutes till brown bubbles appear on the bottom and it’s quite crisp. The centre stays quite tender.
Serve with pudina chutney or peanut chutney or if you have Gujju genes, with ketchup!
Better to make it in two or three pans on the stovetop – each of these takes 17-20 minutes to cook and you can get very hungry waiting!
You could always fry mao along with it!