Sometimes Meals Suck

I wasn't sure whether a post like this would serve a purpose, but I think it will. Sometimes we experiment in cooking, combining various ingredients and elements in hopes of creating a dish worth eating. Recently, I tried and failed.

I love noodles. And, there is a particular dish that I truly enjoy that is a dark, dry Chinese noodle (something like Ja Ja Mien). It has cooked soup noodles, some type of brown sauce with dried tofu and pork. I've had it many times at many different restaurants, but never as a home cooked meal. I thought I would give it a try.

First mistake - I bought Vietnamese thin rice noodles. These are about 24 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide and paper thin. I don't think they're made for such a dish, but I didn't know.

Second mistate - I thought the brown sauce might be a soybean sauce. I first tried a small portion of the noodles with straight, store-bought bean sauce. That was like eating a can of salt with beans. Wrong.

Next, I tried thinning the brown sauce with chicken broth. Got closer, but still not quite.

Then, I took 4 pork cutlets and chopped them until they were practically ground. I fried this up with small chunks of baked tofu, using a small amount of Sesame oil.

Once that was cooked, I added a small amount of the thinned sauce, mixed it, then poured it over the cold noodles. I then added thin slices of cucumber and fresh jalapeno pepper.

My wife almost gagged. My brother-in-law smiled and took it down. Me, well, I probably won't make that one again, although it did give me some ideas for other dishes.

Happy Cooking!

~ Brock