Major discovery!!!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we learned that there's a branch of H Mart, the Asian superstore, just a few miles from our home in Yonkers! I cannot begin to describe my joy...
Asian ingredients are often very pricy at traditional western supermarkets, and the cost of driving or taking a train into NYC to shop in Chinatown cancels out the cheap prices. So the discovery of a fairly (and in some cases remarkably) inexpensive Asian food store with a breathtaking selection a short drive away had me grinning like an idiot... and that's before I entered the doorway... and felt like Dorothy when everything went from black and white to color!!!
Great soy sauces, tofus, noodles, rices, spice pastes, fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, fresh galangal, ginger for $1.99 a pound, a virtual kimchi bar...
I'm still breathing heavily.
We returned home with our bounty, and of course had to have something Asian for dinner.
I sautéed some gorgeous ground pork until almost done... drained off the fat and set it aside in a bowl with a heaping tablespoon of the miraculous Korean chili paste gochujang and a splash of soy sauce to marinate.
Next I sautéed about 6 Shanghai bok choy, rinsed and quartered, in peanut oil until they were just beginning to soften. I removed them and set them aside. I then sautéed about 2T ginger cut into matchsticks with three cloves of garlic, minced, and a handful of peanuts. When that was fragrant, I added the pork mixture back in, stir-fried for a minute or so, added the bok choy, heated it through... tasted... and added another splash of soy.
Now here's an odd sounding choice: a dish like this should probably be served with noodles, and we sort of wanted rice... but I remembered that I had a container of cooked orzo - the rice-shaped pasta (see where this is heading?!?).
I gently reheated the orzo, topped it with the pork/bok choy, sprinkled it all with a bit of sesame oil... and we sat down to a new favorite meal.
The moral of the story? Go into new stores whenever you have the chance... Go in with an open mind! Try stuff! You'll be glad you did!