Chinese Slapped Cucumber

I am back from China! We had an amazing time, but traveling is so exhausting and over the course of our 2 week trip, we were in 4 different cities and on 6 different planes. Whew! Believe it or not, this was one of our very favorite dishes our tour guide searched out for us. I definitely cannot pronounce nor write the name in Mandarin, but it literally translates to slapped cucumber.

Soft Black Pepper Pretzels + Neighborhood Snapshots

A Pretzel Haiku:

Bread twist that is soft.

With salt, has the perfect taste.

How I love you so.

Did you know that Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry? I'm sure I learned that at some point in my high school English class, but since then those fun little facts have been pushed out of my brain to make room for non-fun adult type things, like bills and how to file taxes (without stabbing yourself in the eye repeatedly). Boo! Hiss!

Back to Basics : Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Remember a few weeks ago when we made those delicious stuffed acorn squash? I hope you didn't throw away the seeds, since they make a wonderful little snack! Healthy, flavorful and prevents food waste? Those are three of my favorite qualities in a dish!

Cowboy Caviar

I love that football season is here again. It's definitely more fun when Travis and I are able to watch games on TV, but here in Okinawa the games are usually on at odd hours.... like 2 am. Besides, we don't have a satellite dish or cable subscription- the monthly fee wasn't worth getting 5 American channels and 10 Japanese ones. Just didn't make sense, ya know? So we catch highlights on the military network at our respective jobs and live vicariously through friends on Facebook. We're both looking forward to next year when we'll move back to the States and can maybe get to a mid-season game or two!

Japanese Gyoza with Spicy Dipping Sauce

I have about 5 other recipes I've been needing to write about on here, but I just can't wait another day before posting this one. Y'all, this is by far the BEST gyoza I have ever tasted.... and I've lived in Japan for 2 years. Crazy, right? Isn't it supposed to be that the local foods are better than what I make in my kitchen for the first time?

Bang Bang Shrimp

Some sort of Bang Bang Shrimp recipe seems to be all the rage across the virtual food highway... which is great! I'm glad people are experiencing the wonders that are the Bang Bang! I wonder if they have a more in depth history, but my extent of knowledge regarding their existence is from Bonefish Grill, which is a very tasty seafood restaurant mainly based on the East coast. Travis and I frequented this restaurant during my visits to Pensacola, where he was stationed during flight school. There is a branch right by the airport there, and I may or may not have thought about their business hours when making my flight plans. 

So before you think I'm utterly insane for considering a restaurant's business hours while making flight arrangements to go see my husband, let me clear up a few things.....

1. Of course the priority was to go see Travis. No doubts about that! 

2. He lived in Milton, not Pensacola proper. He didn't even technically live IN Milton, just north of it. Milton is the sticks- like cue the banjos sticks. Their "nice" restaurant was not much better than a Burger King. I kid you not. Bonefish grill was the nicest restaurant for the next 100 miles or so north of the airport.

3. That's how good the Bang Bang Shrimp are.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this dish- it's a fried shrimp appetizer covered in a light layer of sweet and spicy chile sauce. It's a wonderful combination of creamy mayonnaise, sweet Thai chile sauce, and spicy Sriracha.

I don't fry foods often, but when I do, normally I use the three step method of frying- dredge in cornstarch or flour, dip in milk or an egg wash, then dredge again in breadcrumbs or panko. It's tedious and messy and it takes a while since you have to do each piece by itself. Tasty, yes, but not very time efficient!

This recipe I used tonight calls for a thick batter that coats the shrimp and then you just drop them in hot oil. I was a little wary since I've tried batters like this while trying to make corn dogs and it just slid off the meat, even when it was patted dry and dusted with flour. But I thought what the heck, so I gave it a shot.

It worked out pretty well, considering it was so much less labor and time intensive than the dredging method. It was not as crispy crunchy as I would have hoped the shrimp would have been, but they're definitely not soggy. The flavor of both the fried shrimp by themselves and the sauce were spot on from what I remember having in the restaurant.