Being home for the holidays has been a challenge. Not only am I homebound for 1.5 weeks with no car in an unfamiliar suburb, I offered to cook for my mom while I was here. How is this a problem, you ask, for someone who loves cooking so?

Well, it wouldn’t be so much of a problem if I had brought my entire kitchen at 54 with me, but I did not. I even forgot to bring my pill case of 7 emergency herbs/spices that I intended to travel with. (Dumb dumb dumb) Because you see, my mother is kind of a spartan when it comes to kitchen supplies, a situation not to be helped by the fact that we are Chinese and the vast majority of Chinese dishes can be cooked with just salt, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, and garlic, in varying combinations/amounts. (Although we do have some other things, like sesame oil, cumin, ground chili pepper… and the most fabulous array of dried fungi imaginable, this is a pretty down-and-dirty, basic Chinese kitchen.)

So this pretty much means I can only cook us up some good ol’ Chinese home cooking. Which, again, wouldn’t be much of a problem if I didn’t spent the last 3 years gleefully trying out dishes from all cuisines EXCEPT for simple Chinese home cooking.

Thus… the challenge. This pretty much means that my entire outlook on food has to change this holiday, if I am going to stay true to my promise. Which, on second thought, is probably a good thing. Because you see, at my apartment, we’ve been more or less spoiled by our newfound adulthood freedom. We’ve happily bought up the entire spice aisle at Shaw’s and therefore got everything you need to tackle nearly any cuisine in the world (albeit a probably Westernized version of it). That, and for some reason the lovely people at work have taken to giving me fabulous collections of spices for presents. As a result we have all the equipment, flavorings, and sundries to churn out quite passable resemblances of Thai, Indian, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian you name it. At 54 I can make anything from Coq au Vin to Eggplant Curry to Man Chili to Nabemono. Here… not so much. Here I have to learn how to make deliciousness happen with one wok, some basic vegetables, and one shelf of ingredients.

Which might just turn out to be awesome. And maybe even temper the way I cook when I get back to Boston.

One final thing I promised myself for cooking here, which might make this even more fun: I am going to try to make dishes my mom usually doesn’t make for herself. Because my mom, due to lack of energy after work, habit, or both, always sticks to a collection of dishes that she knows well, and sometimes she says she wishes there were more variety. So this means I should try to introduce her to some new, easy things to cook. So can’t fall back on the things that I have watched her make with these available ingredients… that would just be too easy, now, wouldn’t it? =P

So with a little research and (I hope) common sense, here are some dishes I want to make/have made this week (all of which are to be served with rice, old skool Chinese style):

• Lamb Stew
  Basically I found some chunks of lamb chop in the freezer, and we have potatoes and carrots! So with some cumin and chili pepper, plus some chopped up tomatoes and scallions, this can be quite tasty without those 9,000 spices that usually go into curry.
• Sweet Corn and Pine Nuts Stir Fry
  I also found some Pine Nuts from who knows how long ago, when my mom was going through her health phase. With a bag of frozen corn and some wok action, I’m going to try to recreate this simple yummy dish we had at Fuloon Restaurant in Malden
• Broccoli
  My mom does meat the traditional Chinese way: none at all, or only a bit for flavoring. So I’m making teriyaki… broccoli. Which should be good because my favorite part of Fasian dishes is the broccoli, and the way the sauce soaks into the little floretty bits.
• Fried Catfish
  I also found some catfish fillets in the freezer, and we have a small bag of corn flour, so I am making fried catfish. Hey, we are south of the Mason Dixon line now. Flavored with chili powder, salt, and pepper and subbing soymilk for buttermilk, this should be quite tasty. I will have to come up with some sort of sweet-sour dip for it… maybe with rice vinegar, scallions, and brown sugar.
• Shredded Carrots
  Julienned carrots stir-fried with rice vinegar, sugar, and pinch of salt. Maybe I’ll add a bag of walnuts (also from health phase). I remember my grandmother making this and loving it when I was little. My mom never eats carrot, which I personally find crazy. They so good man.
• Egg Drop Corn Soup
  Okay, this is one of those Fasion favorites that I have learned to make due to living with Americanized kids (and being one myself), that I am going to try and introduce to my mom. Chicken broth, egg, scallions, bamboo shoots… and CREAMED CORN, one of the wonders of American cuisine.