Hidden in Fireworks, Healing Flavor of

: Shallot Fried Beef Bamboo Shoots

hi, I'm Eliot Jameson, a food blogger who grew up in Seattle and has been rooted in fireworks for eight years. I'm 32 years old this year. Aries has always been unable to hide emotions. When I eat a congenial meal, my eyes are brighter than the street lights in Pike Place Market. At 193cm in height, I always look a little clumsy, especially in a small kitchen. Light brown curly hair is often messed up by the heat of the stove. Gray-green eyes are staring at the food stir-fry in the pan, which is 100 times more focused than when looking at the camera. My daily favorite is to wear a soft-washed flannel shirt, a baseball cap with a worn brim, an old cloth bag with a camera on his shoulder forever, and when the small mole on his left cheek laughs, it is accompanied by two untidy tiger teeth, all with a heartless enthusiasm.

I have always been outgoing and noisy. My friends always laugh at me as a "human-shaped food mouthpiece". The mantra "This is too delicious" is almost on the lips. Even a bowl of home-cooked food from a street stall can make me sincerely admire. I have always felt that food is never something that simply eats the stomach, but hides emotions, stories and tenderness handed over by strangers. This is also my first intention to insist on sharing food. Of course, I also have some minor problems that I can't change. When I want to shop impulsively, I always carry large and small bags back when I go to the food market. The refrigerator is full all the year round. Sometimes I forget to take care of it when I am busy. The next day I have to sigh at the withered food. But the next time I see fresh vegetables, I still can't help but reach out to buy them.

As a full-time food blogger, I have traveled all over the streets of Seattle in the past eight years, from the old small restaurants in Chinatown to the family kitchens in the suburbs, from exquisite western food to authentic Chinese food. I prefer the homely taste hidden in the market. There are no complicated dishes, no fancy skills, and one bite is full of steadfast warmth. I am good at combining the characteristics of Chinese and Western ingredients, but I only have a special liking for Chinese fast-frying. I always feel that the pot spirit of stir-frying in a big fire is the soul of fireworks that cannot be replaced by any slow-stewed cuisine. I don't have any earth-shattering achievements. I just rely on my real taste buds to gain a group of fans who like to eat home-cooked food like me. In my spare time, I will also record these humble home-cooked tastes in the howcooks and hide them. The delicate tenderness in the dishes is shared with everyone who loves life.

My taste is salty and rich, but I can't touch coriander except spicy. This is always criticized by friends who love coriander. I don't like exquisite single meals. I prefer weekend afternoons. The kitchen window is open and the sun is shining on the chopping board. I handle the ingredients slowly, fry a plate of hot dishes with a bowl of rice, and sit by the window to eat slowly. Even if I am alone, I feel that the days are full. However, if you want to say which home-cooked dish can become the most special healing existence in my heart, it must be scallion-fried beef and bamboo shoots. This dish has no valuable ingredients and no complicated craftsmanship, but it has accompanied me through the lowest period of time in my life and has become the most practical lesson on my cooking road.

The first time I ate authentic fried beef and bamboo shoots was when I graduated from college when I was 22 years old. At that time, I had just finished a bad internship and separated from my friends who had been in love for many years. I wandered aimlessly in Chinatown into the evening, growling with hunger, but I didn't want to find a decent restaurant. Finally, I got into a Chinese restaurant in the alley with faded signs. There were few guests in the store. The gray-haired wife of shop-owner was sitting at the door choosing dishes. She watched me walk in with my head drooping. She didn't ask much. She just smiled and handed over the menu. I ordered beef and bamboo shoots with onions. I didn't expect anything but to fill my stomach.

It didn't take long for a steaming dish to be served. As soon as it was served, it was wrapped in the rich scallions. The large pieces of scallions were fried soft and tender but crisp. The beef slices were wrapped in thin sauce, which was bright and attractive. The bamboo shoots beside them were cut evenly, with tender light green. I picked up the chopsticks and took a bite. The beef was tender and tasty. It had no hard taste of wood. The bamboo shoots were crisp and raw, with unique sweetness, neutralizing the strong fragrance of beef. The spicy fragrance of green onions was completely integrated into the ingredients. There was no smell of pungent taste. The salty fragrance was delicious. With rice, I could eat two bowls at one go. The wife of shop-owner saw that I was wolfed down, quietly added a small plate of bamboo shoots to me, and said softly: "Young people can't get over the hurdles, eat some crisp and tender vegetables, and the sulking in my heart is going out along the food."

at that meal, my eyes were hot, and I had been depressed for several days. I slowly calmed down in this simple plate of fried beef and bamboo shoots. It turns out that the most healing thing is not the delicacies of mountains and seas, but the casual gentleness of strangers and the warm and down-to-earth taste of home. Since then, this small restaurant has become a place I often go to. I slowly got acquainted with the wife of shop-owner and heard her talk about the way to fry beef bamboo shoots with scallion. It is not a classic dish in the eight major cuisines, but it is a microcosm of the common fusion between the north and the south, it is a clever combination of seasonal fresh vegetables in the south and meat in the north. Tender bamboo shoots are eaten in spring and crisp bamboo shoots are used in summer. All seasons can make different freshness.

Since then, I have made up my mind to learn this dish, thinking that when I am in a bad mood in the future, I don't have to run a long way, and I can fry this cure at home. But when I first started learning, I failed nearly ten times, made many jokes and stepped on countless pits. At first, I didn't know the choice of beef materials. I chose beef tendon meat with rough texture, which was cut thick and large. once fried in the pan, it became old and firewood, and I couldn't bite it. Later, I didn't know how to deal with bamboo shoots. Fresh bamboo shoots didn't blanch, with strong astringency, and one bite was bitter. Even the most basic scallion, I chose the wrong part and used more onion leaves than onion white, the fried green onion leaves are only soft and rotten, not sweet and sweet.

The most outrageous time was when I thought that olive oil was commonly used in western cooking, so I used olive oil to stir-fry with high fire. As a result, when the oil temperature was high, the oil fume instantly filled the whole kitchen, almost triggering the smoke alarm at home. The stir-fried dishes still had a faint smell of oil, and there was no pot gas of Chinese quick stir-frying. I called a Chinese food chef far away in China to ask for advice. Only then did I understand that the fast stir-frying of scallion is the strong fragrance of rapeseed oil. If the high fire is quickly stir-fried for more than ten seconds, it will be taken out of the pan. The temperature, knife work and food handling cannot be careless in every step. Later, I practiced over and over again, from choosing the tender meat of beef tenderloin, to slicing and pickling with reverse grain, to blanching the bamboo shoots to remove astringency, and cutting the scallion into sections to control drying. I slowly understood the essence of this dish, and finally I was able to fry the scallion-fried beef bamboo shoots with similar taste to that in the small restaurant.

In fact, the charm of scallion-fried beef and bamboo shoots never lies in the complicated process, but in the core logic of Chinese home cooking: using the simplest ingredients and relying on the most exquisite temperature to make the taste that best fits the taste buds. Beef is fresh and tender beef tenderloin, sliced against the texture, pickled with a little raw smoke, cooking wine and starch to lock the moisture to ensure tenderness. Bamboo shoots should be fresh bamboo shoots of the season, sliced and blanched to remove oxalic acid, so that the taste will be crisp and sweet without astringency. Scallion must be thick and strong. After cutting, stir-fry with high fire to stimulate sweet scallion flavor. This is the soul of scallion.

This dish has no heavy historical allusions and anecdotes of celebrities, but it is a homely taste that every family can cook and love to eat. It is suitable for too many scenes: coming home from work on a busy day, frying a plate in ten minutes, instantly dispelling exhaustion; In my spare time on weekends, simply making a dish with rice is a comfortable lunch. Even when I am depressed, I smell the scallion fragrance in the pan and watch the ingredients stir-fried and change color in the pan, the boredom in my heart will slowly dissipate. It does not pick cooking, do not pick kitchen utensils, even if it is a novice kitchen, as long as the master of the heat and ingredients processing, can make their own healing taste.

The reason why I especially recommend this scallion-fried beef and bamboo shoots is not only because its taste is amazing enough, but also because it has taught me that the meaning of delicious food is never the pursuit of perfection, but the heart hidden in every attempt and improvement, and the warmth hidden in every hot dish. It does not pay attention to ostentation and extravagance like banquet dishes, nor does it pursue gimmicks like net red dishes. It is to quietly stand by the hearth and soothe every ordinary daily with the simplest ingredients. Over the years, I have traveled to many places and eaten countless delicacies, but every time I come home, what I want to eat most is a plate of fried beef and bamboo shoots with scallion. It is simple, warm and down-to-earth. It is full of peace of mind.

Later, I also sorted out the story and practice experience of this dish and shared it on the howcooks. I didn't deliberately pose or have gorgeous words. I just truthfully recorded the cure brought to me by this dish. I didn't expect to gain the resonance of many friends. Some people said that they also spent a difficult time relying on this dish. Some people said that they succeeded in the first time with my little skills. It turned out that this pyrotechnic smell was cured, it's never been my feelings alone.

In fact, the most touching place of food is never the taste itself, but the story behind the taste, companionship and tenderness. Just like this ordinary scallion-fried beef and bamboo shoots, it may just be an inconspicuous home-cooked dish on your dining table, but it may hide your exclusive memory, perhaps the taste of family cooking, perhaps the warmth given by strangers, and perhaps The witness of your own growth. Life is made up of these fine pieces of beauty, a hot dish, a warm meaning, is enough to resist all the unpleasant.

I don't know if you have such an exclusive home-cooked healing dish, perhaps it is fried beef and bamboo shoots with scallion, or other simple dishes. It has no gorgeous appearance, but it can give you the most steadfast warmth when you need it. You are welcome to share your food stories with me, and talk about the tenderness and touch hidden in the fireworks. I also hope that everyone can eat the food you like in ordinary days, meet warm people, and make every ordinary day steaming.