Chinese Restaurant + Build Your Own Takeout Box
One of my go-to, favorite, repeat it at least once a year date nights - Chinese Restaurant. Going out to eat Chinese Food with my family was a favorite Sunday activity for me. We’d very often dedicate Sunday evenings to spending time with my Grandma Mary. Scooping her up from her house and taking her out on the town for a little family dinner was pretty routine. For me, It’s a fond memory and I think it was that ritualistic weekend dinner with grandma that helped build the foundation of a great relationship with her, and just made loving time spent with her very easy from a young age.
We had a few dinner spots that we’d frequent, and one thing that we did with pretty much only her was go out for Chinese food. It was a favorite of hers and became something I so enjoyed doing with her - enjoying the flavors and dishes of the modern day Chinese restaurant. I even remember the names of the places that were her favorite. The Chinese Tea Palace was a place we went where they new her by name. They greeted her by her first name & had huge tables with a Lazy Susan in the middle that made sharing fun and easy. Beijing Islamic was another one of our faves that was closer to my parents house, and remains a spot that we drive by often when I’m back home. It has since turned over, but every time we pass by I remember sitting at a 4-top with plates of Chinese chicken and chowing down on a crispy noodle dish that I’ve never had elsewhere. I vividly remember that type of family time.
What I remember most was eating family style. Each of us picking one thing to order, our own personal favorite, and sharing. Each of us always picked something different, but there was a bit of predictability. My mom would always order a veggie, my dad a noodle dish, gram was the wildcard, & I’d always come through with something from the chicken section of the menu because I was pre-teen & chicken was the safe bet. We ended up with four unique dishes brought to the table, sharing them family style, and I’m pretty sure this where my appreciation for having options at dinner started.
This whole theme of Chinese Restaurant is about recreating that experience of having options, putting them on big serving trays so they can be shared family style, & enjoying a dinner built on choices & creating your personal rice bowl in the process. At least that’s what I do. Use simple white rice as the base to soak up all the sauces and flavors of each dish, and experimenting with putting two dishes in the same forkful for a tasty bite. That’s a perk of with Asian food - the different dishes usually pair so well together. A bite of the veggies + a bite of the chicken, or a forkful of the noodles + whatever else you’ve got on the plate, all while a couple grains of rice make their way into the mix. Mixing + melding distinct foods that are all built on communal Asian flavors - garlic, ginger, scallion & soy - well, it’s a recipe for success. The variations in spice & sweetness & texture create a dinner full of foods that are complimentary while distinct. & it makes it so easy to have fun with food.
The at-home Chinese Restaurant date is defined by you and your partner getting in the kitchen, cooking side by side in your owns skillets, making your own dish (or two). Someone jumps on rice duty, and it’s a side by side cooking party in your own kitchen. I also feel like at home Chinese restaurant is the closest thing we’ve ever had to an at home Chopped challenge, & for me it’s much preferred because there’s absolutely no competition. & the end result is this party of a meal where we each bring something to the table (literally), and it all comes together create a cohesive & truly yummy dinner.
For lack of a better word, let’s call our Chinese Restaurants dishes stir-frys. Yes - it may be a noodle dish or veggie dish or something that’s not technically a stir fry, but for simplicity let’s define them all as stir-fries where the common denominator is a yummy, savory, sticky sauce that’s emblematic of those Chinese restaurant dishes we’e come to know and love. & it’s food that has a foundation in pantry ingredients that don’t get used unless Asian cooking is what’s going down. Hoisin, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil - all used in different ways to make an array of dishes that come together for one delicious Asian feast. No planing is required, and pretty much anything goes. By each picking our own things to make, I also feel like it’s a window into your partners palette. For me, learning more about what Jordan likes to eat, and the flavors he seeks out when he’s in charge fills me with more ideas of how to cook for him, & get him super excited about at-home food.
How it worked out for us this time - we had a meaty dish, a Spicy Korean Beef stir fry, that was kind of our main, and two veggie stir-frys that were the back-up dancers. Meat in general has become more of a rarity in our house, but for the purpose of creating a hefty spread with lots variety, I went all in on a spicy beef stir fry. Plus - I can’t resist a stir fry with beef that’s browned to crispy perfection & sauced up. I mean - it’s mouth watering. That’s what this beef stir fry is - spicy, savory, and cooked with tender carrots, caramelized peppers, & crunchy bean sprouts for a little freshness. So many textures to create a meaty main that’s reminiscent of something you’d see served up at a hometown Chinese Restaurant.
It’s a simple and easy dish to make. One skillet and a little bit of attention is all that’s required. My recommendations to make sure it’s next level (& the things I’m noting for future attempts for this one):
Go heavy upon the carrots! It’s the main veggie that goes in this meaty stir fry, and carrots that are browned and cooked until tender are pretty f*cking delish. They tastes good with a chop-stick full of beef & on their own in the spicy sauce. So the more the merrier.
Go easy on the added oil. My attempt first attempt, I was a little too liberal with the canola oil, and that + the fat that cooked out of the beef was a little much. So in other words - remember that that beef will render some fat, & that will come in handy for cooking the veggies. So no need to go heavy up front with the oil.
If you don’t have sesame seeds, the Everything Bagel seasoning that’s made its way into pantries across America is a great substitute. If you don’t already have it in your spice rack, you really should. Any seasoning mix with sesame seeds will probably work, and the Everythnig Bagel Seasoning with dried garlic and flaked salt pairs great. So no need to buy sesame seeds if you’ve got something like this on hand
Our veggie duo: Hoisin Asparagus + Peppered Mushrooms. Both so simple and easy to cook up, and both so delicious. The asparagus has this sweet & ginger-y undertone since hoisin is the main component of the sauce, and the mushrooms are a salty and savory dream. The asparagus is cooked up sauté style, and cooked with caramelized red onions. The sauce is thick and coats each veggie bit. These Peppered Mushrooms, however, are the true highlight of Chinese Restaurant datenight. They’re just a total delight, and I’ve put them in a folder of being the most perfect Asian ever since I first cooked them. They’re seriously so damn delicious, and the one dish that makes a comeback every time we bring Chinese Restaurant back around. The mushrooms start by being browned to absolute perfection, are then dowsed in oyster sauce + soy, & continue to cook until you have a sauce that’s sticky & salty & simply too die. Scallions are mixed in at the last second for some bright green pops and a little bit of freshness. A scallion garnish in Asian food is like the equivalent of adding in herbs to pasta - just a pop of something fresh to lighten and brighten.
The caveat to this episode of Chinese Restaurant was that instead of sitting down at the table with platters of our stir-fry masterpieces spread out in front of us, plated and garnished to perfection, we went the route of build your own takeout box. Our food went from either straight out of the oven//straight out of the pan to straight onto our kitchen counter for a serve yourself situation. Starting with those iconic Chinese takeout boxes & filling each with a couple spoonfuls of rice, we then loaded them up with our home cooked dishes. How it was loaded up & additions like sriracha, sesame seeds, or a couple extra spoonfuls of sauce was part of the DIY set-up. Our own little takeout boxes tailored to our own tastebuds, enjoyed fireside in our living room - chopsticks and all. & the perfect way to inject some comfort into our home.
For the Spicy Korean Beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb. beef chuck, cut into bite size pieces
3 garlic cloves, smashed (I love keeping the garlic in pretty big chunks opposed to minced in chunky a stir-fry)
1 red bell pepper
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into disks
1/3 c. soy sauce
3 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce (or sriracha)
pinch of red pepper
1-2 c. bean sprouts
3 scallions, thinly sliced
Sesame seeds (for garnish)
Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add in the oil, and when the skillet is hot, add in the beef. Cook until outsides are browned (totally fine for the inside to be pretty raw). Add in the smashed garlic, peppers, and carrots. Stir, adding in a dash more oil if needed. Cover, and let cook for 10 minutes. The peppers and carrots should be soft and tenderized. Uncover and add in the soy, sweet chili sauce, chili garlic sauce, and red pepper. Stir, turning up the heat to medium high so the sauce begins to bubble. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, reduce, and stir in the bean sprouts and scallion. Garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and serve.