Chinese Baked Pork Chop Rice 焗豬扒飯

One of the best "if you are really starving and in need of 'comfort food'" food ever.  Hummm...  Did that make any sense? Well, you know what I mean!  Or, to be absolutely correct, you will know what I mean after you try this Chinese Baked Pork Chop Rice, or 焗豬扒飯.  

This is a local Hong Kong classic, an absolute standard at all the cha chaan teng, or 茶餐廳 in Hong Kong.  Cha chaan teng is the name for the local style dinners/cafes that dot the culinary landscape of Hong Kong.  Small affordable chinese food eateries that serve up fast, greasy food in big portions; interiors done up with lots of fluorescent lighting and rows of small eating booths.  A cha chaan teng has to have a decent Chinese Baked Pork Chop dish to serve to the hungry masses if it wants to be taken seriously as an eatery!

Tomato Egg Drop Soup 番茄蛋花湯

In our little family we sometimes argue about Chinese food.  Mostly due to the fact that our respective families come from different provinces ( I am from Jiangsu and he is from Guangdong) and that means that we were raised eating different kinds of Chinese food.  

What a lot of people don't realize is that the difference between provinces in China are similar to differences between nations in Europe.  The differences range from extreme (as in I cannot for the life of me understand your version of the Chinese oral language) to vaguely similar (as with Chinese food which all seem to be based on similar ingredients but vary wildly as to the final product).  

So it was with pleasant surprise recently that we came up with the same taste requirements for this wonderful classic Chinese comfort dish, Tomato Egg Drop Soup, or 番茄蛋花湯.  This is a really, really easy light soup that tastes way better than you think it could.  It goes wonderful with a chinese dinner and is dynamite for these hot summer days because it tastes just as good cold as hot.

Tomato Egg Stir Fry 蕃茄炒蛋

You know how there are some foods that, when you smell, see or taste them, take you straight back to when you were just a wee girlie or laddie and were just tall enough to sit in the 'real' chairs and eat with the big people?  Ah, life was good then!  I didn't have to do a thing back then, just sit in my wee chair and eat to my heart's content all the yummy food that Grandma cooked each day.  Oh dear, I'm getting a tear in my eye...  How I miss Grandma and her wonderful cooking!  

She's the real reason that I have all these strong food memories for real Chinese home-cooking.  Grandma cooked proper delicious Chinese meals everyday of the year.  One favorite dish of mine that she made a lot was Tomato Egg Stir Fry 蕃茄炒蛋, a homey dish that, when well done, is a perfect combination of tastes and textures as well as being simple and quick to make.

Nowadays, whenever I gobble down the first couple of bites of this delicious Chinese comfort dish, I swear I can almost hear my dearest Grandma pottering about the pots and pans in the kitchen.

Tomato Anchovy Pasta with Chives

There nothing else that has the simplicity, elegance and good taste of pasta.  One night we were too tired to go shopping for groceries and just scrounged around the kitchen to find cookables and ended up with this beauty of a pasta dish.