Cooking with Eric

When I decided to restart the Taiwan Adventure Blog, I didn’t intend for it to be just another Taiwanese food blog.  Taiwan is known as a food destination.  There are all kinds of delicious foods here.  I like to eat, and I seem to spend a lot of time doing just that, but before you start thinking, “This old man is going to get fat,” I think it’s important to note that I’ve dropped about five kilograms (eleven pounds) since I’ve been here.  I think I’m really beginning to agree with Robert Kennedy that there’s some component in food in the US that causes Americans to get fat.  I don’t eat less, and I don’t eat more.  The difference must be what I’m eating.  The food is just healthier, I guess.

At our house, Eric seems to cook most of the dinners, and guess what, Eric can cook.  He does a lot of stir fry, which considering where we live, is a reasonable choice.  Taiwanese kitchens are very basic.  There’s no kitchen range (cooktop/oven combination) just a basic cooktop designed for use with a wok.  So, everything is cooked on top of the stove.  You can get an oven at Costco, but it’s a small appliance that fits on an existing countertop.   

There are lots of combination cookers that combine microwave, air fryer and convection ovens, but again they’re made at countertop size.  Eric doesn’t use all of that.  He uses a stir fry method, boils or steams vegetables and uses the air fryer.  He also serves rice with every meal that’s cooked in a rice cooker. 

His meals are pretty eclectic, everything from Japanese curry to fried chicken thighs.  When he was in the states he became a master of the barbecue.  He can barbecue chicken with the best of them and even became so good at Carne Asada that Elle exclaimed, “I’m shocked to the sky!”  I’m not really sure what that means but apparently, it’s a good thing, because she scarfed it up with great gusto.  He is often my sous chef on the smoker, as well.

Eric and I have similar tastes in food.  We both like our meals with a bit of spice.  The problem is that the rest of the family is not all that excited about spicy food, so we have some hot sauce that we incorporate with our meals.  It’s made with raw cayenne peppers, about 50,000 Scoville heat units (SHU).  Compare that to Jalapenos which are about 2,500 SHU or Habaneros at 100,000 SHU.  Those babies will burn your lips right off, if you’re not careful.  I put some on my chicken once and Eric thought it was too much.  “Are you committing suicide?” he asked with incredulity. So, we now just call it the "suicide" sauce.  Your mouth can adjust to it eventually and it's not so hot, in fact it has a great taste.  It’s finely diced peppers with a bit of Olive Oil. 

當我決定重啟「台灣冒險部落格」時，我並不想讓它只成為另一個台灣美食部落格。台灣以美食天堂著稱，這裡有各種美味的食物。我喜歡吃東西，也似乎花了很多時間在吃，但在你開始想「這個老頭會不會吃胖」之前，我覺得有必要提一下，自從來到這裡，我已經瘦了大約五公斤（十一磅）。我真的開始同意羅伯特·肯尼迪的看法——美國的食物裡似乎有某種成分讓美國人變胖。我吃的量並沒有減少，也沒有增加，差別應該是食物本身。我猜，這裡的食物更健康吧。

在我們家，大多數晚餐都是Eric做的，而你猜怎麼樣？Eric真的會做飯。他經常炒菜，考慮到我們的居住地，這是很合理的選擇。台灣的廚房非常簡單，沒有傳統的廚灶（爐灶和烤箱的組合），只有一個為炒鍋設計的基本爐灶。因此，所有的食物都是在爐子上煮的。你可以在Costco買到烤箱，但那是一種小型電器，放在現有的檯面上使用。

還有很多結合微波爐、空氣炸鍋和對流烤箱功能的組合式廚具，但它們也是檯面大小的。Eric並不使用這些設備。他主要用炒菜的方法，或者煮、蒸蔬菜，還用空氣炸鍋。他每頓飯都會配上一些用電鍋煮的米飯。

他的料理風格相當多元，從日式咖哩到炸雞腿不等。在美國的時候，他成為了一位燒烤大師。他的烤雞技術堪稱一流，甚至還精通墨西哥烤肉（Carne Asada），以至於Elle驚呼：「我震驚到天上去了！」我不太確定這句話的意思，但顯然是好事，因為她吃得津津有味。他也經常在我用煙燻爐做菜時擔任我的助手。

Eric和我在飲食口味上非常相似，我們都喜歡帶點辣味的餐點。但問題是，家裡其他人對辣味並不感興趣，所以我們會在自己的餐點中加入一些辣醬。這種辣醬是用生的紅辣椒製成的，辣度約為50,000斯科維爾熱單位（SHU）。相比之下，墨西哥辣椒（Jalapeno）的辣度約為2,500 SHU，而哈瓦那辣椒（Habanero）約為100,000 SHU。這些辣椒如果不小心，真的能燒掉你的嘴唇。我曾經把一些辣醬加在雞肉上，Eric覺得太多了，他驚訝地問：「你是在自殺嗎？」所以，我們現在稱這個辣醬為「自殺醬」。你的口腔最終可以適應它，感覺就不那麼辣了，事實上，它的味道非常棒。這是用細細切碎的辣椒和少許橄欖油做成的。

The following is a selection of Eric meals.  Enjoy!

以下是Eric的一些料理作品。請慢用！

Pork Soup with Pork Balls, Chicken and Green Papaya Salad and Pineapple

Japanese Curry, Sweet Potato Leaves and Rice

Hot Pot - Green Curry and Vegetable broths, with Pork Balls, 

Needle Mushrooms and Mushrooms and Yakiniku (Japanese Barbecue)

"Suicide" Sauce

Cayenne Peppers

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