I am not sure how to categorize this soup as I learned them in one of my Western cookbooks for party foods. But two ingredients, tofu and soy sauce, are typical in Asian cuisines. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter as long as the food is delicious and has something special to remember and persuades you to cook and eat it again. 

This soup is definitly very simple, but the taste and flavor is not just boring. When having this soup, I felt the purity of the food and the peace of the meal. Tofu and vegetables are always our favorites and inspirations in every day meal. 

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I was very curious about the name of this egg salad. When reading Western cookbooks, I have been familiar with the name of the dishes indicating who makes them such as mother’s chicken soup, grandmother’s apple pie, etc. But this is the first time I read about a dish by a son-in-law. "What an interesting name given to this dish", I thought. 

So I decided to make this salad. It is quite simple. I like cooking with tamarind paste and this is always my favorite flavor. Personally I think this dish has more typical Asian flavors. After the first trial, i definitely had to admit that I liked the taste and flavor so so much. I immediately told my fiance that he ought to make this salad for my parents one day and surely he would get good praise.

In several friends’ gatherings, I re-made this salad and it was always welcomed by my friends and was the one to be finished first and very quickly. It really worths a try.  

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When I went shopping and saw the sea bass was just brought out of the water, I was so eager to look at them and see which one jumped the highest, then I supposed it was the strongest and freshest one. Sometimes such fresh and live fish are avaible at the supermarket, however, not anytime the price is affordable to me. 

This time I was lucky as the price for one live sea bass was reasonable. So I grasped one and quickly cooked this dish. I filleted the sea bass, used the fillets in this dish and made the fish stock with the head and bone, then saved the stock for later use. Live fish like this always brings out great taste and flavor. Many people in my country, if heard about this, would think it strange because, there, when you go to the market, you only buy live fish, except for those caught from the ocean. The fish which are raised by people or caught in the rivers, the ponds must always be alive, otherwise no housewife will bother leaving an eye on them. 

In this dish, the sea bass fillets are pan-fried first until just cooked. After that, the ginger, garlic, chili are fried to release the fragrance and combined with soy sauce and spring onion. This sauce mixture will be drizzled or poured over the fish. Cooking time is very short. Cooking method is simple. Ingredients are basic. Yet you will see clearly how live fish really taste like. 

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I still have some bread left, so I cooked this soup to finish it since I didn’t want to keep it longer on my dinning table.  It is very simple and quick to make this soup – the soup with Asian flavor by using soy sauce to season. 

Moreover, crab sticks are quite popularly used in Asian dishes. Though i do know that crab stick contains just a small percentage of crab meat and crab flavor, I could not afford to buy crab meat to use. So, if possible, you may use crab meat for more authentic and deeper flavor. 

I was thinking, while eating the soup and the bread, which was actually the Cuban bread I made days ago, about the combination of the East and the West flavor in one meal like this. Very interesting. 

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It is no controversy that tofu is a all time favorite food of Asian people. And I am a fan of tofu. Each time I came home to visit my family, my Mom often asked me what I wished to eat for the first meal at home. The first thing I always remembered was a simple dish of fried tofu.

Tofu is very popular in Asian countries, however, the taste and the texture of tofu differ from country to country. And of course, tofu comes in a great variety of dishes. I am not a vegetarian, however, I never hesitate to try any dish made with tofu.

So this time, I am attracted to another Korean dish made with tofu. Tofu Jo Rim is the name of this dish in Korean. I have to admit that right from the first bite, I really loved the tofu cooked in this way. The only matter was that the tofu was a little too salty for my taste. So I remembered to omit the salt used to sprinkle the tofu slices before cooking them.

This dish goes well with hot cooked rice, vegetable and salad.

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Oyako donburi is the Japanese name for this bowl of steamed rice. ‘Don’ refers to a way of serving cooked rice with toppings of some kinds over a base of white rice. This makes a quick and convenient lunch for the Japanese.

The word ‘oyako’ is very meaningful, literally, it means ‘mother and daughter’. It is interesting, isn’t it? The main ingredients for this time’s topping is chicken and egg. At first, when thinking about chicken and egg, I thought there would not be so much fun as chicken or egg is so basic and familiar. However, I was wrong after tasting what I made. Wonderful! This chicken and egg offered a very distinctive flavor and texture. The ingredients, the cooking method are quite simple, but the final product is great. It was out of my imagination because this was my first time making a ‘don’ like this.

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