Hawaiian Style Chow Fun

My recent trip to Maui was exceptional for a variety of reasons, but mainly the food. I ate a lot of it. In fact I ate all my favorites multiple times, every day. It was why I went back to Hawaii, honestly. Sure it's lovely there and all; there's a great big beach and fantastic sunsets and sunrises. It's temperate. The people are lovely.

But let's be real here: with me, it's all about the food.

And one of my absolute all-time favorites? Hawaiian Style Chow Fun. I don't know how that might translate here on the mainland; names for stuff there are different than they are here (case in point: manapua in Hawaii is called char siu bao here on the mainland -- and it is way better in Hawaii, I might add). But what you're looking at in the picture is Chow Fun as I grew up with it, and as it ought to be served and enjoyed, because it is rad. It's easy to find the ingredients for it at your local Asian market, as well as easy to make.

So try it, mainlanders. You'll love it. My Grade: A+

Hawaiian Style Chow Fun

Ingredients:

1 TABLESPOON vegetable oil
1/2 pound pork or char siu, sliced in thin strips
1 T. chopped ginger
2 T. oyster sauce
2 T. soy sauce
2 cups bean sprouts
1 stalk celery (sliced thinly)
2 carrots julienne
2 green onions finely sliced
Chow Fun (or hefen) noodles, cooked and drained

Heat oil in skillet until very hot, fry either pork or char siu for 1 minute. Add ginger, oyster sauce and soy sauce, sauté 1 minute, add vegetables and stir fry for a couples of minutes. Add noodles and heat for 2 minutes, stir occasionally.

Serve on large platter.

Enough of this alleged white meat

I have officially had too much pork for one lifetime. I am off pork. Off it, I say, you cannot convince me otherwise. Even though we went to the butcher and had him section out four humungous pork butts for our culinary enjoyment, and I have three of them left. It's enough. I need vegetables; a nice Caprese salad with a light vinaigrette, perhaps. Chicken breast, yes, that's the ticket, or a soup. Nothing thick and creamy which I (and my thighs) prefer, but something brothy and filled with healthy goodness. I'm telling you, I'm turning over a new leaf. No more of the fabulous indulgences like cream sauces and entire pork butts, at least for today. Maybe even tomorrow, if I have the discipline. And I think I do.

It's the Pig, I swear

It's not that I haven't been cooking these past few weeks; au contraire, my friends. I've been cooking quite a lot! It's just that I've been cooking much of the same recipes you see here over and over and over again, though mainly pork. I guess you could call it a rut, and that's your prerogative, but I prefer to call it lots and lots of really rad slow cook pulled pork straight from Jesus.

I will concede, for the record, that my other recipe for pulled pork is more difficult and not nearly as tasty as the following very simple and delicious recipe:

Really Ridiculously Easy (And Darn Tasty) Slow Cooked Pork

Ingredients:

1 pork butt roast (no loin, no ribs, it says butt and hey, I mean butt), at least 4 pounds
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple juice, unfiltered, organic
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Directions:

Place roast in slow cooker, sprinkling it on all sides with Worcestershire sauce, then patting it down with brown sugar everywhere. Add salt and pepper. Pour apple juice down the sides of the cooker, not directly onto roast. Cook for 6 - 8 hrs on low.

And then eat, pray, love.

Hey don't look at me that way. I realize it's potentially "wrong" or "bad" in some medical way that we eat one entire pork butt per weekend but I swear, it's just a fad. Or maybe it's that we just really really really love the pig. Whatever it is, you'll pry this slow cooked loveliness from my cold dead hands.