Chinese Borscht (罗宋汤)

The first time I had "Western" food in China was when I was very little. They served me this tomato-y soup, fried pork cutlet (which resemble Japanese katsu, come to think of it), and fries. Although everything in that meal tasted awesome like nothing else to my young unspoiled tongue, I've been chasing down a perfect version of that soup I've had in my childhood to no avail. Although many places "Western" food places in China serves some version of this soup, they're all subtly different. Thinking that it's "Western", I continued my search in America when I first came over (which I thought the closest incarnation was Minestrone), and in truth, my quest didn't stop until recently when I finally googled the recipe about a week ago using the only thing I know about it, it's name: 罗宋汤. It is, apparently, a bastardized version of the Russian soup, borscht. At that point I was not all together surprised. I've heard about borscht about a year ago, a traditionally beef-flavored beet soup with a characteristic red color. I didn't put the two and two together until recently though,

Chinese Cucumber Salad

Another fast, simple, healthy fix. I've got not much to say about it except that not everyone may like the taste.

Here we go:

Avocado Romaine salad with homemade vinaigrette

Most of the time, I prefer not to eat salad. Especially if I'm at a restaurant and I can make the same $8-9 salad for less than $3. When I need my greens (which is pretty often), I generally make stir-fried Chinese vegetables. With that said, making a salad is just so easy sometimes that I've been making it with increasing frequency, especially when I'm feeling lazy. That, and I've recently bought a salad spinner, which makes it that much easier to make a salad. Since I only make salad once in a while, it's pointless for me to buy a bottle of dressing because more often than not, I only use it once or twice before it goes bad. Now I make my own very simple vinaigrette. This salad is especially good to make during summer when avocados are abundant. Avocados, of course, is a crucial ingredient. I love avocados.

Here's how to make it:

Japanese Yam and Nagaimo Soup (山芋山药汤)

I grew up eating Japanese yams and nagaimo soup (山芋山药汤) that my grandmother always made. For all intents and purposes, it's a Chinese dish through and through, despite the fact that the names of the two ingredients are both Japanese. The irony. It's a lightly sweet, porridge-like soup that's good for breakfast, desert, as a snack, or light dinner. It's also very healthy, using only the two primary ingredients and water, no additional sugar, no oil. It's filling but low calories and has good fiber. I love this recipe because it's so simple. It's a perfect recipe for busy hungry students - a time and money saving solution to breakfast.