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Back into the Cooking Rotation

8/24/2010

After two weeks of Hawaii, it's time to snap back into the cooking rotation. Immediately. So I cooked for a full week. No takeout for last week of summer, lots of experiments, and moderate success. Here's how last week and the upcoming week shape up.

Last Week--Experimental Week
Monday--Furikake salmon, sesa-miso eggplant, rice. I would like to say the salmon had a subtle flavor, but that is too much spin, even for me. A good concept that needs work.

Tuesday--Spam and String Beans and rice. Good old standby.

Wednesday--Snapper with tomatoes, mangoes and red peppers did not not live up to its potential--back to the drawing board.

Thursday---Warm ginger apple chicken salad. Winner of unanimous and unsolicited "repeater" status. (Photo at right)

Friday--Dinner crepes (ham/onions/mushrooms/gruyere and leftover furikake salmon/goat cheese), salad. Another experiment and a surprise winner. Even the goat cheese/furikake salmon worked out pretty well.

Saturday--Pork tenderloin, baked sweet potato fries, the rest of the string beans

Sunday--Lemongrass chicken, broccoli, and what was left of the jasmine rice

Fun Extras--blueberry muffins and pickle mango

This week--so far, still no takeout.
Thanks to my neighbor, we have a ton of fresh peaches that went into, what else, Peach/Blueberry cobbler. It's already half gone. Fresh guacamole and ranch dip were also made on Monday.

Monday--Sloppy Joes, green beans and carrots with Grandma Nancy's Ranch Dip

Tuesday--My Mom's Chicken Katsu, Edamame Rice and My Own Namasu. Slaving over a stove on the hottest day of the year! (See left)

Wednesday--Tofu-Tuna Burgers, salad, rice

Thursday--Quinoa Salad and Costco Chicken because it's back-to-school night and I need something fast.

Friday--Chicken Salad Sandwiches, carrots and ranch dip--I have a girls night out :)

Saturday and Sunday--Soba Noodles with Chicken and Peanut Sauce--I have no idea how to make this, but I'm going to find out. Maybe chicken curry because it's supposed to be much cooler by then.

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Ode to Plate Lunch

8/17/2010

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Korean Fried Chicken Mini-Plate from Zippy's

Thank you to L---, one my Facebook "like-ers" to get me pondering plate lunches. She said, "I've always wondered about the scoops of rice and mac salad. Seems like overkill." After 2 weeks at home on O'ahu eating a variety of plate lunches, I (grudgingly) agree, but only to a point. 2 scoops of rice is overkill. Mac salad is a necessity.

This got me thinking--what defines a plate lunch, why does an otherwise nutritionally-conscious, ex-pat Hawaii girl make a beeline for it as soon as her feet touch Hawaiian soil, and why on earth are there no vegetables? Heck, even President Obama has Rainbow's when he goes home to Hawaii! I've made a living doing market research, so I Googled away. Then I asked my Dad.

Here is the anecdotal history. For the entree part, Hawaiian Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese and Korean plantation workers all shared their various lunches, with not a sandwich to be found. A recent New York Times article concurs.

Choices, just in Korean food

For the rice part, according to my ever-wise and pragmatic Dad, "They used the leftover rice, but the vegetables were eaten the night before. You know, rice is cheaper than meat, so more rice and sometimes noodles makes the meat go farther." Says the man who lived through the Depression, Pearl Harbor, gas masks with his lunch pail at school, and has graduated to great-grandpoppa-dom. Lots of starch stretches out home-cooking.

The macaroni salad kicked in later, with refrigeration I suppose. It also incorporates the concept of using the left-over dinner food. I've had mac salads with carrots, peas, leftover shrimp, crab, chicken, cucumbers, tsukemono, and of course, gobs of mayonnaise. And let's face it, it just tastes good with gravy or teriyaki.

So in marketing-speak, what is the plate lunch's value proposition?

1) It offers ridiculous, best-of-breed variety. You can choose from kal-bi, tonkatsu, garlic ahi, lau-lau, pork adobo, hamburger steak, oxtail soup...the list goes on. Even more, Zippy's has daily *and* weekly specials. And at the Korean plate lunch places, you can actually pick vegetable sides, along with your macaroni salad and chop chae (see above).

Boneless Chicken w/Sloppy Gravy from Rainbow's

2) It's a good value: Spend $5-$10 for a complete meal. $5 is a complete meal (OK, likely without vegetables) and a $10 plate lunch can usually feed at least 2 people. What can $5 buy at Starbucks? Rainbow's says it best, "generous portions of hearty, simple food with two scoops of rice and a side of macaroni salad at a reasonable price." The boneless chicken plate lunch (left), is only $6.50(!), includes two full sides of chicken, and put both my husband and me into a blissful afternoon food coma.

3) It's accessible to everyone. Served with plastic utensils on a flimsy paper plate, plate lunches are not pretentious, and you can always find whatever you're in the mood to eat. There's no right way to eat one and everyone has their favorite place to get one. Lawyers, surfers, and lawyers who surf all eat plate lunches.

Really, it's just a brilliant product--an awesome food value, consumable to ensure repeat business, marketed virally, and with a target customer base of anyone who eats. Now I'm hungry!

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Back into the Cooking Rotation

Ode to Plate Lunch

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