Sunday, Yuki and I saw a commercial or a TV show, I forgot already. But it showed a delicious bowl of chili. So it instantly brought back memories of good american cooking. Oh how I missed a simple hot bowl of chili. I think there's places around Taipei that you can find a bowl of chili, but it's most likely in a restaurant catering to westerners with money. So thus, it'll be over my daily budget. So I vowed to show Yuki some fine home cooked chili. Tonight was the night. Overall the ingredients didn't cost as much as I'd had thought. $531 NT. But many of the ingredients can be used for the second batch as well as this batch will last me a few more meals. So it will work out to be under budget. I let Yuki help me with the preparation. She chopped the garlic and dried chili and seasoning.
I prepared everything else. Check out that awesome picture of the kaleidoscope of spice colors! After browning the onions, we added the spices and garlic. Damn does that smoke up something fierce! It's still pretty dry at this time, so the ingredients really got into our lungs and made us cough. It doesn't help that my kitchen doesn't have a vent fan. Another Taiwanese culture i guess. No vent fans equals really smokey oily stinky houses and clothes. But I think I made the pot a little too hot, so next time i'll make sure to lower the heat as well as close all the bedroom doors. I only remembered that midway through cooking. We'll see tonight if my bed smells like dinner. After that, in goes the beef, stock, kidney beans, tomatoes and a few pieces of dark chocolate. After all is cooked and done, it smelled really spicy and carne! I can't wait...and almost forgot to take pictorial evidence for my blog and for posterity. Some shredded sharp cheddar and a cold can of Asahi super dry and voila! Chili con carne in Taiwan! Yes, I forgot the corn bread. It's a specialty in Taiwan so it'd be expensive. I'll wait when I buy my own oven and bake up my own batch. 'till my next kitchen adventure.Aftermath: After washing my hands several times and taking a shower. I accidentally rubbed my left eye and it burns. Oh it burns! arrggggg!!!!!
Hey
ReplyDeletewhere did you shop for stuff? Are there many international grocery chains? What's the most popular local supermarket chain? How's the cost and selection of foods? ...think you forgot the tortilla chips...and try a mixture of chop and beef for your next chili adventures...looks good.
I shopped at Carrefour. Yes, there are many international chains like Carrefour and Costco and RT mart as well as smaller import markets. Locally the popular one is Welcome (red). There's also 全聯福(blue). Cost is cheap unless you want imported. Selection is limited to chinese only, import stuff is expensive and hard to come by. Basically if it's not also commonly used in Chinese cuisine, it's hard for markets to justify importing it. I think you thinking mexican chili, I was aiming at more American south with corn bread. But I'm on a low carb diet anyways. I'll try a mixture of chop and beef next time, because i've never tried combining the different flavors of chop and beef.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteapologies, meant to say try a mixture of pork and beef for yr next chili adventure, but mix them together first before adding to the pot...not really authentic but for extra flavour, I like to add some bacon to mine. Leftovers are great for Tex-Mex macaroni N cheese
Yr addition of chocolate is more like the spicy Mexican sauce "mole"...
yeah I prefer the sweetness come from the chocolate than pure sugar. Add bacon, I like that! tex-mex mac&cheese, I like that even more!
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