Hot and Chinese Food

Is it politically incorrect to call it Chinese food these days? Do you have to say Asian instead? Just wondering.

I was doing the ever fun grocery shopping at my new cheap grocery store, Winco, last weekend and while I usually just speed through the store without doing much browsing, just grab what I want and get the heck out of there, I happened to glance around a little in the Chinese food section, or Asian section, or whatever they call it these days, and saw these little packets of Sun Bird seasoning for Chinese/Asian dinners. Hey, these look kind of interesting, and as I'm reading the back of the packets, kind of easy to fix, too. I'm all about easy when it comes to cooking, because I just really really don't enjoy cooking, so easy and fairly cheap with only a few ingredients works for me. Sure, I could buy fresh ginger and the special spices and make my own from scratch Chinese/Asian dishes, but then you're stuck with a big hunk of fresh ginger and spices that will sit around until you find them buried at the back of the cupboard in a year or two or whenever you get around to cleaning out the cupboards. Which in my house is definitely not a priority.


So, a little under $1.00 packet with everything you need to season a Chinese/Asian dish in it and complete instructions on the back for making that Chinese/Asian dish works for me. I got the Chow Mein and the Lemon Chicken versions of it and tried out the Chow Mein one last night. All I needed was boneless chicken breasts, which are cheap over at Winco, a carrot, some celery, onion ( I buy the sweet vidalia onions because the regular ones seem to give me indigestion and are just too strong), some chow mein noodles, and a pan. The recipe calls for bean sprouts, but bean sprouts just gross me out because they remind me of WORMS so I don't eat those nasty things. Chop everything up, stir fry the chicken, add the vegetables, stir fry some more, mix the seasoning packet with water, a little sugar, and some soy sauce, and add that at the very end. The sauce thickens up in just a few stirs all by itself and you're ready to eat.


You could get creative and add whatever other vegetables that you like, and you can use beef or pork, or tofu or whatever if you're not a carnivore.

And the taste? Very good! Sun Bird, I'm sold.

And now for the HOT part of today's post. This weather report is not too far off the mark.


It does feel like it's about 877 here today. But it's a 'dry' heat.