Spicy Chowder

Our Chinese exchange students have prompted me to dust off our little food blog. Since becoming a momma, my writing inspiration has been focused on my personal blog, but these little pint-sized tweens can cook! It was too good to not share.

Kelly and Cherry (their American nicknames) have been with us for just a few days now, and Kelly was super excited to share her favorite meal with us.

She came home from a trip to Uwajimaya with two bags full of tidbits and announced “I make Chinese food for you!”

Shoot, girl, welcome to the family!

We planned on Monday evening and when I picked the girls up from school, the first thing Kelly said was “I’m so excited to cook!” Girl after my own heart.

We broke out our tools and jars and bottles of necessary ingredients and the girls went to work. Kelly is from Chengdu (where, she explained, the food is “very hot”) and Cherry is from the Shanghai area (where I’m told the food is more sweet). This particular dish is from Kelly’s region and I was excited to see her crack open a jar of peanut chili oil AND dig through my spice cupboard for cayenne.

They loved working on our gas stove, but were disappointed it didn’t get any hotter! Not enough power in these American stoves…

I wish there were some way I could post the amazing aroma that filled my house… chicken, potatoes, and a sauce of garlic, chili paste, black vinegar, cayenne, and the oil and beans from a tin of fish. So, so good.

Salty, fishy, yummy…

I explained to them that “chef” meant “very good cook” and they were quite pleased with themselves.

Josh and Hadassah patiently waiting.

And the heavens parted… glorious. Kelly called it “malazahui”; which after many hilarious attempts at google translate, it was decided that “spicy chowder” was a sufficient enough American name.

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This entry was posted on July 19th, 2011 and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.