DISH 2: CHINESE (Lemon Chicken)

My Chinese Style Lemon Chicken

Last Sunday daddy celebrated his 63rd birthday, and of course I want to prepare something really nice and CHINESE because it has always been his favorite food, so I decided to make two dish Ma Po Tofu & Lemon Chicken. Lemon has been my fruit of interest for several weeks now, and I learned that consuming lemons has healthy benefits on the body too. It is best on diets, maintaining healthy hair, & has multiple advantages on the skin. So reading about this sour , yellow fruit become an activity for me, and I make sure I always have one in the refrigerator, furthermore last Sunday I use some to make one of my favorite Chinese Dish. It's actually very easy to do, but lemons are too flavorful and citrus- sy aromatic, and without balancing the taste an attempt to do the dish can lead to a disastrous Lemon Air- freshener like dish. Getting the perfect breading and syrup glaze needs careful attention and practice. This dish had good memories too, it reminded me of my college buddy, Rachelle munching Chinese take-outs over Grey's Anatomy marathon at their house & my work buddy, Honey with whom I share great passion of eating Lemon chix after working hours,& during rest days. And even when they're living far away from me now, every time they go home & we go CHINESE, Lemon chicken will always be a part of our sumptuous feast. Anyway, I'm just not happy with my photo, because I took this using my phone because my camera was not properly charged that time, yet despite of that mommy said I was able to get the recipe right, and that's very important..well for me. :) Next Dish: Brother's Birthday! ITALIAN!

DISH 1: PERSIAN (Beef Koobideh)

Persia is the ancient Iran of the middle east, They are very famous for their kebabs & Koobideh (skewered grilled meats) that are superbly tasty and spicy. 

The Middle East is always well known for their strong spices, using yogurts, and vegetables on almost all of their dishes which I highly recommend for people who are enthused on eating healthy. Moreover, one thing I also like with Persian or Middle Eastern food is that I never really liked beef that much but these cuisine has changed me. 

So here is my first dish: Beef Koobideh served with grilled onions and tomatoes, garlic sauce, & Polo (Persian Rice)

This is my best friend Karen’s favorite which has become a comfort food to all of us (my friends). It started way back in High school at Little Tehran (now, Zubairih), my first taste of Shawarma and Beef Biryani and since then when we call on a meeting, a get together, some catching up to do, or our other friend Victoria is home, and even when patching things up for friends who had a misunderstanding, Persian- Mediterranean is the place to be. It is the food that most of the time I remembered sharing with my friends over a good tummy aching laugh.

On the part of making this dish it was not that easy, especially on grilling the Beef Koobideh without one part of the meat falling, I don’t even have flat skewers so I used long knives (which I accidentally burned the rubber handles & have to hide them from daddy..hehe),but thanks to aluminum foil it prevents the meat from falling off the knife,and made my exhausting grilling activity easier.

I served this to my family, and my brother loves it and that just made my day. Next week Dish: CHINESE

Recipe:
Note:  I rarely do exact measurements so this is just my approximation, use your imagination and taste buds guys.


1/2 kilo Ground lean Beef
1 Big Red Onion (Finely Chopped & I use a cloth to remove the juice)
Chopped Parsley (you can be generous with it)

1 Tbsp Garlic Powder 
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 large Egg
Sumac Spice (optional)


Step 1: Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until its really cold, or overnight.
Step 2: Shape the cold meat mixture on a flat skewer. (Make sure its really cold so it can stick to the flat skewers)
Step 3: Grill the Beef Koobideh. (make sure the meat is evenly cooked otherwise uncooked parts can will fall off the skewer) You may use aluminum foil to cook it well.


Step 4:  Serve it with Polo (Persian rice), and grilled onions & tomatoes.

The 9-dish Challenge

Only few more months and I will be celebrating my big 3-0, and months ago I came up with an idea of making some crazy list of things I like to do before I hit 30. I consulted close friends about this and they suggested some few things that I must do which I promise to share once I already did them. So on top of my list is to prepare & cook a dish that I really like. This challenge is inspired by Julie & Julia which by the way is one of my favorite inspirational movie. However,unlike the film I’m not doing all Julia Child’s recipes for 365 days but Instead I only have 9 weeks on my hands and the last week is my birthday feast. So I decided to make 1 great dish from each of the 9 different countries that I would like to visit not only to explore the places,culture, and meet people but the most important of all, to eat their food. In addition, as I blog my dishes I would like to include little stories behind it,why I like it, and people I remembered sharing this food with, because some great memories happened while eating good food. So I hope you guys will like my food blog! Enjoy Reading!