2022 Memorial Day Issue

COOKING
WITH SCRATCH ©
Although my father, Horst, was the salt
of the earth—kind, generous to a fault,
hardworking, honest, dependable, friendly,
a loving father who gave the world’s best
hugs—he was, well… less than adventurous
when it came to food.
Breakfast was a boiled egg with toast or cold
cereal and milk. Lunch was a thin sandwich:
two slices of buttered rye bread with one to
two slices of ham or slab of liverwurst. And
dinner was meat, potatoes and (brown) gravy,
a vegetable and salad. Dessert didn’t much
matter to him.
Back in the ’60s when I was growing up,
I enjoyed meals at friends’ homes and was
curious to recreate for my parents the exotic
things I had tried.
Horst would come home from work and,
noticing the new aromas coming from the
kitchen, would look in and say in his heavy
German accent: “Vat iss diss sh*t?”
I didn’t let it discourage me from my
cooking experiments.
My mother, Gertrude, was the opposite
of her not-so-adventurous husband. Always
interested in trying something new, she
relished the opportunity to test a new recipe,
or on the rare occasion that we went out to
dinner, try something foreign to her from the
Asian Adventures
by BARBARA SIMMONS
Photos by KAREN FUCITO
restaurant’s menu.
As I grew older, I found myself fascinated
by Asian food. The cans of La Choy Chicken
Chow Mein (with the cool add-on can of
crispy noodles) were about the only thing we
could find in our local Pathmark.
Little did I know this soggy abomination
was lightyears away from what real Asian
cuisine was all about. The Time-Life Foods of
the World subscription cookbook series was
my launchpad into the world of Asian foods.
In the ’80s I discovered the cookbook
author Barbara Tropp, who was featured in a
series called “Great Chefs of San Francisco,”
one of the oldest cooking and travel series on
television. I think I found it on PBS channel
13.
She made a tea and cassia bark smoked
chicken from scratch in the kitchen of her
restaurant, China Moon. I remember her
warning about turning on the vent fan and
opening a window to prevent the smoke alarm
from going off. I thought she was absolutely
fascinating.
I hunted down her first cookbook, “The
Modern Art of Chinese Cooking,” in a large
bookstore in New York City. She hooked me
with her engaging storytelling and anecdotes
about each recipe.
Never had I read a cookbook that was so
thorough and completely captivating. There
were chapters on how to choose and properly
use a cleaver, how to stand while chopping
ingredients, how to season a wok and—best
of all—an exhaustive glossary of ingredients
in Chinese with a phonetic pronunciation
guide, should you find yourself shopping in
Chinatown and not able to communicate
with the shopkeeper.
Since 1982, when her cookbook was
published, ingredients for authentic Chinese,
Japanese and Korean dishes have become
more widely available. My local ShopRite
even sells fresh kimchee!
Despite that, I still enjoy making a yearly
trip to one of the bigger Asian markets in
Morris County: Kam-Man Food in Whippany
or Top Quality Food Market in Parsippany. I
load up on black soy sauce, Chinese cooking
wine, good quality Japanese sesame oil, frozen
shao mai dumplings and fermented black
beans.
Now, this recipe won’t involve making the
schlep to one of the big Asian markets, unless
you want to, of course. Your local supermarket
should have all the needed ingredients. You
may already have everything you need in your
pantry.
This is a totally addicting, delicious salad.
Take it to the next picnic!
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