Zha ziang mian, aka Chinese spaghetti, is one of Hungry Bear's favorite comfort dishes. It has everything she likes... sweet, salty, spicy and carbs! The rich meaty sauce is nicely contrasted by the cool refreshing vegetable garnish.

It's a popular item in Northern China and legend has it that Marco Polo got his inspiration for Italian spaghetti after spending time in China. Growing up, Hungry Bear often had this dish served with regular spaghetti noodles, but it's best served with Chinese noodles. We included a photo of the brand we like in the slideshow.

The ingredient list looks long, but it's actual quite easy to make. So the next time you want some spaghetti and meat sauce, give this Chinese version a try.

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One day last week, our fridge was practically empty. The only things we had were eggs and leftover rice. Hungry Bear wanted to use the rice and whipped together a vegetarian fried rice using canned wheat gluten and snow cabbage & bamboo shoots.

We had no intention of posting about this fried rice because it was just dumping two cans of stuff onto rice. But it was so good, I asked Hungry Bear to make it again the next day so we could document it for SND and enjoy it again. You could say this is the fried rice equivalent of dump cake.

The key to this fried rice was the Companion brand canned goods. Companion is a Taiwanese company that provides Chinese-styled vegetarian products with no preservatives or artificial coloring. I love the braised wheat gluten and could eat it every day, if it weren't so high in fat.

Anyway, the fried rice was super easy to make. The canned goods had enough flavor that no soy sauce was required. And there was only a little salt to season the eggs. There's not much else to say about this vegetarian fried rice, except it's deliciously simple!

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Over the last two months, we've seen a lot fava beans at the farmers' markets. We both like fava beans, but for some reason (too much peeling) we haven't bought any. It wasn't until last week that we finally picked some up. Hungry Bear wanted to make a healthy pasta dish and created this shrimp, fava bean and zucchini pasta on a whim.

It was a simple pasta to prepare and required only sautéing the fava beans, zucchini and shrimp in a little olive oil and garlic. Since we both love angel hair pasta, we used it in our dish. In hindsight, we would have picked a tubular or shaped pasta, because it would have been easier to mix with the vegetables.

Despite all the peeling required with the fava beans (some you know I hate peeling things), the pasta was great. It's a simple dish that really highlights the fresh fava beans. To put it over the top, add a poached egg to each serving!

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Yesterday, I wanted something Asian for dinner... Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, whatever. I just needed something comforting over rice. Hungry Bear suggested making a stir-fry with flank steak and I reminded her about the asparagus in the fridge. So, she whipped up garlic beef with asparagus and shiitake mushrooms.

The key to any stir-fry with thin slices of beef is not to over cook the meat. Hungry Bear made it perfectly as it remained tender and moist. The stir-fry was really flavorful from the oyster sauce, soy, garlic and shiitakes.

Although I wanted rice, Hungry Bear made me eat it over noodles... something about my birthday and long life. I don't believe in that type of stuff, but I obliged. Sadly, the fresh Asian egg noodles we had in the fridge weren't so fresh anymore and had grown a little "hairy." We searched the pantry for a suitable substitute and could only muster up spaghetti noodles. Maybe I should have told you that we wanted to make an East meats West dish!?!

The garlic beef stir-fry was so delicious, it didn't matter if it was served on spaghetti, egg noodles or rice. But maybe I added a few extra years to my life by eating noodles on my birthday!

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Last week, I planned on making a tomato based penne. But as we were grocery shopping, I saw a cheap can of crab meat (1 pound for $7.99). Since we are on a recession budget, I decided to give the canned crab a try. And the penne dish morphed into an asparagus crab pasta with leeks and mushrooms.

I tried to keep the pasta simple and make it a one pot dish... well two pots, you need another one to cook the pasta, but you get my point. After I sautéed the garlic, leek, asparagus and mushroom mixture, I gave it a taste and it was great by itself. I opened the can of crab and finally realized it was all claw meat... damn it! No wonder it was so cheap.

I usually eat my steamed crab dipped in a mixture of lemon juice, salt and pepper. So, I added the juice and zest of a lemon to the pasta. Even with the canned crab claw meat, the pasta was really good. It had great flavors from the leeks and asparagus, while the lemon juice and zest brightened up the pasta. Sadly, I overcooked the asparagus by being overzealous with my picture taking.

Next time I make this dish, I'll use fresh crab meat, not take pictures while cooking and this asparagus crab pasta will be even better. Let's hope this recession ends soon!

Side Note: Hungry Bear and I will be moving next week... a long distance move of 1.5 miles. We'll be busy with packing and un-packing for the next two weeks, so new posts will be limited during this time. The good news is we'll be cooking and baking in a much nicer, remodeled kitchen. I can't wait for the first Sunday night dinner in the new place!

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After making fried eggs and shrimp, I needed to do something with the extra tomatoes and red onion. I looked in the fridge and saw some tofu and fresh egg noodles that we often pick up at the local Asian supermarket. With a few other ingredients, I whipped up this super easy curry tofu noodle stir-fry.

We enjoyed the dish so much, I made it again a few days later. The first time, I added a little too much hot curry powder for Hungry Bear's taste. My heat tolerance is off the charts, so it was mild for me. The next time I made it, I threw in a little coconut cream to soothe the heat and sweet petite peas for some color.

The main flavors of the dish came from the curry powder and a little sweetness from the tomatoes and coconut cream. If you like a sweet heat, add the coconut cream. We actually preferred it without the cream. At the store down the street, we can find a plethora of fresh egg noodles. I've made the dish with thick, round noodles and thin, flat noodles (pictures 3 and 4 in the slideshow). We liked the thin, flat noodles better.

It's a simple but flavorful dish that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes. And it was a great way for us to clean out the fridge.

Natural Light versus Lowel Ego Light

Another thing I want to point out in the slideshow is the last three pictures. I picked up a set of Lowel Ego lights after Jaden of Steamy Kitchen recommended them. The third to last picture is a shot of the noodle dish with natural lighting (kitchen window). I use the Lowel Ego lights in the last two pictures in the slideshow.

The pictures with the Ego lights are decent, particularly the close-up shot (last picture). The Ego lights are a little harsh compared with natural light, which is softer and more pleasant. This was my first time using the lights, so I'm sure I can improve the picture quality with better light placement. Overall, I'm pleased with the Ego lights, but I need to play with them a little more.

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Growing up in Allentown, PA, my family would take trips down to Washington, DC to visit my great aunt and uncle. As an active kid, I always dreaded going down to DC because I had to spend most of the time cooped up inside my great aunt and uncle's apartment. The highlights of the trips were the amazing home cooked Vietnamese meals prepared by my great aunt. Her roasted chicken (ga ro ti) and sticky rice were my favorite dishes.

It's been over two decades since I had ga ro ti. I never see it at restaurants (at least in San Francisco), as most Viet places serve grilled chicken (ga nuong) with five spice. So last week, I decided to make Vietnamese roasted chicken. I called up my parents to get advice. Unfortunately, neither of my parents make the dish and my great aunt passed away several years ago. My dad said, "marinate it in soy, fish sauce, garlic and a little sugar"...like every other Viet dish, not much help there. I was on my own with this one.

I remember my great aunt pan fried her chicken low and slow. I believe this "roasting" method was used because traditional ovens weren't available in Vietnam back in the day, unless you were wealthy. My great aunt's chicken had an extra crispy skin and the meat was shreddable by hand, almost like a confit. To get this texture, the chicken needs to be cooked longer than normal.

I tried the pan frying technique and produced a good ga ro ti, but it required a lot of time and flipping of the chicken (props to my great aunt!). I debated covering the chicken, but was afraid the skin would get soft from the moist heat. Next, I tried browning the chicken in an oven-proof skillet and then finishing it off in the oven. I liked this method best. It produced a nice crispy skin and I didn't have to stand by the stove top. If you are thinking, why don't you skip the pan frying and just roast it in the oven, then my answer is... I have more control over browning with a skillet and the brown bits in the pan can be de-glazed to make a flavorful dirty sticky rice with scallions.

Hungry Bear and I enjoyed the ga ro ti so much, we made it again for Sunday night dinner along with the dirty sticky rice, stir-fried hollow greens and a light carrot cake for dessert. The chicken had a nice salty, garlicky flavor with a crackling skin. I never eat all of my chicken skin. I usually try a little and then pass the rest to Jane, who likes everything full fat. But the skin on this roasted chicken was so good, I wasn't sharing it with anyone! The perfect complement to the chicken was the dirty sticky rice, which has scallions and all the wonderful flavors from the de-glazed frying pan!

My great aunt's ga ro ti will always be number one in my heart. I may not have re-created her roasted chicken exactly, but I got pretty damn close!

SNDsters: Jane, Mark, Hungry Bear, Chuck

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If you had to choose one dish to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? As someone who enjoys a good smorgasbord and wants it all, I have a difficult time answering this question. Without hesitation, Hungry Bear's choice is fried rice, because it's a flavorful, balanced meal. And she can't survive without rice.

The beauty of fried rice is the endless variations that can be made from leftovers or random ingredients in the fridge. In my head, I have a basic shrimp fried rice recipe my mom taught me, but I can't recall the last time I made it. Instead, each time we make fried rice, it's a unique, never to be made again creation, because the combination of leftovers/ingredients is never the same.

Leftover sauces are my favorite things to add to fried rice, for example, Thai green curry. Every time we make green curry, we end up with a cup or two of sauce in the bottom of the pot. If you take the curry sauce, add some rice, any leftover meat, sweet petite peas and bamboo shoots, all of sudden you'll have an amazing green curry fried rice. Other times, we make fried rice by just dumping leftover Asian takeout into a wok.

The recipe below is a fried rice Hungry Bear whipped together with some Chinese broccoli, Chinese sausage and Shiitake mushrooms we had in the fridge. The broccoli was leftover from making beef chow fun. Hungry Bear used minimal oil and sodium in the recipe, since there's plenty of it in the Chinese sausage. It was simple and delicious. Could you eat fried rice for the rest of your life?

Other Fried Rice Recipes

• Fried Rice Yang Chow-Style by Wandering Chopsticks
• Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Vegetables by Nook & Pantry
• Curry Chicken Fried Rice by CanaryGirl

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Over the last few months, we've been cooking a lot of Vietnamese food. And the word, "vietnamese", in the tag/ingredient cloud (below on the right side) has grown larger, dwarfing the "chinese" tag. That's fine with me, but Hungry Bear wants to end this trend and make sure her peeps' food is more represented on SND. So yesterday, she made beef and broccoli chow fun (chao fen).

We both love chow fun, but rarely order it at restaurants because it's just too damn oily. If you have access to a good Chinese/Asian supermarket and can get your hands on fresh rice noodles (he fen or haw fun), beef chow fun is best made at home. Prepared with fresh ingredients, minimal oil and Chinese broccoli, dare I say chow fun can be a healthy, balanced meal. It's sad Chinese food prepared in most restaurants is greasy, salty and generally bad for you, whereas traditional Chinese cooking can be healthy and flavorful.

To prepare the chow fun, Hungry Bear referenced two Grace Young cookbooks. We love Grace Young's recipes, but our biggest pet peeve is that her recipes are always proportioned to serve 4 to 6 as part of a multi-course meal. Hey, that's great if you have time to cook multi-course meals, but it's no good for people like us who cook in mass quantities. So, we always end up doubling or quadrupling her recipes, hoping it's enough as the main entrée.

This time Hungry Bear only doubled the recipe, reduced the oil and added Chinese broccoli to the beef chow fun recipe found in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. With fresh ingredients and perfectly cooked flank steak, this was no doubt the best chow fun I've ever had. After adding a dash of chili garlic sauce, I was one happy, chow-fun-eating camper. Now I'm looking forward to the next Chinese dish, as Hungry Bear attempts to restore the Chinese/Vietnamese balance on SND.

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We don't make risotto very often, but when we do, Hungry Bear makes a cauliflower and mushroom risotto using sticky rice (glutinous/sweet rice). I love all things made with sticky rice, and this risotto is one of my favorite sweet rice dishes. The best part is that minimal stirring is required to make it.

The recipe is adapted from the Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration cookbook. For the most part, we like to reduce the butter and fat in a recipe whenever possible. But we also know when not to mess with a good thing, e.g. potato salad, nicely marbled meats and dessert. The main changes Hungry Bear made to the recipe were — removing the butter, swapping out milk for chicken stock, and increasing the quantity of mushrooms and cauliflower. Before anyone boos the removal of the butter (ahem, Jane!), Hungry Bear added extra coconut cream.

In case you are wondering why our recipes always serve 6 or more, we are either cooking for a large group, making mass quantities for leftovers (Hungry Bear's favorite part) or increasing proportions to avoid the partial use of an ingredient, e.g. cauliflower and cabbage. There have been many times when we used half a head of cauliflower and the other half spoiled in the fridge before we could use it again.

Back to the risotto, the only stirring required is to mix in the mushrooms, cauliflower and chicken stock to the steamed rice. It has a great combination of flavors and textures from the earthy shiitakes, sweet cauliflower and creamy rice. Still, the rice retains a slight firmness and the coconut cream keeps the grains separated. Hungry Bear likes her sticky rice risotto without cheese, but I like the extra flavor the Parmesan adds. It's a unique twist to traditional risotto and goes wonderfully with seared scallops!

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