May 9, 2020
I woke up this morning with the most intense cravings for egg rolls, braised pork rice, and milk tea after an evening of virtual hangouts to celebrate Kevin’s birthday. Kevin’s close friend, Clay, had arranged a virtual hangout through Houseparty with some of Kevin’s closest friends in Ohio. We spent a few hours playing a digital version of Mysterium, a board game popular amongst our friends. I still prefer the physical game, but with the social distancing, the digital game sufficed. By the time 10:00 p.m. rolled around, I was ready to sleep. Kevin stayed up much later to continue playing additional digital games. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I woke up at 9:30 a.m. the next day. I finally got myself to get up off the bed when I heard my stomach grumbling. I headed straight to the kitchen to reconstitute some dried mushrooms to make some braised pork rice, a spin on the classic Taiwanese style minced pork rice. Minced pork rice was a dish I spent many years eating during my college years in Ann Arbor. The minced pork rice I ate at my favorite college tea spot always had soy braised eggs served alongside the rice bowl. Instead of braised eggs, I made some egg rolls, fried them up, and served them alongside my rice bowls. I also brewed up some tea, brought out the condensed coconut milk I’ve been obsessed with lately, and some whole milk to serve with the tea. Whenever I had minced pork rice in college, I always made sure I had some milk tea on the side. A couple spoonful of condensed coconut milk was all I needed to get the creaminess and sweetness I needed in my perfect cup of milk tea. Kevin prefers a classic milk tea with whole milk, so I brought out some whole milk for him. A few years after graduating from college, Kevin and I got engaged and made a special trip out to Ann Arbor to have our engagement photos taken. We walked through some of the same streets we used to frequent throughout our college years. Much to my dismay, the tea spot was gone. I was bummed to not be able to have a bowl of minced pork rice and glass of strawberry milk bubble tea again from my favorite tea spot. To this day, I still have intense cravings for minced pork rice. Luckily, my braised pork rice works wonders to satisfy my cravings for minced pork rice whenever the cravings kicked in. The combination of flavors has been ingrained in my memory after eating and making the dish all of these years. Today, I made a simplified version using red onions instead of shallots. I halved the ingredients in my typical braised pork rice recipe, omitted the eggs, and made egg rolls to serve on the side instead. For the egg rolls, I also simplified the list of ingredients I typically add when making egg rolls to accommodate the ingredients I did have on hand. My simplified eggs rolls featured a blend of cabbage, carrots, scallions, and aromatics. The throwback meal was just what we needed to start the weekend off on the right foot.
For the egg rolls:
Check out my recipe for egg rolls here.
For the braised pork rice:
Check out my recipe for braised pork rice here.
