I've always looked down my nose at Egg Foo Young with disdain. I'm kind of [okay, really] a Chinese food snob, and Egg Foo Young just seems like Chinese food for white people who don't know better. I won't go there on the chop suey, deal?
Anyway.
I went on The South Beach Diet 6 weeks ago, and am trying to be really conscience about my food sources. The trickiness of getting the right foods in is further complicated by virtue of the fact that I'm currently getting by with a single electric hot plate, and a toaster oven [long story, short walk]. There are many evenings I simply don't feel like dealing with it at all, and that means carry-out. The foods typically available for delivery are a big no-no, especially Chinese because most use pre-mixed sauces which are full of corn syrup. Of course the noodles and the rice are certified contraband. What's a boy to do?
Well one night a few weeks ago I was starving, and after carefully studying the menu from No.1 Chinese Restaurant, I realized my options were pretty much egg drop soup, or Egg Foo Young. So I had it delivered and bribed the driver with a five-spot to keep it to himself. I hastily served up a combination patty from the clamshell container, and spooned over the strangely perfect shade of brown "gravy". Can I tell you something? That shit was da bomb. Each patty perfectly fried and chock-full of shrimp and huge chunks of bbq pork, yet curiously void of bean sprouts. The gravy silken and wonderfully salty, with no discernible flavor...was it chicken? Beef? I dunno, its brown though. And beautiful.
I can't get enough! Seriously, I may have had it 3 times last week. I'll even order 2 batches of it at a time, so I can have it cold for breakfast. However its far from a low calorie food, and that could be why I'm stuck at just 11lbs down! Interestingly, while trying to find carryout that wold jive with my diet, I may have learned a valuable lesson from my new friend, Egg Foo Young...
Sometimes you may think you don't like something because you had a bad experience with it once or twice. You shut down your receptors to the idea that said thing could ever live up to an ideal you've placed on it. I once was turned down for a date because of my Irish heritage. The guy told me that in his experience, Irish men were nothing but heartbreak and couldn't be trusted. Can you imagine? I mean how silly, right? Narrowing you're playing field because of preconceived notions and blanket generalizations? I have easily eaten at over 100 Chinese restaurants in my life. How many delicious Egg Foo Young meals may I have passed on?!
Kerry used to ask me if I was always so sure about everything I'm so sure about. My response always being "Well yes, of course." No.1 Chinese Restaurant's Egg Foo Young has me rethinking a few things.
By the way. My last fortune cookie message read "You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily." Whatever. Egg Foo Young still isn't really Chinese food, and fortune cookies should have fortunes in them and not be dispensing kernels of wisdom. Now pass me another patty, with extra gravy please.
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