Showing posts with label healthy_food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy_food. Show all posts

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Reason #13 to Love Taiwan

Healthy Street Food!

At the corner of Heping and Fuxing Roads, near MRT Technology Bldg, there is a woman who sells the most delicious vegetarian lumpia (倫餅 - I think. Please correct my Chinese if not). No disgusting rou song (pork floss - ick) here: crushed peanut, alfalfa, some leafy green goodness, a few slices of apple, raisins, carrot slices and red lettuce all stuffed into a healthy wrap of deliciousness. Next to her, or sometimes down the road, is an old guy who sells super tasty red guavas when in season. Across the street, a woman sells dried fruit and nuts - including Taiwanese Irwin mango, which I love to eat dried.

A little bit west of MRT Minquan W. Road, there is a tiny stand inserted neatly into a little alcove with stairs leading up to...somewhere. Just steps from three different places to buy fried chicken, they sell vegetarian fantuan with that mottled purple sweetish rice, or sticky purple rice, full of more peanut powder, something pickled and a few other tasty things. They also sell a bulghur and chick pea salad, marinated tofu, a selection of vegetables, salads and veggie rice and bottled health drinks.

Near MRT Jingmei Exit 2, in the mornings there's a guy who sells vegetarian sticky rice (素油飯) from a large wooden rice bucket. He and his wife are retired, and they make a batch each day (I estimate about NT$1500 worth) to sell: I haven't asked directly but I think it's something between a hobby and a bit of extra money to pad out a pension and savings. It's really good sticky rice and it doesn't get more mom-and-pop than a retired couple making it and selling it from a big wooden bucket every morning. Near him is a woman whose family owns a farm in Zhanghua County - she sells the best baked sweet potatoes (starchy, but a great source of nutrients so you get a lot of bang for your carb-tastic buck) I've ever had.

These folks are scattered across Taipei - I've just named a few of my favorites, for whom I am a regular customer (in my neverending quest to just put down the sweet potato fries already and eat something good for me) and I love what they sell.

I love them because they're small businesses and I enjoy supporting that kind of entrepreneurialism. I love them because what they sell is actually good for you. I love them because what they sell is tasty, too. I love them because I have a good network of food vendors from whom I can grab a meal on the go - as someone who runs around Taipei to various offices all day often has to do - and know that I'm being good to myself, to the mom-and-pop economy, and I don't have to force down yet another 7-11 or Take-Out Sushi seaweed triangle (though I admit it: I like those too).

Finally, I love that Taiwan's economy and culture is such that they can do this, be successful and make a reasonable wage at it here. I'm not sure those Falls Church pupusa guys can say the same, and that's too bad.

All around goodness. The USA could use folks like these (not that I begrudge the pupusa guys in the DC Metro area...pupusas are great, just not healthy).

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Super Healthy Veggie Packed Fried Rice

I made this tasty, vegetable-packed dish today as a different take on the usual greasy, starchy fried rice. It's still got oil (olive) and rice (brown, whole grain) but with this many veggies, healthier fats and grains, flaxseed and optional protein, it's a tasty and colorful alternative to the usual stick-to-your-butt-no-matter-how-often-you-bike options in restaurants in Taipei.

It turned out fantastic - both flavor-wise and appearance-wise, with a lot of colorful veggies including pumpkin, red and yellow bell pepper, carrot and purple and green beetroot leaves. It was like a harvest-time reinterpretation of the fried rice genre!

1 cup brown rice
olive oil - need not be extra virgin or fancy (the flavor of extra virgin would get lost in cooking)
a pat of butter (optional)
1 whole bell pepper (or 1/2 each of two different colors of bell pepper)
2 cups of beetroot leaves (they're the ones in the market that are purple on one side and dark green on the other)
1/2 large carrot
1/2 small pumpkin (the gourd-like ones sold in Taiwanese day markets)
1/2 small sweet onion
To taste (optional): Thai fried shallots, black bean sauce, Lao Gan Ma, huajiao "flower pepper", salt, black pepper, fresh red chilis, sesame oil, soy sauce, paprika, vinegar, lemon juice, de-stemmed chopped cilantro, chopped fresh garlic, pulverized fresh ginger

three tbsp ground flaxseed (optional but really good for you)
a small amount of extra virgin olive oil and sesame oil to taste (optional)

Begin the long process to cook brown rice (it takes quite a while), adding a bit of salt, pepper and paprika to the water. Remember that brown rice requires more water (about 50% more), more heat, more steam and more time than white rice.

Set some water to boil to cook the pumpkin (if you want to be super-cool, cook the pumpkin chunks, including peeled skin, first, take out the skin and throw it away, set the cooked pumpkin aside and use the water to cook the rice to give it more nutrients and more flavor).

Wash and chop the onion and bell pepper, set aside
Wash, de-stem and chop beetroot leaves, set aside
Wash and grate or julienne carrot, including skin, add to beetroot leaves, set aside
Use a peeler to de-skin the small pumpkin, scoop out seeds, cut into chunks and boil until just cooked.

Wipe down a wok with just enough olive oil to comfortably cook, add chopped and powdered spices/salt to taste (no liquids yet, but you can add black bean paste, Lao Gan Ma etc). Cook on low/medium until it smells good. Immediately add bell peppers and onions and stir in thoroughly. Add soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice to taste. Raise to medium heat.

When that is almost but not quite cooked, add beetroot leaves and grated carrot and cook until the leaves go a bit soft (not too soft). Add pumpkin. Mix well on medium (adding a bit of water if it gets a bit dry and threatens to burn).

Add cooked brown rice (ideally you prepared the rice well in advance as brown rice takes forever). Mix well and add flaxseed, stir in.

Add pat of butter and/or any flavoring oils at the end and stir well until it melts evenly into the mix.

The pumpkin should disintegrate somewhat and provide some consistency to the fried rice, but if you like the kind of rice that can be shaped into a dome, mix in one egg and mix well until thoroughly cooked in.

You can also add 1/3 cup cooked yellow lentils and/or walnuts, almonds or cashews if you want some protein (you can also add meat for that matter)!

Note: you can substitute or add vegetables - mushrooms would be great, as would small chunks of cauliflower or sweet potato leaves in lieu of beetroot. You could add tomatoes, bok choi, corn...really whatever you want.

Serve hot.