For the love of Thai Food

I am 43 years old white woman, I've lived in Orange County, California since 1992 and I'm just taking the time to figure out what the deal is about on Asian cuisine.

Thai is the best for me. It's recipes are based upon healthy, fresh ingredients with no flour, cheese or cow's milk.. I love that. I love being able to go out to a restaurant where I can order something from the menu and know that afterwords I'm not going to feel sick from eating it. I went so far as collecting three Thai cook books and searching out the grocery stores and farmer's markets in my area that carry Thai ingredients so that I can cook dishes at home.

Japanese is second best. It also concentrates on fresh, healthy ingredients. Noodles are an integral in many dishes, which is not so good, but in it's defense, Japanese eat more fish, so I love sushi, but especially sashimi. I found out it's extremely easy to make miso soup at home because it comes in these kits like the ramen noodles that everyone is so used to in California. You can add bok choi, thinly sliced shallots and/or green onion and cubes of firm tofu, if you want, or just eat the noodles and the broth - it's that easy.

I found out that I like Pho, which is a type Vietnamese soup available in just about any city you go to.You don't have to guess what you are going to be served there because Pho is usually in the name of the restaurant. Once upon a time, there was a restaurant in my neighborhood called Hung Phat. I kid you not. I read that, deemed the name disgusting and never tried the place. Later they changed the name to Golden Chopsticks. I later discovered that the term Hung Phat is a common phrase in Vietnamese and nothing to be afraid of.

Chinese food is the most unhealthful of all the Asia food, next to tempura in Japanese cooking. Chinese food almost always is served with some sort of corn starch based sauce and sometimes even deep fried items like in the calamari, sweet and sour dishes, and the wonton noodles. The easiest thing to whip up for a meal is stir fry, which comes from Chinese cooking. I have one prep bowl and slice everything up before i start cooking. I then cook the meat, lay on the prepared vegetables, let it steam for a few minutes and then mix it up in the wok until it's all hot and incorporated and pour some sticky sauce over it. I serve it with rice on the side. Another dish I make at home sometimes is the egg drop soup. It's chicken broth, scrambled egg and thinly sliced green onion. That's it. Simple and quick. Sometimes when you aren't feeling so good and the weather is cold, only egg drop soup will do.

I bought a new rice cooker over the summer. Man, is that thing great. Perfect rice in 20 minutes. Fry's Electronics had only one model like mine. I later found out that H Mart carries a ton of them, thank you.

And speaking of which, I found H Mart and I love it. It's chock full of Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese products and, to me, is the Pavillions of Asian food markets.