Pi(e) and Noodles
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197...
I’ll be honest — the last couple of weeks haven’t been my most intentional in the kitchen. Life happens, and sometimes dinner just means protein and vegetables, full stop. Even for someone who genuinely loves to cook, there are weeks where the inspiration just isn’t there. Add in the fact that I’ve been trying to lean out a bit, and most of the food I want to make is the exact opposite of what that goal calls for.
But excuses only go so far. I did manage to cook a few genuinely fun dishes this week — two of them from The Wok — which brings me to 14.53% recipe completion. Progress.
Gyudon (pg. 235)
This looks like a mess, but don’t let appearances fool you. This bowl is pure, simple comfort food at its best. I added tsukemono (the red pickled daikon in the photo) hoping for a hint of brightness to cut through the richness, but it didn’t quite land. Tsukemono is more salty than what Westerners typically think of when they hear “pickled.” The dish needed acidity, not salt, to cut through the richness of the beef and eggs.
Wonton Noodles (an experiment)
I had a container of homemade wonton filling sitting in my freezer and, like many of us, I’ve been watching those viral dumpling lasagna videos on Instagram. That got my brain spinning. Why not wonton noodles?
The noodles I found gave me a genuine laugh — marketed for dan dan noodles, but the package also proudly declared them “Asian Spaghetti.” I don’t know if that’s a translation quirk or a pitch to Western shoppers, but either way, the noodles are fantastic. I used the same ones from a vegan noodle dish a few weeks back. This time around, I stir-fried the filling, tossed the noodles in, and sauced everything with my go-to dumpling dipping sauce — black vinegar, soy sauce, and Lao Gan Ma — with a touch of cornstarch to thicken it up.
The only thing I’d change: I went a bit heavy on the meat, which threw the balance off. Delicious all the same, although I’ll probably just stick with dumplings in the future.
Pad See Ew with Chicken (pg. 372)
Pad See Ew is one of those recipes that makes you wonder why you ever order it out — once you’ve made a great version at home, it’s hard to justify spending so much on such a simple dish.
The hardest part is keeping the rice noodles from fusing into one tragic clump. This was also my first time working with full sheets of rice noodles that I cut to size myself, which felt like a small but satisfying milestone.
Pi Day Pizza (3.14)
March 14th means one thing in this house: pie. We went the savory route this year — a simple marinara topped with shaved pecorino romano and parmigiano. Nothing revolutionary, but simple usually means better.
Will it unseat the marinara pizza I had in Naples? Not even close. But it’s got me thinking. The dough is where I want it to be — I’m convinced the gap is entirely in the sauce. That’s the next puzzle to solve.