Restaurants: Su Xing House: Philadelphia, PA

lest you believe that everything in philadelphia is totally gross, let me quickly tell you about a wonderful place mr benjamin picante rhine turned me onto during my aforementioned visit: su xing house! su xing is an adorable all-vegetarian chinese joint in center city. i was in such a daze that i neglected to notice exactly where, but menupages says 15th and sansom, so let's go with that.

i'm broke as a joke that isn't particularly funny, so i'm all about LUNCH SPECIALS!

we got miso soup! tough to mess up, wonderful to eat.


ben ordered this gorgeous shredded soy protein in garlic sauce, with a side of braised mushrooms. OM NOM NOM NOM


i had general tso's tofu with a side of seaweed - the best general tso's tofu i've ever had! crispy, light, and the perfect mix of sweet and spicy - and the ginormous chilis lurking between the tofu cubes made me really happy.

congratulations, philadelphia - you have ONE THING that doesn't suck.

Wok Like A Zombie

FOWYGET? (Friend of Were You Gonna Eat That?) Hilary is OBSESSED with everything Asian - mostly Asian men, but also Asian food sometimes. She taught us how to make this INCREDIBLE, super spicy stir fry that may actually be eating my stomach lining, but is totally wonderful.



INGREDIENTS:
- olive oil
- 1/2 clove garlic, chopped
- chilis
- one block extra firm tofu, cubed
- broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
- baby bok choy, slightly steamed
- 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 package white mushrooms, sliced
- rice vinegar
-apple cider vinegar
- soy sauce

Hila taught me how to make this first as a sauce for vegetables, and then we turned it into a stir fry - so this is largely improv. We started out by frying the tofu in olive oil with a little garlic and a few crushed chilis, so it would be firmer on the sides and also spicy and delicious. Hilary is very patient and i am not.


When the little cubes were brown on the sides and lookin' fine, Hila put them in a separate bowl so they could sit and wait for the glorious bed of vegetables that awaited! We started up another pan with olive oil, generous chopped garlic and what Hilary helpfully describes as "enough" chilis. Then we added mushrooms and the pulp from the tomatoes. Those cooked until they smelled so good we just about died.

Um, that keeps posting sideways. Not sure why. Okay! Hila steamed the bok choy just a little bit to soften it up, while I added the broccoli. When both of these things were starting to soften, we combined them with the diced tomato and finally the tofu.


The next part is critical! Sprinkle the stir fry with a light coating of rice vinegar, followed by a splash of apple vinegar. Let that simmer for a bit, and then when you're absolutely sure everything is almost done cooking, add a generous helping of soy sauce. This will change the chemical composition of what's happening, so you have to take the stir fry off the heat shortly thereafter - I don't know; it's science. Do what the nice lady tells you. The resulting sauce will be SPICY AS FUCK, but amazing.

Enjoy over brown rice! I am about to go make some right now.

Recession Special: Chili Con Tofu

my fellow americans:
in these troubled times, a lot of us are unemployed/semi-employed/freelancing/begging for change on the subway platform, and that often means cutting back on our food budgets. would you like to hear a secret? sure you would. guess what? veganism doesn't have to be expensive! here is a lovely recipe for those of you who are unemployed weirdos like me - a huge delicious pot of chili which you can savour for like, what would be a week to most normal people but ends up being roughly 3 full days for someone who eats as much as i do. today i bought all the ingredients and they came out to a whopping $17, which is a pretty sweet deal. this is ideal for your purposes, because it's filling, delicious and loaded with precious protein. i stole this recipe from somewhere on the internet and adapted it for my own needs.

here's what you need:

except i forgot some stuff in the picture. whatever. maybe you'd prefer a list?

INGREDIENTS:
- 4-5 cloves garlic, diced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 a package of white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 package extra firm tofu, crumbled
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tbsp or more chili powder
- a whole lot of cayenne pepper (or 1/4 tsp if you're a pussy like elena)
- 14-16 oz plain canned tomato sauce (whatever's on sale, dude)
- 28 oz plain diced tomato, with liquid
- 2 28-oz cans red kidney beans, drained

sooooo you're gonna put the olive oil and garlic in the pot and heat that up a little over a medium-high flame, and once that gets going you'll add the onion and start moving that around - make sure the onions are starting to get a little transluscent before you add the other stuff. add the mushrooms next, sautee, etc. after that, add the crumbled tofu.. i prefer larger chunks, but you may feel differently. add green pepper and stir until the pepper's just barely tender - about five minutes. add spices liberally.

now you're gonna bring the flame down as low as it'll go and add your tomato sauce, diced tomato and drained kidney beans. awesome. i'm sort of a masochist so i like my food as spicy as possible - i continue adding cayenne to taste, and often throw in this insane hot sauce i bought at tears of joy in austin, tx called BEYOND DEATH SAUCE.

you can't tell in the picture, but someone stuck a post-it note on the neck of the bottle that says BE CAREFUL WITH THIS SHIT! sometimes one drop is all the chili needs.

after this you're gonna put a lid on the pot and let it simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. the longer you simmer, the better it'll be, but it's gonna start smelling really amazing and you're gonna start losing willpower about 20 minutes in. be strong. maybe while this is going you could make some brown rice, cos a huge bag of that is only a few bucks and if you eat your chili over rice, you'll get full faster.


then you eat it.


the best part? you just made a LOT of food, dude. it's gonna last you a while. the longer it sits in your fridge (within reason), the more the tofu sucks up the flavors and spices, which is a definite bonus:


also, i made this chili for my carnivore dad once and he liked it.