Asian Food and Abu Dhabi Chopsticks

It does not seem to matter where in the world you go, you can always find good Asian food. Two of the places where we have lived and where we have been pleasantly surprised to find Asian food were in the United Arab Emirates (Middle East) and in Nigeria (Africa). In Kano, Nigeria, we had two restaurants to choose from. One was the Lebanese Club, which our Danish friends called the Bornholmer Club (Bornholm is a beautiful island in Denmark), and the China Palace. In the United Arab Emirates the Sheraton Hotel in Dubai and Abu Dhabi had wonderful Asian food. It was in the Abu Dhabi Sheraton where we were given Abu Dhabi chopsticks to go with our wonderful Asian food. I had completely forgotten about the chopsticks, until we had invited family over for dinner. I decided to treat them to Thai food. My husband insisted that we eat the food with chopsticks. After some searching, we discovered the Abu Dhabi chopsticks. (No, we did not steal them; they were given to us.) Since I never throw anything away, we placed the chopsticks on the table, along with the ashtrays from the LuLu Bar in Dubai. (No, we did not steal these either; we received an ashtray every time we ate in the LuLu Bar.) So, it was Asian food in Denmark with Abu Dhabi chopsticks.

I cook and serve Asian food quite often. I find it is easy to prepare, healthy and flavorful. It is not difficult to prepare good Asian food. The people of Asia have spend hundreds of years studying what makers food good. Very little about Asian cooking is accidental. Good Asian cooking requires a little thought and planning. You must choose your ingredients, cut them, and assemble them according to a plan. You judge good Asian food with the eyes, nose, fingers and ears - the latter to judge if the food is cooking the right way. That’s about all. You do not need to go through a complicated course of study to prepare Asian food well.

One of the most important essentials to good Asian cooking is to select the best and freshest ingredients. Many foods are not cooked very long. Tough meat does not have time to tenderize and old vegetables do not have time to soften to change form. Old vegetables will look sickly, flabby and taste bitter. Additionally, most of the sauces are designed to enhance, not disguise the flavor and appearance of foods.

When you eat with a fork, you often pick up several different ingredients at the same time. When you eat with chopsticks, you pick up just one morsel alone . As you pick it up, most of whatever sauce is coating it drops off. Chopsticks lift up every small bit of food to the close scrutiny of your eyes and tongue.

You do not need to be obsessed with fresh foods. Do not try to find the chicken still cackling, and picking your own vegetables. Just do not buy meat which does not look fresh and vegetables which do not look crisp. Try to avoid cooking frozen vegetables when preparing Asian food. Frozen vegetables do not have the same qualities of fresh vegetables (peas, corn, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts can be the exceptions). A good rule of thumb is to buy vegetables which are at the peak of their season. These days with all the imports and the exotic markets, it is easy to find just about anything you like.

When you buy seafood, it is almost impossible to find shrimp, scallops or lobster which have not been frozen. If you buy frozen seafood, be sure that it is solidly frozen and bears no sign of having been partially thawed and refrozen (pools of frozen juices) or having been frozen too long (a bit of a grayish look). Fresh seafood is, of course, the ideal when you can get it.

If you buy fresh fish, look it in the eye. The eyes should be firm, clear and bright. The gills should be reddish inside. A whole fish should look firm with no trace of sliminess, whether fresh or thawed. If you buy a piece of fish, the piece should be moist and lively in color.

Whatever you plan to cook, be sure you have all the ingredients for the recipe, make a shopping list and buy as many fresh ingredients as possible for the meal. If you want to serve authentic Asian food, you must use authentic ingredients which look and taste fresh and serve them immediately.

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