Monday, January 4, 2010

Breakfast in a Far Away Place

Chinese Tomato and egg at my breakfast table in California


Fanqie jidan at the Naxi Family Guest House at Tiger Leaping Gorge

I'm dieting, and I have almost stopped cooking. But I read the food blog of my daughter, Lina Goldberg. She is traveling alone in Asia to distant spots that are off the beaten path. I don't know where she got the courage to travel in places where people stare, follow her around with a video camera, and want to have their picture taken with her. Her blog. mybigfatface.com is terrifically illustrated with lots of good pictures of food and lots of disgusting pictures of what people in places I would never go consider food. And only very occasionally do I see a dish that I would like to eat. But the other day she posted a Chinese breakfast dish that really appealed to me and based on her description, Google where I learned the dish is called fanqie jidan, and the picture which she posted, I made it (skipping the carbohydrate side dish) it and ate it for breakfast this morning. It was very pleased with it. Very easy to do, particularly since I skipped making the congee side dish , used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, and sliced a little onion in because I had no scallion.

Chinese Egg and Tomato
(for one)

1 scallion cut lengthwise and then into 3 or 4 lengths
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 egg. whipped till foamy
1/3 14.5 ounce can of ready cut tomatoes or one large tomato cut up
salt
pepper

1. Heat the canned tomatoes in a small pot with a little of the liquid, or cook the cut up tomato.
2. In a small pan heat the oil cook the scallion lightly and then add to the tomato.
3. Pour the foamy egg into the pan and over low heat allow the underside to get golden brown. Then turn over and preak up.
4. Mix with the heated tomato pour onto a dish and serve with salt and pepper.

Note: Some recipes use sauteed garlic instead of scallion. And obviously the recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc.