Chan's Personal Blog

Tonight's youth group activity was a progressive dinner. For those who aren't familiar with what a progressive dinner is, it's where you travel from house to house and you have one course at each house.

I volunteered to do the appetizer course of the meal. The theme I went with was an Asian theme (surprise surprise). So, for tonight's battle, I paired sunomono salad with potstickers. I thought the pairing would work well since the salad is light and refreshing, and the potstickers are kind of heavy.

Sunomono salad is a cold Japanese salad that's usually served before a meal in Japanese restaurants. It consists of noodles, cucumbers, carrots, and shrimp. All this is served in a sweet, clear, citrusy rice vinegar marinate. The cucumbers and carrots are usually slightly pickled in that rice vinegar. Starting a meal with this salad works well since a slightly sour dish encourages appetite, and it's a nice light starter.

Potstickers are a Chinese style dumpling. They're usually stuffed with meat and vegetables. The ones I went with were stuffed with carrots, corn, green onion, and chicken. They can be steamed, pan-fried, or deep-fried, so they're pretty versatile. I chose to pan-fry them until they were golden brown and crispy. The potstickers were accompanied with a balsamic vinegar sauce with ginger.

Tonight I was cooking for sixteen people, and I was slightly nervous about the salad because I've never prepared it before. I was also cooking in the church's kitchen which is a foreign kitchen to me. It's always tricky cooking elsewhere because you don't know what they equipment they have, and where they put it. That's why I always bring my good knife along. However, it's a privledge to cook in my church's kitchen because it's a commercial grade kitchen, and its hardware is amazing. In either case, still tricky, especially given the number of guests. Thankfully Adam, Sarah, Bethany, and my brother showed up to help cook, otherwise I would have been really behind in getting things plated.

The battle begins.