17 Apr 2 Easy recipes to try once you get in the US

Written By: Ramu Komai

Today, I will share with you guys easy recipes you can try to make, maybe even for today’s dinner!

I wasn’t originally a cooking person because I used to live with my family when I was in Japan and my mom was usually the main chef in our house. But since I came to the US, I was kind of forced to cook because my meal plan doesn’t cover every single meal, plus I need to save my money as well.

But as soon as I went to a grocery store in the US for the first time, I ran into a problem…..”I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO BUY!!!!!”

I was especially struggling to find seasonings. I used to use Asian seasonings every time I cooked something.

If you have the same problem as me, I definitely recommend you to go either Hmart (located in Alemany Blvd) or Kukje Supermarket (located in Daly City). Both are not that far from our campus and have a wide variety of Asian foods.

However, recipes that I will introduce you today are possible to cook with ingredients which you can get at Target or Trader Joes, which are located even closer to our campus! so Don’t worry!!

Recipe #1; Thai Gapao Rice

As you can guess from the name of it, this is originally a Thai dish. It sounds like it might be hard to cook, but it’s totally easy!

You need to prepare;

(for 1 serving)

-a piece of garlic

-1 tsp of chili sauce

-★1.5 tbs of oyster sauce

-★1 tbs of Thai fish sauce

-★some salt and pepper

-a quarter pound of chicken mince

-a quarter of onion

-some spinaches

-a half of tomato

-one fourth size of cucumber

-one egg

1. Chop an onion, a garlic, a tomato and a cucumber into small pieces. (a bit bigger pieces for a tomato and a cucumber is preferable)

2. Put a chopped garlic and chili sauce on a skillet and fry them a bit until aromatic. 3. Add an onion and fry until wilted.

4. Add chicken mince and mix with 3.

5. Add ★ in a skillet and stir.

6. Add spinach and stir a bit. (Make sure not to overcook!) Take it out of heat and put it in a bowl.

7. Cook a sunny side egg with the skillet that you’ve just used.

8. Put 7, tomato and cucumber on 6.

9. Done (-:

If you feel it’s still not enough to fill your stomach, you can eat it with rice, it also tastes good! You (I don’t have a picture of this)

Recipe #2; Tomato cold pasta

When you hear “cold pasta”, you might imagine a fancy restaurant…?? Amazing, you can feel rich even while you stay at home!

You need to prepare;

(for 1 serving)

-a piece of garlic

-★2 tbs of sesame oil

-★2 tbs of soy sauce

-★some salt and pepper

-water (for boiling spaghetti)

-3.5oz (100g) of spaghettini (thinner spaghetti)

-a half of tomato

-some spinaches

1. Cook spaghetti in boiled water. (follow the instruction written on the package, usually 3-4mins)

2. While you cook, wait for spaghetti to boil, chop tomato into bite-size pieces

. 3. Put ★ , 2 and spinaches into a big bowl and mix them up.

4. Once spaghetti boiled up, put them into a strainer and cold them with water. (If you’re able to prepare iced water, would be better)

5. When you feel spaghetti doesn’t have heat any more, drain it and add to 3. Mix well!!

6. Done (-:

You can add canned tuna, avocado etc…, as you like!

These are two easy-peasy recipes which I recommend you guys to cook! Even if you don’t usually cook, these recipes would be a good first step to kick off your cooking experience!

If there are some ingredients you don’t like in these recipes, please feel free to reach out to me anytime (rkomai@sfsu.edu). I have some more easy-peasy recipes that you might be able to try!

Hope this blog will help your wonderful life in SF state! Bye~~