r/52weeksofcooking

I decided to take inspiration from the Instagram account @symmetrybreakfast, where Michael Zee posted the daily breakfasts that he made for his boyfriend. Breakfast was the only meal that they would definitely have together so Michael decided to make the meal special. I think it's such a lovely and romantic idea! He's since written a book exploring breakfast around the world, but I kept my ideas a bit more basic and more like the origin story.

I made stuff I'd make for a normal lazy weekend breakfast for my husband. He prefers savoury so I made bacon, eggs and avocado toast, and I like some sweet things too so made a berry smoothie bowl, extra mixed berries and orange juice. My husband isn't a fan of smoothies in the first place and didn't see the point of putting it into a bowl - he said this makes it just sweet cold soup...

This was a fun idea and nothing was particularly difficult, except trying to find crockery that matched! My usual approach to buying cute plates and bowls is to just get singles of everything! These blue and white plates are a set of four seasons and so they're similar but they all have different designs... I also learnt that making two identical fried eggs is hard and instead of being wasteful I just went with what I made!

I’ve been trying to nail down Cantonese chow mein because growing up in Toronto it was my absolute favorite thing to eat. I still get it from my favorite place every time I head home for a visit. Chinese food in South Florida is the worst, and most places chow mein doesn’t even have the crispy noodles, or noodles at all. Which is just strange because chow mein literally means stir fried noodles!! This is the closest I’ve come so far to nailing the noodle cake and sauce.

Destashed ingredient: frozen garlic bread, fusili di Gragnano

Did you ever solve a puzzle a full day before anyone else, but the person administering the puzzle didn't acknowledge your correct answer and kept giving clues? I guess you gotta chuckle, say "fuck it," and move on.

Anyway, this eggplant parm-adjacent dish is based on a recipe from Sohla El-Waylly's book Start Here. Threw some garlic bread on the side to get the package out of my freezer, but it got a little burnt. The first pic is leftovers I was able to arrange better. The second pic is the original execution with the pasta and garlic bread but I didn't like the way it looked.

You may be looking at this and thinking: is that literally just white rice? WRONG! It’s basmati rice, yogurt, butter, and salt.

You may also be looking at this and thinking: why the fuck did they make Tibetan food for Alpine week? Well, “alpine” does not solely mean “from the Alps.” I honestly never even considered that when the theme was announced and the discord was lobbying for it. The “alpine tundra” is a biome that sits above the tree line, with an associated cold and harsh “alpine climate.” Basically, there are no trees because it’s too cold. Much of Tibet is alpine.

Tibetan culture, including their cuisine, is often considered endangered (due to what has been called a “cultural genocide”). I was pressed for time, so made a very simple dish, but genuinely want to explore some other Tibetan food, and encourage you to do so as well! I could find very little in-depth information. I skimmed through a bunch of sources in an attempt to find a recipe for chexo — all I knew was that it was yogurt and rice — but the best I could find was in a 2003 book called “Tibetan Customs” by Tao Li & Hongying Jian.

Here is the recipe, and I quote: “Cook rice until it is well down and then mix it with some yogurt.”

I added some salt and butter (unfortunately not yak), as much of the other Tibetan cuisine I saw contained those (I saw a claim that the prevalence of butter is due to a caloric need in such a harsh climate, which is interesting; maybe it’s just tasty though).

Chexo is, I believe, not to be confused with Zhoixo, which I was seeing it used interchangeably with. The aforementioned book claims that zhoixo is cooked ginseng and yogurt, not rice and yogurt.

Took the opportunity to try a recipe my friends have been saying is incredible…meh. Wouldn’t make it again. But glad to try it!

Meta explanation: Tuna is discouraged while pregnant, partially raw tuna especially.

Random fridge clean-out fillings: chickpeas, jalapeños, avocado, cheddar, ripped up tots. Great lunch!