Ground beef and Eggplant.

Ground beef and Eggplant.

So, for the many of you out there who don't know (and yes, there are that many of you that I say many) I lived in Hong Kong for 2 years. I won't go into why I lived there here, perhaps on a different blog, but it was an amazing time in one of the single most amazing cities on the planet.

Hong Kong truly is amazing, you have this massive range of architecture, from the sleek ultra modern HSBC headquarters building in Central, to the (insert traditional temple from all over the place here) right on to the multi century old walled cities in the new territories.

In just a few minutes walk you can go from a dense urban center with 40 story tall high rises to suddenly finding yourself in open fields of rice patties and other farms with just 3 story multi family homes with families working in the fields in traditional garb.

A city where you only drive if you wish to for pleasure or have to as a work duty, the public transportation is fabulous and a model of what the US should be using. Even still on any given day you can see a variety of cars as diverse as the people. Citizens and ex-patriots from all over the world reside here. Bringing with them their own cultures.

While the city isn't as much a melting pot of cultures as New York is, I'd still say it's the single most incredible place I've ever been in all my long hard years on this planet. It's beautiful in all sorts of ways, as I said before the man made creations are great, you've got beautiful jungles and mountains and the ocean near by, beautiful people (minus a snaggletooth or ten.) and amazing food.

Seriously, the food is amazing. One of my favorite things I've ever eaten was here, it's called in Cantonese -Yu Heung Kehji Faahn- or fish fragrant eggplant rice. Yep, that's an amazing translation there that tells you nothing. It's an eggplant dish in a sauce made of tomatoes, ground fish or beef or chicken (I've ordered it at dozens of places and gotten all sorts of variants for the ground meat) some onions and miscellaneous spices and rice. So freaking tasty.

So tonight after a long drive home from Sun Valley I decided I'd try and make it. Sadly I used some of the wrong ingredients and failed miserably, though I did enjoy what I made. Feel free to serve it as a soup/stew/chili thingy mabobber, or over the cauliflower faux rice we've posted.

1lb ground (beef/chicken/fish of some sort, preferably a darker tasting fish/tofu

1 white onion, cut into strips

1 large eggplant (Chinese preferred but normal eggplants work as well.)

1 can diced tomato

1 can diced tomato with chili seasoning (yep, this was my mistake)

3 cloves garlic

1tsp ground ginger/diced ginger

2tbsp dark soy sauce

1/2 cup shao xin cooking wine (I substitute a dry sherry for this for other dishes, unsure here)

small chili peppers to taste

In a large wok Sauté the onions and then add the beef. Once the beef is mostly done add every thing else. For the eggplant, just before you put it in, slice it into thick sticks 2-3 inches long and maybe 1 inch squared, the second it's sliced toss it in so you don't have to watch it turn that nasty brown eggplant does when it oxidizes.

From here, let it all boil a bit with a lid over it till the meat is cooked through and the eggplant is soft and squishy. Serve, eat, marvel at how tasty your food is.

I must say, it wasn't the dish I wanted to make, but it was still quite tasty, not the prettiest, feel free to green it up with some zucchini or a little cilantro added last second. Please feel free to change it around, cooking is more of an art then a science, what strikes you may not strike me but as long as it's not poisonous/burning your house down/inflicting napalm.... never mind. If it's not causing harm and you like it you're doing it right.