Rice cooker dreams

This past weekend, MJ and I visited a new ex-pat grocery store in West Lake, and I came to the disappointing conclusion that if I lived in Hanoi, I could cook and eat close to anything I want. This store had every kind of flash-frozen imported meat one could imagine - bacon, chicken breasts, hamburger meat, filet mignon, etc. etc. etc. There were no bloody animal carcasses being swarmed by flies, but instead a very neatly-organized freezer case with cleanly-wrapped styrofoam-and-cellophane containers of meat. Of course the store also had spices and cheese galore, as well as the usual tomato sauces, pastas, cereals, condiments, etc., so just about any imaginable dish (fajitas, chicken parmesan, etc.) is possible with a bit of money and prime Hanoi location.

Unfortunately, most of these imported foods wouldn't make it back to Ha Tinh with me because the journey to Ha Tinh is a minimum of five hours (hour drive to the airport, hour at the airport, hour plane ride, hour and a half drive back to Ha Tinh). Sadly, my dreams of chicken cutlets and bacon will remain just that: dreams.

However, that doesn't stop me from bringing back pounds and pounds of non-perishable jarred food items wrapped in various pieces of dirty laundry, pillows, or sweatshirts to keep from breaking. This time, I brought back a $7 jar of brined kalamata olives, a $5 jar of capers, a $6 jar of sundried tomatoes (all imported from various southern-European countries and marked up by a bazillion percent), and the dream of preparing a delicious puttanesca sauce (along with dried lentils, Goldfish, and taco seasoning). 

Today I went to the market and bought six tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, and some shallots, and I got to work.

Unfortunately, I'm still living in Rice Cooker Land because my electric hot plate is still waiting to be replaced [a whole other frustrating story of my favorite game of Mr. Duc and Ms. Linh playing hot potato with a task that relates to my life here], so I have another recipe to add to my rice cooker repertoire.

Olive oil, garlic, shallots, tomatoes, oregano, chili pepper, kalamata olives and a bit of their brine, sundried tomatoes, capers, and canned tuna and a bit of its oil, and twenty minutes later...

Not to brag or anything, but this may have been the best dish of puttanesca I have ever had in my entire life. Maybe the rice cooker brings a little something-something to my cooking because now I've had three-out-of-three outstanding rice cooker meals. Yes, my electric hot plate is rumored to be ready on Thursday, but maybe I can survive for the rest of the year with just this one magic appliance?

Next recipe on my list: apple-and-lentil soup which I will attempt some time next week. 

Like I was saying in my earlier post, I realize I've stopped posting about new-and-interesting Vietnamese foods that I'm trying, so my next endeavor is to teach myself to become a Master Chef using the tiniest make-shift kitchen one could ever imagine. Sorry if it has nothing to do with my life in Vietnam, but at least you'll get to look at pictures of some yummy foods!