It was made clear to me last night that I was not, in fact, born with an innate understanding of wok-cookery. While I think I can tell you some of the important things about stir-fry (high heat, large cooking area, speed), this abstract knowledge did not translate to an overwhelming success for my first attempt. I was trying to make this fried rice. It came out all right: edible, even a little bit tasty. I could try to blame my mediocre performance on not having the famed (but impossible to track down) “fried rice tool.” Really, I just don’t know the first thing about Asian cooking.

The Squeeze had much better luck. His recipe specified amounts for each ingredient and he smartly chose a metal utensil instead of the girly purple silicone one I tried to use. Next time, we’ll cut the meat into smaller pieces, scale back the sugar, scale up the chilies, and add more vegetables. For a maiden voyage, however, it was a reasonable success.

The salad rolls were good though. Inspired by another OSF recipe, they are great with my easy peanut sauce.