Bloggers’ Bites: Home-Cooked Meals
Bloggers’ Bites is a series of posts chronicling the foodie adventures of Penn Appétit’s blog staff. We’re a couple weeks into the fall semester and students may be getting homesick for their favorite home-cooked meals. Our bloggers reminisce about their go-to eats (some complete with recipe links!).
Nicole Woon: We call it “Great Wall Sticky Rice.” It isn’t glutinous, but the name… stuck. *cymbal crash* Normal fried rice this is not, studded with chunks of plump Chinese sausage (lop cheng) and charred BBQ pork (char sui), bits of dried shrimp (haa mai) and pickled turnip (chung choy), morsels of shiitake mushrooms and vibrant green onions. Quiet victories come to those deemed “official taste testers”, who get to sample the mixture while it’s still sizzling in the pan and tweak saltiness and sweetness before it’s incorporated into the rice. Potlucks, birthdays, holidays, the day before I leave for college, the day I come home after finals: no matter the event, the rice is a crowd pleaser. It’s a reminder of family and togetherness, warming the heart and the stomach.
Victoria Peng: My favorite home-cooked meal is Petits Farcis à la Provençale. Between my junior and senior years of high school, I spent the summer in France, and when I visited St. Tropez this summer, I tried Petits Farcis for the first time. The dish reminds me of hot summer days spent luxuriating under canopies of billowing white, gauzy drapes and nights spent up with my host family. When I made this for my family upon my return, they thought that they could taste my French adventures.
Katie Behrman: Mine depends on the season, but since fall is arriving, I would say I love roasted pork glazed with mustard and roasted onions. Serve it with homemade hot applesauce, a veggie (sauteed spinach, asparagus with thyme and tomatoes, or broccoli), and piping hot cornbread.
Amanda Nart: After I returned from studying in Spain this summer, I missed spending leisurely afternoons in cafés eating tapas, talking to friends, and drinking café con leche, so I went a bit crazy trying to recreate the dishes I ate during my month abroad. One of my favorite summer dishes is salmorejo, a chilled soup from southern Spain made of blended tomato, bread, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil, because it is acidic yet refreshing and super simple to make. It is thicker than gazpacho and does not have cucumber or bell peppers. To make the dish a bit more substantial, I garnish the soup with strips of Spanish cured ham, and eat it alongside tortilla española, which is a typical Spanish dish composed of potato, egg, onion, and salt, a bit similar to a frittata.
Emily Waxman: My favorite home-cooked meal is without a doubt my mom’s spaghetti and meatballs. The ultimate comfort food, my mom would make it for me in high school any time I had a bad day or the night before any big exam, and now that I’m in college I can always count on it as my very first meal home, no matter the time of day my flight gets in. Helping her to roll the meatballs has always been my favorite part, partly because it’s fun to squish ground meat and partly because they’re my favorite part of the dish. Her secret? Adding parmesan directly to the meatballs!
Chase Matecun: It’s always around this time of year that I start to crave the simple, homemade dinners that my mom used to serve on school nights back home. When the air starts to get cooler and leaves begin to fall from the trees, I’m pretty much guaranteed to start clamoring for my favorite homemade meal—oven roasted chicken and sweet potatoes along with caramelized Brussels sprouts. Back in high school, sitting in my room chipping away at a mountain of homework was somehow always made better by the fragrant scent of sizzling poultry and roasted vegetables wafting upstairs from the kitchen. The thought of crispy chicken skin and tender meat paired with the sticky sweetness of sweet potatoes and golden-brown caramelized sprouts gave me something to look forward to other than another set of proofs. Because what’s a home-cooked meal if not comfort food at its finest?
Nicole Luo: My favorite home-cooked meal is basically anything my Dad makes, but one standout dish is definitely his pan-fried tilapia! What makes this dish so memorable is the savory sauce (a mix of green onions, red chili peppers, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and ginger). Pan-frying the fish also gives the skin a nice, crispy texture. The combination of the two creates a delicious meal that I can never get enough of when I’m home.
Emily Eck: Food has always been a huge part of my family life, so it’s hard to pick my favorite dish. Being part Italian, I never pass up a good bowl of pasta. However, I think my favorite home-cooked meal, the one that I always ask for for my birthday or my last meal before leaving for college, would have to be Chicken Divan. The ingredients of this rich and creamy casserole don’t seem like they should go together (chicken, broccoli, mayonnaise, curry, and cheese), but they somehow form a delicious mix of tangy, gooey, and salty. Served over a bowl of rice, this meal is a perfect reminder of home.
Samantha Linhares: The best thing to come home to is a bowl of sizzling hot dumplings prepared by my mother, who does them better than anyone else. Hours are spent toiling over cutting an inordinate amount of cabbage, scallions, water chestnuts and shrimp to accompany the pork; then the dough is made and each dumpling is individually made. An accompanying sauce of soy sauce and vinegar only heightens the flavors and you can truly taste the love put into each one.