have not yet learned Sichuan cooking

Japanese-esque Eggplant:

- 1 eggplant, cut into cubes or your favorite other shape
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
- soy sauce, several tablespoons
- vegetable oil
- water, several tablespoons

One great thing about living in Sichuan is that it's cheaper than ever to experiment with cooking vegetables.

The flavor of this dish surprised me (you can tell because I'm posting the recipe on my blog). I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it reminds me of the sauce that usually comes with tempura, or maybe miso soup a little bit. I think it might be the combination of green onion and soy, and the sweetness which I'm guessing is the result of the way the soy sauce and eggplant are fried. Something like that. I almost never measure things, so I can only give rough amounts and times. If anybody wants to actually try making this, just use your best judgment. I hope you do not regret it!

Directions:

Mix the soy sauce and water and set aside. Heat a frying pan on high. Add a liberal amount of vegetable oil once the pan is hot. Add the garlic and stir immediately to make sure it doesn't stick. Add the eggplant and do the same thing. Keep stirring the eggplant around the pan until it soaks up all the oil, and then wait until it starts to brown on one or two sides. The pan should now be dry (because the oil is all soaked up) and extremely hot. Before the eggplant actually starts to burn too much, pour in the soy-water. There should be enough of this that it fills the whole pan to the depth of a millimeter or so, although a lot of the water will quickly evaporate. Wait for about a minute. Sprinkle the green onions on top. Wait for another minute or whatever amount of time feels like a minute. The eggplant should have cooked down a lot by now. Stir everything for another minute or so, or until you think everything is done.





And below is a picture of the outside of my apartment building (my door is the second on the left). It's a nice place to live because even though it's close to the main streets, you go through a gate into this sprawling courtyard space (this photo shows one corner of it) where it's much quieter. As you can see, people like to hang up their laundry outside, and there's a little "park" in another part where old people often play cards at a little table. Speaking of which, today on the yellow ginkgo-lined side street just outside of this apartment complex (opposite the busy street), there were at least seven green felt tables set up in a little open-front tea house (which is really just three walls and a ceiling), on the sidewalk, and even in the street, where old people were playing Mahjong (má jiàng). I've seen this setup before, but I think the number of tables today was a record. My goal is to one day sit down at one of those tables and play with them. But so far I have been unsuccessful in finding a Mahjong teacher, and I do not have enough confidence in my Chinese--not to mention my Sichuanhua--to try to learn the rules from them.