Chinese dinner - no gluten, no MSG, no soy, no pork

A Chinese dinner with friends at P.F. Chang's? That was the chilling prospect unless I could come up with an alternative. The challenge: Compose a gluten-free, MSG-free, no pork dinner for 5 in a real Chinese restaurant.

On Thursday, I went to one of my favorite Chinese restaurants near my home - Ming Flower, in Westerville, OH - and consulted with Sam Mark, son of the owner, Andrew. Sam was very knowledgeable about gluten-free diets. No wheat, no soy sauce (there's MSG in most soy sauces, and the "G" in MSG is related to gluten). That eliminated so many dishes! Here's the menu we came up with:

Watercress soup
Crispy skin chicken
Fish fillets in cream of corn sauce
King Du pork chops
Jumbo salt-roasted shrimp
Sauteed pea pod tips with Chinese mushrooms
Yang Chow fried rice

Yes, I know: I said "no pork." Actually, I found out about that restriction on Friday. A quick call and the pork dish was replaced by:

Beef with Chinese broccoli

The dinner was a great success. My guests, Tally & Midge Krumm, Herb & Janice Wolman, and I had a great time.

Here are the dishes - some of which we were so excited by that I forgot to take photos until we had already eaten some.

The watercress in the soup was new to my guests. It was tasty, but proved difficult to eat by them. (I pointed out that in Chinese dining etiquette, one may pick up a large piece of vegetable or meat, bite off a piece, and return the remainder to ones bowl or plate.) Tender, thin chicken fillets substituted for the usual pork in the soup.

The chicken was a big hit. The colorful shrimp chips provided a textural comparison to the crispy chicken skin, contrasting with the delightfully moist chicken meat. A squeeze of lemon and pinch of sauteed seasoned salt provided exciting new tastes for my guests, who understood why this is my favorite Chinese chicken dish - one that's difficult to make at home, since the whole chicken must be fried in a large wok of hot oil as part of the preparation.

The fish fillets in cream of corn sauce was new to even me. I was pleasantly surprised with how tasty it was. The fish, coated in corn starch before frying, was moist and tender, in a nicely chewy crust.

Beef slices were very tender (though Mom would probably object to their being so because of the use of baking soda), and the perfectly cooked Chinese broccoli were nicely crunchy and vibrantly green, providing textural and visual contrast to the beef.

Sam warned me about the shrimp dish: Most Western diners are frightened by whole shrimp with their heads on. Still, I wanted them not only because I enjoy the flavor of the little bit of innards in the shrimp heads (the shrimp equivalent of the tamale in lobster heads), but also because it would provide a good conversation piece. I was right and my guests were good sports about eating them.

The closing vegetable dish provided a comparison to the opening soup, looking so similar, yet tasting so different. Eating the pea pod shoots tips was easier than eating the watercress, since the tips were more tender and by now, my guests were more comfortable using their chopsticks. The reprise of the Chinese mushrooms provided me an opportunity to explain the Chinese belief that any black food in Chinese cuisine is good for you. It's a belief concurred by Dr. Andrew Weil, who also recommends eating deeply colored foods for their anti-oxidant benefits.

The Yang Chow fried rice had bits of beef instead of the usual pork and was light, yet tasty, going along with the lighter flavors of the rest of the meal. I had forgotten to order a dessert, but orange wedges came on the house - perfect after so much else to eat!

Andrew and his staff delivered our dishes one at a time so we could enjoy each one leisurely and consume much of the large volume of delicious food. Even so, I got to take leftovers home that will feed me for a few meals.

Wines are always a challenge for a Chinese dinner. I brought along 3 wines from my cellar.

The 2006 Sterling Reserve Napa Chardonnay and the 2004 Lucien Albrecht Alsace Gewurtztraminer were both very full flavored. The 1998 Keenan Napa Merlot was nicely rounded. They would have gone very well with a more traditional Chinese menu, in which the dishes would have also been more heavily flavored. But with these lighter dishes, the wines - especially the whites - were a little overpowering. A Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris would have matched the food better. Still, we all had a good time and enjoyed the good food, nice wines, and great company. All this, while accommodating dietary restrictions!

Alas, I was feeling so good about the dinner and the delightful evening we all had that I forgot to ask Andrew to take a photo of my guests and me. Well, I guess we'll just have to do it again. But I'll have to challenge Andrew and Sam to come up with another menu within my guests dietary restrictions to stimulate us again with something new.

My $863 Refrigerator Repair

Four weeks ago, I found that the ice dispenser of my refrigerator had run out of ice. Here's my long story, but you can cut to the end for my conclusions from this experience.

My ice maker had stopped making ice once last year, so I went through my records and recalled the answer the helpful Kitchen Aid customer service people gave me. I tried the old solution to no avail - still no ice. Then I realized that though the refrigerator side was okay, my freezer had warmed up from its normal -5° to +30°!

I called the Kitchen Aid 800 number and was quickly told I needed a service call. They said Capital City Appliance Service in Columbus was my locally authorized service provider. I called them and they arranged a service visit for the next day. My service guy, Mike, told me I had a slow leak somewhere in the system. He recharged the freon, saying that would get my freezer cooling normally again, and said he'd need to return with a dye injector which would show where in the hundreds of feet of cooling system piping the leak was. He said that since my refrigerator (a 36" side-by-side built-in) was 11 years old, parts were still covered by Kitchen Aid's 12-year warranty, but I'd have to pay for labor (confirming what Kitchen Aid customer service told me over the phone). I paid $177 for that first visit for his hour's time plus the freon.

The next day, I got a call from Mike's office. A woman there told me it would cost me $800 for my refrigerator repair. I asked how much time it would take and she said it would be about 3 hours. Well, since parts were covered, I asked if that meant I would be paying almost $200 per hour for labor (given the charge for freon). After getting inadequate explanations to my questions about the seemingly unreasonable charge, I asked her to schedule the next service, but told her that I'd shop for a new refrigerator to consider replacing rather than repairing it and would call her back the next day.

I went to my local Home Depot and Lowe's hardware stores and saw regular refrigerators that might fit in my space, but no built-ins. (I was also surprised in this economy how hard it was to find anyone to ask for help on such a high-priced item!) I realized that with regular refrigerators, I would't be able to have custom cabinet panels on the doors, so it would't look good in my kitchen. I then went to the Great Indoors store and there found built-ins and sales help. Instead of the $1500-2500 for regular side-by-side refrigerators, a new Kitchen Aid built-in would cost over $5000 (confirming my recollection of what I paid for it when I bought it for my new house 11 years ago). In the context of $5000, an $800 repair didn't seem too bad.

I called Capital City back and after getting the same woman who couldn't explain why I was paying so much for labor, I asked to speak with a service manager. He explained they were required to charge according to a schedule of national standard service charges for types of repair. Further, I'd have to pay for a 2nd entire recharge of freon since federal regulations didn't permit them to reuse the freon they just put into my refrigerator until it had been cleaned. Before calling Capital City back, I had checked Angie's List and called Kitchen Aid again to see what alternatives I had, but found that although Capital City had many customers who were unhappy with their service, the alternative service company's ratings were even worse. So, I was stuck.

The service manager told me he advises customers to consider repair vs. replacement cost and expected refrigerator life. If the repair is more than 1/2 the replacement cost, he suggests buying a new one. He also told me that the expected life of a regular refrigerator is 10-12 years, but that of a built-in is 20 years, so my 11-year old unit still had plenty of life left. He said the work had a 90 day warranty and the parts warranty would run out with the 12-year warranty of my unit. When I expressed concern that inadequate repair of a slow leak may not show up until after the 90 day warranty had expired, he assured me that they would consider such instances on a case-by-case basis. I thanked him for his patience and explanations and told him to go ahead with the repair.

From there, things went smoothly. Mike came back to put in the dye injector (with a service charge of $77.55), and 3 weeks later, after the parts came in and my schedule permitted, found the expected slow leak. He replaced the parts, taking the predicted 3 hours. Mike had originally told me to empty my freezer, since everything would thaw during the repair. So in the intervening weeks, I've been trying to eat up my frozen foods (they had survived the few days of warming from -5° to +30°). I hadn't thought that all I needed to do was to put the frozen food into cooler chests during the repair, but I realized this once Mike came for the final repair.

So that's the story. My freezer's running fine again (so far) - I have ice! Mike confirmed that the leak wasn't anything I had caused; it was in a sealed part of the freezer. I was charged $785 for the final repair, less $122.60 I paid for the initial visit, so my total cost was $862.55 for 5 hours of labor and freon.

CONCLUSIONS

Most significantly, I've learned that I really don't need to keep much in my freezer. Fortunately, my side-by-size refrigerator doesn't hold all that much as it is, and one freezer bin is filled with coffee beans (since I've stopped drinking coffee, drinking tea instead). So I'll continue to eat up my frozen food and be more aware of what I put in there (which should be mainly for last-minute entertaining). I should also invite more friends over for coffee!

I'm concerned that the federal government and industry have created a situation where customers are stuck with unreasonable charges. I can understand regulators wanting to ensure that freon is properly recycled for reuse. But why can't we have our own freon put back into our own refrigerators? Also, while diagnostic-based charges may help prevent unscrupulous overcharging for repairs, what assurance do customers have against unreasonable "standard" charges? These may be examples of unintended consequences of government policies (far preferable to being examples of government-industry collusion to bilk customers); I'll have more to say about unintended consequences in a future blog.

Still, I'm happy that here in Columbus, I continue to be able to find service people who can help promptly and courteously (and, hopefully, competently).

My Orchids

I've been lucky growing plants my whole life - at least with those that need watering only once a month. So imagine my delight when my orchid plants re-bloomed this year!



My story begins a few years ago, when Mom came to New Albany for a visit. To help brighten up her room, I bought a blooming orchid plant at Home Depot. It had a nice stalk with about 8 blossoms, which lasted not only the 2 weeks of her visit, but on for another 4 months! The little tag on the plant said it was the easiest type of orchid to grow: phalaenopsis or "moth" orchid. I spoke to neighbors who had similar orchids, and they confirmed that they re-bloom every year. I didn't know how to care for them and cut off the blossom stalk after the blossoms fell off - only to see when visiting friends that I should have left the bare stem there. I dunked the plant into water when it had dried out (once every 1-2 weeks) and bought orchid plant food to add to the water every month or so. Sure enough, several months later, I was rewarded with a new, short flowering stalk and a couple of blossoms.

I became more adventuresome and bought another couple of phalaenopsis at Whole Foods (which, I found, has very good prices on orchids in November and December). I also bought a few bare-rooted orchid plants at the Franklin Park Conservatory's orchid sale after their orchid show for a few dollars each. I don't have any bright growing places for plants in my house and only a couple of ficus benjamina and a ponytail palm which have thrived through my benign neglect (my watering scheme is to drown them once a month, whether they need it or not). Well, my orchids weren't as tolerant.

I transplanted the orchids when I saw (through their clear plastic pots) that the pots were growing algae. I gave them new bark/peat medium in their transparent plastic pots. I put them in a plastic tray with pebbles on the bottom, which I would water to help provide a little humidity. Also, seeing how happy they were when they came back after being plant-sat at Tally & Midge's home during a couple of my multi-week trips away from home, I finallly put them among other plants (a braided Chinese money plant, and a Jerusalem cherry - from a cutting from a plant originally raised by Thomas Jefferson!). I think I over-watered them last fall and a few of the plants died.

The good news is that one phalaenopsis and a more difficult to grow odontoglossum are now re-blooming! I had even killed off a new bulb of the odontoglossum, but it has bounced back and has given me a spray of 5 buds, 3 now open with a delightful rose-like scent.

I've learned to dunk them in water only once every 6-8 weeks and not to let their pot bottoms get too wet from standing in the water around the pebbles. I think they also like being in with the bigger green plants. The sun from my north facing kitchen window appears to be enough (the money tree and Jerusalem cherry appear to be quite happy and are growing much taller and bushier). While the temperature varied widely during the winter (I turned down the thermostat to 50° when I was away on trips; while I was home, it would get up to the low 70s), the plants all survived.

My orchids: Testaments to the tenacity and beauty of life!