This is a quick and easy side dish that is super flavourful. Thinly shredded red onion, eggplant, and oyster mushrooms are fried in a hot pan until wilted, then tossed in a flavourful Chinese street-side BBQ style sauce. Instead of cooking the spices in the pan, we simply scald them with smoking hot oil. The result is a super delicious explosion of flavours and textures (soft vs firm vs crunchy).
In Chinese, we call this a 下酒菜 (xia jiu cai), which means a dish that you snack on while drinking. There are a few basic requirements for such a drink-compatible dish. One: It has to be full-on with flavour, so you can still taste it with alcohol-destroyed taste buds. And it usually makes you drink more. Two: It has to taste fine hot or cold, so you can sing ten songs on the karaoke before you start eating, or snack on it over two hours. Three: It can have sauce, but not so much that it will drip on your body and make you look more dishevelled than you do.
For those who very seldom drink—like me—this is also a good side dish for plain Teochew porridge or a plain noodle soup. Or if you are on a tight budget—also like me—then this will help you destroy a massive amount of rice. I’ve also had this as a super amazing filling for tortilla wraps. Totally worth the very limited effort!
Ingredients
- Spices