Restaurant Review #3

Lucky House Thai - Berkeley

I wandered into Lucky House for some Thai Food after not having been for a looooong time. I used to go here for lunch when I worked on the campus. My building was very close to this place so we lunched here quite frequently.

I always order the Pad See Ew medium spice and it is very tasty. The flavor of this dish is like a garlic ginger spicy mix. It has chicken breast, broccoli, large flat rice noodles and a scrambled egg. I was surprised that I liked this mish-mash of flavors but it somehow works!

Today they made it a little hotter, but it was still good.  My friends always order the BBQ chicken over rice.  No matter who I go with they order that! Weird!

Of all the Thai places I've been to, their Thai Iced Tea is the best!!

Today I ordered 2 since it had been so long.  I give them 4 stars out of 5. They would have gotten 5 stars but they took way too long to bring the food.

Green Bean Chicken Stir Fry Over Fried Rice

I've been contemplating taking an Asian cooking class for awhile now and just haven't gotten around to it. In the meantime, I've been playing around with Asian flavors and I came across this recipe and decided to try it.
Recipe found at Chinese Grandma


Chicken and green bean stir fry

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 pound green beans
• Cooking oil

Marinade:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sherry (I did not use this)
• 1 clove garlic

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sherry
• 1 clove garlic

Optional

• Dash sesame oil (did not have, will use next time)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated ( did not have, will use next time)
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste ( used this)

Directions

1. If starting with frozen chicken breasts, set in bowl of cold water to defrost.
2. Take end off green beans and wash.
3. Rinse rice in several changes of water until water is mostly clear. Add fresh water for cooking and set aside.
4. Dice chicken into bite-sized pieces (approx 1/2″ cubes). Place diced chicken in bowl.
5. Add marinade ingredients to chicken – soy sauce, sherry, garlic chopped. (Stir well to distribute marinade.)
6. Refrigerate chicken.
7. Start rice to cook before starting stir fry.
8. Prepare stir fry sauce. Add brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, sherry and garlic chopped in a small bowl. 
9. Add cornstarch and stir well, pressing out any lumps until sauce has a consistent milky brown color.
10. Heat two tablespoons of oil in an large skillet over medium-high heat. 
11. Add green beans. If green beans don’t fit in one batch, cook half at a time. Use long tongs to turn beans over while cooking so that they do not burn.
12. If beans are particularly thick, add two tablespoons of water to pan and cover skillet for a couple of minutes to steam-cook beans to desired tenderness. Do not overcook, as beans will go back in the pan briefly later.
13. Remove beans from pan.
14. Add two more tablespoons of oil to pan. Add chicken and stir to separate pieces.
15. When chicken is cooked (turns from pink to white), add prepared stir fry sauce and stir. Sauce will quickly turn from milky light brown to glossy dark brown as it cooks.
16. Add string beans and stir to combine. Add dash of sesame oil if desired.
17. Remove chicken and string beans to serving dish.
18. Serve over rice.

 Served 2

I wanted to try for the whole Asian experience and decided to make a quick fried rice instead of serving over plain white rice. I just fried the rice in a wok with soy sauce and egg.

This meal was actually pretty tasty!! I plan to make this again with the ginger and the sesame oil! Looked great on my Asian style plates.