Make these Mexican fajitas meatless!
We have been eating a lot more veggies lately, compared to a few years ago. I think it’s a combination of age catching up to us, plus a desire to eat more healthily and lose a bit of weight. So when we were thinking of making our grilled chicken fajitas, I also contemplated doing a meat-free fajita using mushrooms.
We made some grilled chicken fajitas to satisfy my Mexican food cravings:
We don’t get to eat a lot of Mexican food here in Kuching. It’s not like we can simply drive a few miles to the nearest taco stand for an al pastor taco. I think the closest Mexican restaurant to us would be over in Singapore, and that’s a pretty far journey to go just for a taco. So when we get a Mexican food craving (admittedly a rare occurrence nowadays), we have to fix it ourselves.
We made this amazing grilled pork belly dish that our guests completely devoured.
Recently, we celebrated a friend’s birthday at our favorite Western-style pork restaurant here in Kuching, My Restaurant. The most popular dish that we had that night was a platter of grilled, 3-layer pork belly that was a-ma-zing. We asked Walter, the chef-owner of My Restaurant, what was in it.
“Oh, caraway seed, salt, soy sauce, and some other spices which I am not going to tell you.”
Well, being the foodies that we are, we thought we could pull off a grilled 3-layer pork belly dish on our own.
Sweet marinated meat, skewered and char-grilled for that irresistible, flame-kissed, smoky flavor.
If you recall I have had many wonderful eating experiences stemming from that International Dorm in Hawaii (Niku-Jaga, Chicken Pho, Thai Son-in-Law Eggs, Indonesian-inspired Sauteed Shrimp). But for this particular recipe, my memories are not based in the dorm. Yes, the Indonesian friends who made them were from that dorm but we had taken the satay and hibachi (portable grill) and had gone to cook them at the park by the beach. Hawaii does that to you—it makes you want to go out to the beach as often as you can!
So imagine with me, if you can, the cool tradewind breezes, and in the background, the sound of Hawaiian music playing on somebody’s boombox, the blue ocean beckoning a slight distance away, the wide, expansive park next to the beach and us sitting under a shady tree with our hibachi going. Now that you have that setting in your mind, imagine any food not tasting just wonderful. But this was satay, it wasn’t just any food, it was GOOD food.
Continue reading Indonesian Chicken and Pork Satay (Sate Ayam dan Babi)