Lemon Chicken (檸檬雞) Recipe

Adapted from Chinese Lemon Chicken by Bobby (BlogChef.net) :) Thanks for a great recipe! 

Sweetness with a hint of sour :) 

Thick, sweet lemon sauce poured over deep-fried chicken pieces, served over rice
> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

 Lemon chicken is a classical favourite when it comes to Chinese cuisine. Even though it's called lemon chicken, the sourness of the lemon is never overpowering and it complements the sweet flavour well. I've tried many different versions of lemon chicken-- some of which are too sour, or just taste plain weird. To be very honest, I did a lot of adjustment with the sauce after making the lemon sauce. Like with any recipe, it's important to taste the sauce before adding it to the chicken, otherwise you might ruin the whole thing, right? 

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) Recipe

Delicate Szechuan spice with the soft texture of tofu :) 

Spicy chili tofu mixed with marinated minced pork in Szechuan style served over rice

> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

I always loved Mapo Tofu. It's a really easy dish to make if you're feeling Chinese food, but you don't want to put any effort in. The hardest part would be finding the ingredients in a non-Asian-invaded city (*cough*Hamilton*cough*). That being said, I imported all my materials (firm tofu, chili sauce, black bean sauce) from my hometown, Markham, when I go back for the weekends. This dish is really customizable. I know there are many people who prefer it to be less 'saucy' and more dry, so they add less water and oil when cooking. Some people like it more spicy, others like it more black bean-flavoured. That being said, this recipe is very 'traditional' restaurant style (minus the MSG). Best is served over fresh jasmine rice, but for the sake of I-am-a-poor-student-and-I-have-no-rice-ness, I used short grain rice, which honestly wasn't bad. I hear there's also a Japanese variation of Mapo Tofu. I'd like to try that someday...... in Japan.

Japanese Curry with Chicken Katsu (チキンカツカレーライス) Recipe

And the sweet scent of curry sweeps the room, so very delicious...

Japanese Curry with Chicken Katsu
Fragrant Japanese-style curry with a crispy fried chicken breast
> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

Japanese curry is bomb :D! It tends to be a bit thicker than curries from other cultures. It also tends to be more on the fragrant and sweet side, rather than awesomely spicy. In fact, a lot of the time, Japanese curry comes in premade cubes that you can buy at the local grocery store. Those tastes pretty good, but something about homemade is always better, right? In addition, you can adjust the taste to your liking. In other words, the salt or spice level is all up to your taste! Though those premade cubes really do save a lot of trouble, but if you don’t buy them on sale, it’s definitely more costly. Cost for time? Convenience for taste? Sometimes, it’s hard to decide…. If it’s cost versus time, as a student, I shouldn’t even be eating curry then! 

Omurice (オムライス) Recipe

This is the first time I've tried making this, it really is different than how it looks! Still delicious though :) 
とてもおいしかったですよね！

OMURICE (オムライス) 
Fried rice wrapped in a fluffy omelette
> Origin: Japanese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Extremely easy 

After having read so much manga with maid cafes, I’ve always wanted to try making Omurice. After looking up many recipes and watching many tutorials, I decided to try my hand at this. To be very honest, I always thought that it was made with white rice, but then I realized that it wouldn’t be very tasty at all. The fried rice is actually pretty versatile, you can put whatever kind of fried rice you want in it, It’s pretty much up to you. But since tomato and eggs go extremely well together, I decided to make a tomato-based fried rice to suit the egg and ketchup that goes on top.