Back To Basic Beef, Tofu & Veggie Combo

Why do things have to be so complicated? It was me an my newly adventurous ass. While you could read all about the good things in my previous post, here are the challenges of a typical day:

IDEAL SITUATION
- 18:00 speeding off work, got to the nearest train station and boarded the train just right before the door closes, managed to get the last available seat on the train ^_^

- The train would speed off, just missing all the throwing-their-bodies-into-the-departing-train peak hour crowd and the peaceful absence of perverts trying to rub their hands on bootie/boobies

- Reached the market by 18:30, where all the freshest produce and handmade noodles I needed were still amazingly available, magically on sale! All the market dominatrix were either not there or smiling lovingly at me, giving me practical cooking tips and wonderful dinner ideas; vendors were wonderfully friendly, offering me bunches of fresh corriander and red chilli for free (oh my!)

- Reached my flat and the lift was on ground floor, eagerly awaiting me, got to my floor and my neighbor's dog for once would wag his tail in a friendly manner to welcome me back, instead of the normal agressive & violent barks (doesn't he sniff that I am totally a dog person? Or he was just too excited to see me?)

- The rice starts cooking at 18:45, no finger was wounded in the preparation of cooking, stove operated smoothly, no sauce was spilled, no pieces of finely chopped garlic fell and got stuck somewhere at the corner, I got the taste right at the first seasoning, all elements of the dishes arranged themselves beautifully on the plate, down to the last piece of garnish..

- The food shots were all at the right angle, got the perfect shot before the fifth take, just as the rice cooker beeps signalling dinner is ready by 19:30

- Sous chef and I inhaled our dinner (yes we do, I personally think any food being chewed more than 3 times became tasteless hihik, not the healthiest thing in the world, I try my best to slow down) and finished dinner before 19:45

- We'd have time digesting dinner while watching Discovery Travel & Living Channel and they are showing Jamie at home (& it is NOT a rerun, yay!) before attending 21:00 body combat class...

- ...where I felt extra energetic: jumping, punching, kicking, kneeing, elbowing, ab crunching and push upping gloriously all the way through the end of the class, and the instructor praising me ever so publicly, endlessly telling me how well I've done..

- and I went home 10 lbs lighter and stayed that way as I didn't get tempted into eating the whole tub of Dreyer's chocolate cake ice cream kept in my freezer

HOW I WISHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

There's hope to achieve all of the above doing this
Back to Basics Dinner of Beef, Tofu and Veggie

Recipe
- half pound thinly sliced beef (the one normally used for sukiyaki)
- 2 cloves of garlic, 3 cloves of shallot, crushed
- 3 heads of small napa lettuce, sliced into chunks
- 2 tomatoes, each sliced into 8 parts
- 1 or 2 soft tofu, cut into big chunks
- salt, pepper, sugar, a little olive oil

Saute garlic and shallot, throw in all the veggie, add some water, bring to boil, add seasoning, before serving, add tofu and beef, serve with white rice or add noodles. Easy eh?...but in real life...things are different...

...IN REAL LIFE...

- 18:00 while trying to speed off work, that guy from that department just stopped by and went on and on and on unstoppably about...everything in general and nothing in particular while I kept staring at the clock, mumbling impolite answers

- Got to the nearest train station and just missed the train (!!!)

- The train would open and close its doors for more than 3 times in each station as the throwing-their-bodies-into-the-departing-train-peak-hour crowd tried desperately to board the train, and there were perverts drooling on bootie/boobies

- Reached the market late, where all the freshest produce I needed were either gone, or I was left with the seriously damaged yet overpriced ones! All the market dominatrix cut queues, tried to pay the HK$50 using 50cents coins and made rude comments about my choices. I somehow left only with HK$500 note and pissed the vendors into charging me HK$2 for a bunch of spring onions (oh no!)

- Reached my flat and the lift was on the highest floor, with no sign of going down soon, I got to my floor and my neighbor's dog barks with extra violence, his owner shot me a dirty look as if I've violated her

- By 19:00 I realised that the rice cooker's power wasn't plugged, no rice was gonna be cooked anytime soon.

- Due to my blond ambition to produce a complicated dinner, nails got cut, fingers got injured in the preparation, stove failed to turn on, hot water got spilled...into the pieces of finely chopped aromatics. Couldn't get the taste right even after adding seasoning for the 10th of time, all elements of the dishes look so disgustingly weird on the plate. Put up the wrong background color for the pic and it's too late to change, so I'd have to live with it

- Most shots were blurred and I could not find a nice angle, hot steam kept blowing into my camera lens, finally gave up trying to get a pretty shot, and I still need to wait for that late rice (@#$@#!$#@!!!!)

- Sous chef and I extra speedily inhaled our dinner but still finished dinner wayyy after 20:00

- Thus did NOT have enough time digesting dinner, the Discovery Travel & Living Channel was showing yet another boring rerun, we either had to cancel attending 21:00 body combat class, or still attending and

- ...I felt extra sluggish, kept yawning in class and was not up to jumps, my favorite instructor went on a super long holiday and got replaced by someone who utterly sucksssss and kept calling me lazy in front of everyone

- and I went home feeling none the lighter, needed to cheer myself up by polishing off that tube of ice cream T_T

So...yes, it is good to know when to get back to basics sometimes, I might still be able to make it to that class and prevent a major nervous break down^_^