Snackies

I am ready. I'm more than ready; I feel as though it is I who is about to let the dogs out. I feel a yearning to create that only comes from having just spent an entire month chillaxing. That's right, I recently joined the ranks of the world's globetrotters, playboys, and those generally above working year-round. I picked up and headed on a whirlwind tour of South Korea, Atlanta and Colorado to perform a focused exercise of my freedom. So here I am, back in the real world, with a sled dog's share of pent-up work, and just guilty enough a conscience to do it.

My first order of business was school work, then came my job, then taking care of my plants, and now I find myself blessed with the unique fortune of punching in to work for you, if there are any of you left after my shameful, henceforth-not-to-be-mentioned hiatus. The particular inspiration that brought me here to officially reopen for blogging business was, predictably, a culinary one. You'll be pleased to learn that unlike many of the delights of Chinese cuisine that I'm so fond of relating, the ingredients of today's grub are easily procured from the local supermarket. "But wait! He's going to teach us to cook something. Who wants to learn how to cook something?" you're surely saying to yourself. Here's the best part though - today's tasty treat is so easy to make it doesn't even qualify as a recipe! (I think. Actually, I'm kind of afraid that the cooking authorities are going to chastise me for being wrong about my definition of the word "recipe" now.)

Fair warning: the dish I am so excited to share with you is in fact, like everything I make, completely made-up, experimental, and fairly described by any word that is cooking code for "bad". All I can say to that is hear me out.

Spicy Tofu Bombs

Ingredients (see addendum):
2 8"x10" sheets of nori, or the equivalent amount of smaller sheets
1/2 block of firm tofu
1 cup uncooked white rice
spicy sauce/paste (sriracha, etc.)

Feeds 2 (used as a side dish)

Step 1: Cook the rice (don't be afraid to read the back of the box if that sounds impossible)

(Skip step 2 if your pieces of nori are about 3"x4" or smaller)

Step 2: Lay the 2 sheets of nori on top of each other and cut them so you end up with 12 smaller nori rectangles. In case you didn't know, nori is that seaweed stuff people use for making sushi:
Your pieces of nori after step 2 will be somewhere around 3"x4" if my math is right.

Step 3: Rinse your tofu and cut it into 1" x 1/2" x 2" slices or thereabouts.

Step 4: Get the tofu, spicy sauce and nori laid out on the table. Put single servings of rice into bowls on the table. It probably just occurred to you that this dish includes uncooked tofu. Trust me, it's not bad.

Step 5: OK - be patient with the eating directions because I just ate mine and there's nothing left to take pictures of. Start by putting a piece of tofu on the middle of your rice. Then, hit the tofu with a dab of spicy paste. Next, lay a piece of nori on top and use it to scoop the paste, tofu and some rice into your face. Ignoring what this guy is scooping, it looks like this after you've got the tofu slice and spicy paste in position.
Note that it's actually easy to use chopsticks for this step with some practice, my google search just happened to return a white guy who's down with finger food. Repeat step 5 until any or all of the ingredients runs out.

Addendum
This protorecipe wouldn't be complete without clarifying a couple of points. First, this dish is much better if you can get your hands on the Korean nori (called "kim" in Korean). It's saltier, and fried instead of baked. I wish I knew more about how to procure this in the states, but if you just can't get your hands on kim, I believe its still worth it to make this with plain nori. Maybe just cook your rice with a little butter to compensate.
Second, I was intentionally vague about the spicy sauce. Sriracha (a Thai sauce for chicken) is one example. Each Asian country has their own variant. It should be on the thick side, that's why I called for sauce/ paste. There should be some options in even the most White Bread supermarket's Asian section, just choose what sounds appealing.
Eating variations of white rice with nori is one of the first snacks that was introduced to me in Taiwan and it's really found a place in my food heart. If the tofu sounds nast, replace it with a fried egg or peanuts or pieces of cooked tofu or pork. Experiment and let me know what's good. Happy snacking.