Dinner Time: The Someone Made Me Eat This Version

Have you ever worked a long day at work and had someone generously come over to cook for you only for them to cook the most unappetizing offerings anywhere? Yeah. That's the story of my life lately.

Here's tonight's dinner, brought to you by MIL, who has been gracious enough to offer me my kitchen back for tomorrow's dinner so that I may concoct something much more palatable.

 It's her go-to barfy dish of potatoes and green beans with some sort of meat. This time, instead of using rubbery pork, she used about 4 or 5 chicken wings that she hacked up into unrecognizable bits. What is it with Chinese people and cutting up meats in such a sloppy way? Seriously. In the US, when you get a whole chicken and ask for it to be cut up, the butcher cuts it into tidy parts. Legs, wings, breasts, thighs. But here? No, no, no! They chop it to bits as if killing someone they absolutely despise, hacking it apart so there are lovely little shards of bones to crunch on. Ugh. For once though, I must say she didn't overcook the green beans. Usually she does and they come out greyish in color. I avoided the random pieces of chicken and just had some potatoes and beans from this dish.

 I've no idea what this is supposed to be. I guessed it was some spinach and some root vegetable mixed with garlic. While nasty in appearance, the taste wasn't all to vomitous. The problem was I could totally taste a ton of salt on this. Not wanting my ankles to swell up again, I had to stay away.

Ah, the go-to side dish in the Shandong Province...cucumbers with garlic in sesame oil. It's not a bad dish. Quite refreshing. But I feared she oversalted it too so I stayed away.

If you want to see previous meals that MIL made me eat, please click here and here. At least my tastebuds will be spared tomorrow. And for my birthday in 2 weeks, my husband has already made reservations for my favorite restaurant at the Shangri-La so I can look forward to that too. Ah, real food, here I come!