Get thee behind me, scallops

I had dinner all set and ready to go last night. I’d done my prep work with BBC World News on in the background; now, Colameco’s Food Show was up next. I figured I’d just cook with that on in the background. Alas, it was not to be. First he was on a scallop boat out of Cape May. Then he was cooking with scallops so incredibly fresh that I was almost drooling, never mind that I was watching on my tiny ancient tv. So my pork fried rice had to wait a half-hour before it was cooked.

The ridiculous thing is that I can’t even eat scallops. I’ve only eaten them a couple of times. Each time they tasted wonderful but before long, I got very sick. It only took a few incidents like this to realize that I must be allergic to them or something. So now I avoid scallops like the plague. I can eat other shellfish without a problem; it seems to be a scallop thing.

Once I finally got to it, the pork fried rice was delicious. I used Ken Hom’s recipe for “Tasty Pork Fried Rice” from his book Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese-American Childhood. In the interest of using up leftovers, I substituted bamboo shoots and water chestnuts for the bean sprouts. I also didn’t use as much rice as the recipe called for, but the extra amount of the veggies made up for that. I substituted pork loin meat for the pork shoulder in the recipe, because pork loin was cheaper, and used napa cabbage rather than lettuce because I had it on hand. When I was stir-frying, it smelled wonderful. I’d overlooked this recipe while I was cooking my way through Easy Family Recipes earlier this year; no danger of that in the future. The egg and chopped scallions gave the dish an almost spring-like taste; fitting for dinner on a day largely devoted to garden planning.