We went out for dinner last night at a Thai restaurant. I had sweet and sour pork. It was quite different from the Chinese equivalent - no breading and it had lots of vegetables, including cucumbers. I don't think I've ever had cooked cucumbers before. It was really good.
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Years ago, when I lived in Philly, we frequented this Chinese restaurant near our house. One of the first dishes we ever got there was a Buddhist Delight dish ( basically stirred veggies in a brown sauce). To our surprise , there were cucumbers in it. We figured, maybe it was an error, and they just reached for something and grabbed a bunch of precut cucumbers. The next time we ordered the dish, sure enough, there were cucumbers in it again. Through me off, cause like you, I had never eaten cooked cucumbers like that before, nor was I expecting it. I have never encountered cooked cucumbers ever again , other than that restaurant.
On a side note, we were in Boston and went to a Thai restaurant, but it was really an overall Asian restaurant , as they had Malaysian, Chinese, Thai ...dishes. I ordered the won ton soup and there was Iceberg lettuce in it along with chopped carrots, but more chopped like you would put in a salad. Again, I figured maybe they grabbed a bowl that was meant for a salad, already had a few salad veggies in it, and dumped the soup in by accident. Sure enough, the following year, ordered the same soup and there was iceberg lettuce in it. Didnt have much of a taste, but remarkably kept its crunch, even though it was in a hot soup. I now refer to it as 'Lettuce Soup', and occasionally put lettuce in my soup when I make a similar broth.
On a complete side note, I once ordered a vegetarian dish, take out, from a local Chinese restaurant. When I got home, and started to eat it, I found a chicken bone in it. I just assumed with the fast pace business and cooking, it wound up in there. As I continued to dig around in the dish, I found about a dozen chicken bones In it. Thats when I realized, this place also serves chicken wings, and without a doubt, someone in the kitchen was eating them and through the bones in a bowl, and the chef mistakenly grabbed that bowl while preparing my dish, and it wound up mixed in, and now in the take home container. What bothered me most, is not that it had the chicken bones in it , but that it was chicken bones that someone was chewing on just hours before. Although and honest mistake ( I hope), but we never ate or took in from there again, and it has since gone out of business.
Going full circle here, and bringing it back to cucumbers. Mine are kicking in, and so far I have made pickles and cucumber salad. Crap, while typing this I just remembered I wanted to make gazpacho today with them. Oh well, I'll post pone it until the weekend.
5 cucumbers, seeded and ready to cut into sticks, for quick pickling. Needed 3 more to fill the 1/2 gallon jar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
All 8 cucumbers, in the 1/2 gal jar, with 3/4 c each sugar and vinegar, plus a tsp of salt, and 3/4 tsp calcium chloride, to crisp. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
