Sunshine International Supermarket

It was a wash out for grilling this weekend.....but the sun is shining on Knoxville! Well, more specifically, Sunshine Supermarket, a full service Asian market has opened. It is an 18,000 square foot store full of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Indian, and Philippine products and ingredients. All kinds of things that I never thought I would have found in Knoxville. (Picture was taken early Sunday morning because there were too many cars in the way on Saturday. )They have aisle after aisle of things I have never used or heard of. We spent an hour browsing.
I came straight home and googled about 1/2 dozen ingredients.

You like fresh fish? Fine, pick one out of the tanks...they're still swimming!Exotic mushrooms? Take your pick off of a half aisle of them.Want a different kind of rice? Take your pick off of an aisle full of them. We picked a red rice. We walked through the store "just to look" today to get a feel on what kind of stuff they had. Of course I ended up an armful of "I'm just getting this one thing". I got a dried citrus powder, several varieties of noodles, red rice, dried red chili peppers, and a few other odds and ends. It's a great store and the staff are incredibly friendly.

But my favorite score? This!Sriracha sauce! It is a Thai chili sauce that is out of this world. It brings tons of heat but also has a rich flavor. Lord of The Wings danced with this devil when he was wanting to make excruciatingly hot wings. It's tasty good stuff (I think they teach that term at the Culinary Institute of America and Le Cordon Bleu, right?).

So last night I made a simple, quick stir fry noodle dish with a side of broccoli with oyster sauce.

Ingredients
3 ea chicken thighs, boneless, skinless diced into small 1/4 to 1/2" pieces
3 T honey
1 T sriracha sauce
1 T chili powder
1/2 T dried tangerine peel powder***
1/2 ea yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/3 ea green bell pepper (I'd add some red bell pepper too next time)
1 t ginger, minced
2 ea green onion, julienne cut into 1" pieces
4 ounces Chinese style dried egg noodles

Instructions
Cook noodles to directions, drain, and set aside.

Mix honey, sriracha sauce, chili powder and tangerine peel powder. Toss diced chicken into the mix.

Bring wok up to medium-high heat. Add about 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil (I like to sneak in a few drops of seasame oil) and swirl around to coat the wok. Stir fry the chicken on the wok until done, I'd guess it was about 3-5 minutes. I always cut one of the fattest pieces in half just to make sure because outward appearances can be deceiving. Remove the meat and juices to a plate.

Add a few more drops of oil if you need to and bring the onion, green pepper, and ginger to the party, tossing them frequently. I only let mine go a few minutes because I like my veggies a bit crispy.

Now add the noodles and toss them around with the veggies. This may take a few minutes until they start to untangle. Pour the meat mixture and green onion in.

Serve.

I was surprised at how much heat the noodles picked up but it was a great dish for something I just threw together.

***You can just omit this stuff. Chef E was great in helping me try to make it work earlier in the day. I cooked 5 small batches of chicken trying to get the flavor right. I was going to make Orange Chicken but this tangerine peel powder just does not equate well to dried tangerine peel. In small quantities it didn't bring anything to the table and in larger quantities, it brought only bitter. I'd say it's about the same difference between fresh cilantro and dried cilantro. You just can't sub one out for the other just by adjusting quantity like you can with other herbs.