Ponzu!

'Tis the season . . . the season of having not a moment to spare, that is. Not that I'm complaining. My abundant life is over-full with things I love doing and I only wish there were more hours in the day. So, you guessed it -- I've not been cooking very much. When I arrived home from work this evening, I was so happy to see the little Chinese cartons in my 'fridge from yesterday's Sunday afternoon lunch. I scooped out a mound of brown rice, topped it with a handful of spinach and arugula from the crisper (everything's better with more greens!) then a few spoonfuls of Family Style Tofu and Asparagus with Mushrooms. Mmmm, just remembering the meal I had an hour ago has my mouth watering. Maybe I'm ready for round two! But wait, I've not yet mentioned my little secret -- Ponzu sauce!

This luscious Japanese sauce (I know, I'm pairing Japanese with Chinese, sorry to any who would take offense, but I like to mix it up sometimes) is really a very high-quality, fermented soy sauce with the addition of sudachi citrus, whatever that is. Ponzu is YUM. It is salty, tart and subtly sweet. I sprinkled it sparingly over the leftovers and greens and slightly less sparingly over the starchy brown rice.

Then, for extra zap, I squirted about a teaspoon of Srirachi sauce off to the side of my plate. This flaming hot Chinese sauce must be on the side, in my opinion, since its fire tends to blunt all other flavors unless I only dip the tines of my fork into it before spearing my lovely food. I ate most of the food with ponzu alone, only dipping into the srirachi every third bite or so. I found the combination of all these flavors sublime.

Incidentally, I once read in a magazine that a chef from a reality show (I didn't recognize the name) likes to mix srirachi with Nutella for a decadent dessert spread. Upon reading this, I was intrigued, almost enough to go out and buy another pricey jar of Justin's Hazelnut Butter, the vegan's answer to nutella, but I decided against it since Justin is a bad, bad boy. Check my archived post, "Breaking Up With Paul and Justin" for the backstory.

Do give Ponzu a try if you have a chance.