I love pork chops and recently been enjoying inch think juicy ones that are brined for at least a day. My pork chop roots though are for thin ones that are marinated in oyster sauce, fish sauce, onions, lemongrass, and garlic. That is the basic recipe my mom and countless other Vietnamese moms make for their kids.
The other day I was really craving the pork chop mom use to make and I got some on sale at Kroger. My marinade for two pounds of pork chops is
½ a cup of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of fish sauce
½ an onion finely chopped
1 squeezed orange (we had bought a big box so I used it for some acid and citrus)
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
Anyway I also made some Thai cucumber salad which really is just pickled cucumbers
1 seedless cucumber
1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar (but distilled is fine)
1/3 sugar
1 Shallot finely chopped
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of fish sauce
1 chili pepper sliced
I love pickled vegetables with savory meats. I had finished some work and heated the grill in the backyard for the pork chops. I was in my usual attire of a t-shirt and shorts even though it was about 35 degrees outside. I brought the pork chops outside and closed the door. The beautiful sound of meat sizzling greeted me as I put each chop on the grill, the smell was awesome. Happy with the way the grilling started I tried to get back inside. The door was locked. I tried again. Still locked. Hmmm, I started to notice I was in a t-shirt and shorts it was getting pretty cold, being barefoot did not help either. I started to think about ways to break into my own house and usually there was a window I would forget to lock etc, but Nhung is super paranoid and every single window was locked. I made a pretty silly sight outside at one in the afternoon in a t-shirt and shorts with no shoes. I went to my immediate neighbors and no one was home. My uncle lived down the street but it was getting cold so I tried the door of my Muslim neighbor, I had noticed that a truck was parked our front. As I rang the doorbell I started to think what normal person would open the door for such a sight especially a woman. As I turned to leave the door open and a man with a slightly apprehensive look greeted me. I explained my situation and he got me a phone and invited me inside. I left out the grilled pork chops part. I called my sister and she came and got me and my aunt got there later who had my house key. The first thing I did was start back up the grill and made my pork chops needless to say they were delicious.
