Inspirational Chef Needed

Throughout my years at home, I have learned many ways to fend for myself when it comes to eating a meal. Most of the time, I am left eating Top Ramen, Mac N Cheese, barbecued goods, and the occasional salad. Although most foods I cook are quite easy to prepare, there are certain steps and ingredients that put it beyond the instructional way. On the too often occasion, I find my mom coming home after spending around two hundred dollars at the store. This may sound tempting, but the items she buys are not a quick fix, I am prohibited to eating some of the food, and a decent portion of the bill is on wine.

My mom cooks possibly twice a month, but enough to last for two or three days. It is quite monotonous because of the little menu she chooses to cook from. We will either have spinach and garlic pasta, or an oven baked teriyaki salmon. She mainly cooks when my nearby aunt and uncle come over with a delicious home-cooked treat for us all, leaving me more leftovers. The pasta is made by cooking garlic, butter, onions, and spinach in a pan, and once complete, covering noodles in this delicious concoction. I am always surprised at actually enjoying spinach. There are only two forms of spinach I have grown to like: my mother's pasta, and spinach dip. Although both dishes are delicious and simple, it is the most effective way of getting the family together every once in a while. Everyone in the trio is always on a different schedule, leaving us with little time to share with one another. My mom is in and out of the house all day, and is typically sleeping quite early. My dad is up and out of the house by six-thirty every morning and arrives home after sunset. For me, I am rarely home, with school and hobbies taking up the majority of my time. The majority of the times I come home around ‘dinner time’, I walk in to see my parents lounging on the couch sharing a block of cheddar, jalapenos, and wheat things. It is always a shock coming home to dinner, especially with everyone there. It amazes me that something as simple as dinner could bring us all together and yet we do it so infrequently.

Delicious and Affordable

Even though I am not too experienced with real traditional chinese/japanese cuisine, I have been to enough local restaurants to know a good chicken bowl. Many places will charge around ten dollars for a chicken/beef bowl and a drink. I feel that eating at places, such as, Pick up Stix and Pei Wei, you are paying more to eat there than the actual value of the food itself. These restaurants have raised the prices simply because of the flashy menus, professionally dressed servers, and their locations. The last time eating Pei Wei, the chicken, half-covering the rice, had a texture as if the chef just threw the chicken pieces on the wok still wrapped in plastic. It was as if the chicken had a balloon around it. On top of this, all the juice was completely cooked out of the chicken. It was definitely not worth having to clean myself up, as if I were going out afterwards.

After years of searching for a delicious and well-priced chicken bowl, I was in awe when introduced to Yamas. Since their opening, they have served a perfectly proportioned, full flavored, three dollar and twenty-five cent chicken bowl. When you walk into Yamas, it is extremely comparable to looking in a taqueria: Nice, little lady working the register, simple colors, and a view into the kitchen. There are only necessities found within; tables, chairs, soda machine, and a menu that looks like it was given to them from an old breakfast joint. Five or so minutes will pass after ordering, and a bowl about seven inches in circumference and three inches deep will be placed in front of you. On the table, you will find teriyaki sauce, hot rooster sauce, soy sauce, and pondu. The bowl is nearly two-thirds full of rice and the rest chicken. The chicken is always cooked thoroughly, covered in teriyaki sauce prepared in the kitchen, and the rice is sticky and compliments the texture of the chicken perfectly.

I hope one day I can travel and try authentic foods from other countries and cultures, but until then I am happy to have been introduced to the wonderful world of Yamas.