Strong stuff

Asian condiments and sauces last a long time, so I stock up once a year or so at one of the Asian supermarkets in Seattle. And it's fun browsing the shelves looking at (sorry, this is culturally insensitive) strange products you have no idea what they are, much less, how to use in a recipe. Most don't have any instructions in English. 

John loves chicken with black bean sauce, a Chinese restaurant staple that's hard to reproduce at home. The prepared sauce (above) is incredibly concentrated and salty, so it only takes a small amount to flavor an entire stir-fry. 

The question is, how much? I found a fairly easy version of black bean chicken on the website "Allrecipes," my go-to place for Internet recipes.
 

Notice the fancy cut carrots? The sou chef continues to expand on his knife skills. The recipe called for extra salt, good grief, on top of the soy and oyster sauce? I left that out, and next time might increase the black bean sauce and add some ginger. But it was a very flavorful dish with brown rice. 

It should get into the low 50's today. Nice. Compared to what we're used to, that will feel like summer out on the ukulele patio.