I finally, finally saw Crazy Rich Asians this past weekend, and it was a wild and delicious ride.

I know this is a food blog, but I have so many thoughts about the movie, I have to share them! However, SPOILER ALERT – minor plot points and my very strong opinions follow, so if you don’t care to read those or haven’t seen the movie yet, just scroll to where it says “END.”

If you’ve been living under a rock, Crazy Rich Asians is a movie based on a book of the same name, written by Kevin Kwan. Directed by Jon M. Chu, it’s the first Hollywood studio production in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast, since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Since its release, the movie has broken all sorts of records, dominating the U.S. box office and becoming most successful studio rom-com in nine years, since 2009’s The Proposal. Being Taiwanese American, I cannot overstate how happy this movie made me – to see people who looked like me on the biggest screen, recounting experiences that were my experiences. Overall, I loved it. As a rom-com, it was not my favorite – I thought Rachel Chu’s character was underdeveloped and mostly given awful dialogue until the final scene. Sometimes, it felt like Rachel’s supposedly successful career as an NYU economics professor was treated just as a convenient plot device instead of a real characterization of her identity. I mean, let’s be honest – Nick Young is basically an actual buffoon who has: 1) essentially lied by omission to his girlfriend for one whole year, and 2) contributes 50% to the decision to marry Rachel, yet seems to bear 0% of the responsibility, at least to his mother. Why exactly is Rachel moping around after him in Singapore when she probably has like five million deadlines waiting for her back in New York??

I realize that this is not the point of the movie, but to me, it feels like the movie sort of just glossed over the fact that “sacrifice” for East Asian families is often synonymous with “women sacrificing.” It’s often the Asian daughters that draw the shortest stick. Whatever Westernization relinquished in terms of family cohesion and loyalty, it at least partly gained in opportunity and independence for women. It’s not for me to say which is necessarily better or worse, but I think this intersection between Asianness, Asian Americanness, and feminism is a complex and tangled topic for a future story. Jon M. Chu did a phenomenal job, but I would love to see how this story would unfold in the hands of a female director.

Which brings me to a related point. Some criticisms of the movie have centered on its narrow focus on one specific, privileged section of Singapore society, and how it doesn’t include a wider Asian experience. While this is a legitimate point about representation, and also how our language often conflates “Asian” with “East Asian,” this is ultimately a fruitless argument, because no one movie can purport, or claim, to do all that. We just need more movies. More stories with more diverse perspectives. Over the years, we have seen Asians on screen as comedic relief, kung-fu warriors, sensual lovers, overachieving students, scrappy underdogs, immigrant women, immigrant families, now even zombie killers. But there are so many more voices to be heard. And I, for one, am loving the fact that this particular historic, groundbreaking movie is one that shows Asians as unabashedly and unapologetically bursting with wealth, privilege, and power. For all our collective obsession with the Kardashians, for all this year’s spectacle with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it is about darn time we got a close look at Singapore’s luxurious, resplendent, glittering (albeit fictional) one-percent.

*******************END OF STRONG OPINIONS*******************

Okay, this all still has to do with food, I promise! One of my favorite scenes in this movie (not a spoiler) is one where the main characters are eating in a loud, bustling open air night market. This scene is so iconic of life in many cities in East Asia, where night markets are places of socialization and entertainment, where people go to eat, drink, shop, and win stuffed animals at carnival games. They’re bustling, chaotic, frenetic places that take your breath away. One of the iconic things to eat in a Taiwanese night market is popcorn chicken. It’s lightly breaded chicken laced with white pepper, salt, and other fragrant spices. It can come in the form of a huge cutlet, but it’s more commonly found as nuggets, fried with basil leaves, and served in a paper sack with long wooden skewers for poking and munching. It is delicious, and something I have to eat whenever I go back to Taiwan.

I’ve had a recipe for popcorn chicken bookmarked for years to make at home, but never got around to it. It sounded fairly easy, but marinading and frying are always intimidating on a weeknight. And… the recipe lived up to its feared fussiness for a weeknight! It was crispy and delicious, but involved more time and cleanup than I’d like. Also, the one thing I would definitely do differently would be to fry the chicken in larger chunks. I cut the chicken into small bite-sized nuggets because I liked the look of them, but the breading and frying then took foreeeeevver. The next time, I would cut the thighs into long strips, at least, or maybe even just fry them whole. Other tips:

• Chinese five spice powder is a spice mix that is popular in Asian cooking for marinades and stir fries. Different variants exist, but it is usually a blend of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns, plus possibly salt and MSG. It can be found in any Asian supermarket and some specialty spice shops and large American supermarkets. Read the ingredients before buying, though, as I’ve seen some cheap knockoffs will pass off a mix of just white pepper and salt as “five spice powder.” I’ve also seen some brands will dilute their spices with flour. So, read the ingredients before you buy.
• Make sure the chicken is at room temperature before you fry it – marinading it at room temperature will achieve this. Frying room temperature chicken will ensure a crispier crust.
• I made enough for leftovers, and they reconstituted magnificently the next night – that is the beauty of dark chicken meat. I just baked them at 375°F for about 10 minutes, and they were hot and crunchy, and only slightly less moist. However, if you’re not into leftovers and just want to make enough for 2, halve the ingredients and marinade.

We served this with white rice, sauteed spinach, and roasted cauliflower. Total time to dinner, including sides: about 1 hour 30 minutes (I prepped the rice and vegetables while the chicken was marinading).

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Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

Adapted from Kirbie's Cravings and Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces, long strips, or left whole (the bigger the piece, the lower the fuss down the line)
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (optional)
• 2 cups cornstarch
• Extra salt and white pepper, for dusting finished chicken
• Neutral oil for frying (canola, peanut, grapeseed)

For the marinade:

• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (a combination of regular and dark, or all regular)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, combine the chicken with all of the marinade ingredients and mix together well. Marinade at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Pour oil into a wok or cast iron skillet to the depth of at least one inch. Heat over medium-high heat until oil is about 350°F (you can also test the temperature by putting in a small cornstarch-coated chicken piece - it should sizzle vigorously). Put the cornstarch in a large bowl. Shake any excess marinade and seasonings off chicken pieces, and coat each chicken piece evenly with cornstarch. When the oil is hot, shake off excess cornstarch on chicken pieces, and place into oil.
• Fry chicken on both sides until it turns golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Fry a few pieces of chicken at a time, but don't crowd the pan too much, or the chicken won't turn out as crispy. When chicken is done, remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels to drain excess oil. Sprinkle chicken immediately with extra salt and white pepper while still hot, if desired, and toss to coat evenly (you can taste test one piece to gauge the flavor level).
• After frying all the chicken, drop the basil leaves in the hot oil. The leaves cook quite fast, so you only need to fry them for a few seconds. Be careful as they will make a popping sound and may cause hot oil to sputter up. Sprinkle basil on top of chicken and serve immediately.
  

James is obsessed with katsu curry. When we lived in Boston and he was a postdoc and I was a grad student, both with infinitely flexible schedules and excellent procrastination techniques, we would go for lunch all the time at his favorite place, Fin’s Sushi & Grill. Despite the name, we would both invariably order a chicken or pork katsu curry bento box. Breaded and golden-fried crispy meat, lathered with a thick, sweet Japanese curry sauce, served with steaming white rice, petite California rolls, and crunchy salad, all in their appropriate bento containers, this meal put me right to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. But it was good, oh so very good.

Katsu refers to a breaded, fried cutlet in Japanese cuisine, and is commonly tori katsu (chicken cutlet) or tonkatsu (pork cutlet). But the story of Japanese karē raisu, or curry rice, is a fascinating one of the globalization and adaptation of food – how curry made its way to Japan from India, via Britain. Curry was thought to be introduced to Japan by the British in the Meiji era in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. During this period, Japan moved from a relatively isolated feudal society to a Westernized state, and underwent sudden and rapid modernization. Part of its foreign policy involved a close alliance with the UK, which involved particularly close relations between the navies of the two countries. Consequently, Anglicized interpretations of Indian curry were taken to Japan by the Anglo-Indian officers of the royal Navy and other British subjects. Since this new dish came from the West, it was actually classified as yōshoku (Western food), and subsequently became reinvented to something uniquely Japanese. In 1872, the first karē raisu recipe was published in a Japanese cookbook, and in 1877 a Tokyo restaurant first offered karē raisu on the menu. Just as in England, curry quickly became a staple of the Japanese diet.

[Side Note – I did not know ANY OF THIS until I researched the history of Japanese curry. Why my British husband also did not know the history and the globalized forces behind his love of katsu curry, I will never know]

In general, Japanese curry is sweeter, milder, and simpler than Indian curries, consisting of a broth of meat and vegetables thickened with a roux made of curry powder, flour and oil and sweetened with apples or other fruit. The popularity of karē raisu spread even further nationwide when food manufacturers introduced “instant” curry mixes – first, powdered mixes in the late 1920s, then the solid-block curry mixes popular today in 1954. These blocks contained roux thickener and various flavor enhancers such as vegetable or meat concentrate, and ensured that making a flavorful, warm pot of curry was an absolute breeze. Things got even easier when ready-to-eat curry sold in pressure-cooked and vacuum-sealed bags were introduced in 1969, with cooked meat, carrots, and potatoes already added, and requiring only hot water to heat.

My mom and I have been making Japanese curry with these curry cubes for forever. They pack such a flavor punch, and are DROP DEAD easy. We always stock up on these when we go to the Asian market, and we always have some in our home. But it wasn’t until James gave me a little nudge-nudge puppy-eyed encouragement, that I discovered that katsu cutlets are also actually pretty easy to make! The breading is not that intimidating once you’ve done it a few times, Panko is very easy to work with and is available in any large American supermarket, and the frying is incredibly fast and can be done in a skillet with not too much oil.

And so, katsu curry has traveled from India, to Britain, to Japan, to Chicago, where it has become a staple in our household, and one of James and my top favorite meals. Isn’t food just so darn cool??!

Some Notes:

• Instant curry cubes: My favorite is the House Foods Vermont Curry brand (don’t ask me why it’s called Vermont curry; that’s probably the place that most evoked warm, comforting curry to the Japanese??). You can buy it at any Asian supermarket, some American supermarkets with a large international selection, or on Amazon. They come in spice levels ranging from mild to hot, but honestly, I think they all taste exactly the same, so just buy whatever you can find! Golden Curry is another popular brand.
• I like my curries chock-a-block with vegetables, so I add a lot of them. If you like your curry sauce soupier and thinner, use the lower range given of carrots and potatoes, and add more water to the curry.
• Due to a previous encounter with banana pudding pie, I had a pile of leftover egg whites sitting in my fridge, which I used up here. Thus, my egg wash plate has no yolks, but yours will obviously contain them.

We served this with white rice and some sauteed broccoli and zucchini. Total time to dinner, including sides: about an hour. Not bad for a Fin’s-worthy katsu curry chicken dinner!

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Chicken Katsu Curry

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion
• 3-4 carrots (about 1/2 - 3/4 pounds)
• 1-2 potatoes (about 1/2 - 3/4 pounds)
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 3 whole breasts, or can use breast tenderloins or thin sliced chicken breast)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2-3 eggs, scrambled (start with 2 eggs; if you find you need more, crack another one)
• 1 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6-8 cubes instant curry mix (I use House Foods Vermont Curry cubes)
• Canola or other neutral oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

• Vegetable & Chicken Prep. Trim the onion at both ends, peel off the outer layer of skin, and cut into large chunks about 1-inch across. Wash and peel the carrots and potatoes. Cut the carrots into disks about 1/4-inch thick. Cut the potatoes into chunks about 1-inch across. Set the vegetables aside.
• Arrange the chicken on a large cutting board. If using whole breasts, I halve them horizontally so that they are thinner (the meat should be about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick). To do this, lay a chicken breast flat on the cutting board. Run a knife horizontally through the breast, parallel to the cutting board surface, to cut it in half. As you're cutting, place your other hand on top of the meat to hold it in place, but take care not to cut your hand! Don't worry if one half is thicker than the other half - this will happen, and is not a big deal - just note which parts are thicker, and cook them for a bit longer once you get there. Once the chicken pieces are laid out, sprinkle salt and pepper on each side.
• Dredging and Breading Chicken. Place the flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate large, flat plates. Line the plates up in that order so that you can easily move the chicken from the flour to the eggs to the breadcrumbs. Place another couple more plates at the end of the assembly line for the finished breaded chicken. 
• Dip a chicken piece in the flour, dipping it on both sides to make sure it is completely coated. Shake the chicken to get rid of excess flour. Then, dip the chicken in the egg mixture, again making sure it is coated on all sides. Shake slightly to get rid of excess egg. Finally, dip the chicken in the breadcrumbs, flipping it a couple of times and patting gently to make sure it is completely coated. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate. Repeat the steps with the remaining chicken pieces.
• Once all the prep is ready, start the curry. Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil over medium-high heat in a large pot (mine is 5-quarts). Add the garlic and onion, and stir until the garlic is fragrant and onion becomes slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes, and stir to combine. Add water so that just the tips of the vegetables are uncovered - about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups. For a chunkier curry, add less water. For a soupier curry, add more water. Cover, and then, once the water has come to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook until the potatoes are just cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. At this point, add the curry cubes and stir to combine once they have dissolved. Start with 6 cubes, taste, and add more if the sauce is too bland. Cook for another 2-3 minutes more to thicken the curry sauce.
• While the curry is simmering, fry the chicken. Heat a large, flat skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in canola oil to a depth of about 1/4 inch. Test the oil with a bit of breadcrumb - it is ready when the breadcrumb sizzles when it hits the oil. Place the chicken gently into the hot oil. I was able to cook the chicken in 2 batches, 3 pieces at a time. Cook until the chicken is golden brown and crispy on the bottom, about 2-3 minutes. Flip the chicken, and cook until golden brown on the other side, another 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
• Assemble and Serve. Cut the chicken cutlets into strips about an inch wide. Serve with a dollop of rice and a ladle of curry. James likes the curry covering both his rice and chicken, as they do in the restaurants, but I like keeping my chicken separate so that it stays crispier. Add some green veggies, if you like, and enjoy!