Egg tomato stir-fry

Let me introduce a dish that's very special to me. They say we like certain flavors but not others is not because our taste buds were built inherently different, but instead it's because we're exposed to different flavors early on. Certain tastes and aromas bring you back to a feeling, a sensation, reminder of home, and the warmth of love. If you closed your eyes, some dishes are like a time machine, they bring you back to your 5 years old self - when the sky was bluer and flowers were more colorful and you just played all afternoon with your friend in the sun and were starving when you were given this to eat. The gratification is immense and instant. This particular dish does it for me. It's so quick and simple but always brings me back to grandma's kitchen. The best part? It actually only requires a couple of ingredients and you can have this dish anytime, for any meal of the day, with any other carb or side dish you want, always so reliably fresh and satisfying. I am talking about the humble egg tomato stir-fry.

What you need:

- 2 eggs

- 1-2 tomatoes, roughly cut

- 1 clove of garlic, sliced

- 1 sprig of green onion

- salt and pepper to taste

Recipe:

- Scramble the egg in a bowl, pour into oiled heated pan, cook the eggs until 80% ready. Take them out and keep aside.

- Cook tomato and garlic in the oiled pan for 1-2 min with a dash of salt, until the tomato's cooked down a bit. You do want to over cook it, there's still some crunch to it. 

- Pour the eggs back into the pan and mix the eggs with tomato.

- Turn off the heat and throw green onions on top and  mix everything together. 

- Add dash of black pepper, serve hot.

So you see this is a 5 step, super easy recipe. You don't need any fancy ingredient, since eggs and tomatoes are such staples in the kitchen you probably almost have it around. Canned tomato is fine also and will be saucier and less crunchy. If you are hungry it's just quick 5 min before you have some warm and healthy food on the table. It's got some egg protein, some acidic tomato goodness, 100% satisfying. Growing up I had this dish on its own, with handmade noodles, with rice, on top of toast.. the list goes on. If you are eating this with a carb side, then just make it saucier and saltier so it's a topping to be mixed with the plain rice or noodle. I love the green onion added at the end, so they are almost still raw, just a bit heated with the residual heat of the food. 

I like the dish as is, simple and plain. If you like herbs, add the below if you like and not to disrupt the taste. Some of other herbs may be a bit strong and change the dish a bit too much, though I might not recommend it, you gotta do you. What I do recommend:

- Garlic powder: I prefer fresh garlic, but if you feel like some garlic powder so we don't get garlic breath, be my guest.  

- Cilantro: cilantro is also known as Chinese parsley. I seriously just found out about it this week. I had cilantro so much as a kid and it honestly looks very much to parsley I just assumed they are variation of the same thing - like red bell pepper yellow bell pepper. I know it sounds so silly now, and I seriously took it for granted. Completely different herb than parsley it even may have some anti-cancer, anti migraine effects (lab tested but not human trialed). Some people may hate the cilantro taste, as their genetics decides this tastes like soap - if you are one of these people, sorry you are missing out. If you love it, you know what I mean, you just love it.

- Red pepper flakes: this is fine if you like a bit spicy, literally goes with everything.