Deliciousness Fail

I thoroughly enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, whether it’s trying out a new vegetable that I’ve never cooked with before, adding coffee and cayenne pepper to a batch of cookies, or adding Kimchi as a pizza topping. Most of the time, it’s not a big deal, as the end result might not be awesome, but edible.

Until now.

I was inspired by Mark Bittman’s minimalist column.  He suggested using water and a few simple ingredients to make a broth, paired with some egg noodles. His photo looked really yummy too! 

It looks promising, doesn’t it?

But looks can be deceiving.

Let’s start with the noodles -fresh pulled noodles in a plastic bag, so I knew it would be fresh. Instead of the delicious chewy noodles I was expecting, I got a big bowl of starchy-tasting white flour in noodle form. Might as well eat flour from the bag.

This recipe called for Ketchup, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce and hot sauce. I tasted the broth and thought…hmm… something is missing… so I added a little bit of garlic here, another slice of green pepper -but to no avail. The broth had one dimensional flavor. It added to my frustration because it kept teasing me with Pho-esq flavors, which I kept hoping for! ARG!

Here’s to a great sounding/looking dish that offers just the complete opposite in taste. What did I do wrong, Mr. Bittman? I don’t even think I got through 1/4 of it before calling it quits, which is saying a lot, coming from a girl who will eat leftovers from a week ago!

So there you have it, a real live example of my mistake, for all of you to snicker at ! That’s ok; I don’t mind.