The China expat is an epicure, and therefore faces the epicure's dilemma. Thai food? Again? No sushi tonight - not after that saki bender last week. How ‘bout a mess of jumped up pasta at that Italian place, where the wait staff ignores you if you don't order wine? Nahhh.

Your body could actually afford to skip a meal, but what your soul craves is not on any bill of fare. You need to cook something yourself. Think about it - when's the last time you made something with your hands, besides tapping noises? The cooking process soothes a mind addled by hours of multi-tasking.

Cereal and instant noodles don't count, either, not at dinnertime. Instead, try something simple yet sustaining, cheap but nutritious, engaging if not overly involved. That's right, the one and only ma po dofu. It possesses all seven characteristics of Chinese culinary virtue: numbing, spicy hot, hot temperature, fresh, tender and soft, aromatic, and flaky.

The whole affair can be managed in ten to fifteen minutes. You can leave out the meat, as well as reduce the numb and spicy factor according to taste. If done right and not rendered a gloopy mess, you'll have a recipe to tide you over on those inevitable nights when eating out just isn't a treat anymore.

Ingredients

250 g of fresh tofu (firm or extra firm, not silky)

50 g of ground pork

2 tablespoons of fermented soy bean paste (look for a jar that has 郫县豆瓣 on it, or ask the vendor for pi xian dou ban)

4 slices of ginger

4 cloves of garlic

2 fingers' lengths of Chinese onion

1 tablespoon of peppercorn

2 teaspoons of cornstarch

4 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of chicken broth powder

½ teaspoon of sugar

½ teaspoon of salt

Process

1. Slice the tofu into thumb-tip-size cubes.

2. Dice the ginger, garlic, and onion finely.

3. Heat up a frying pan on a high flame and add six tablespoons of oil.

4. Let the oil heat up for half a minute then turn the flame to medium-low.

5. Throw in the diced ginger, garlic, peppercorn, and fermented soy bean paste. Stir it around for half a minute.

6. Turn the flame back to high and add the ground pork. Fry until the "pork juice" has evaporated and it's nicely browned, usually not much more than a minute.

7. Add only one tablespoon of soy sauce, and the half teaspoon of sugar. Stir for a few seconds.

8. Add the tofu cubes. Stir in the rest of the soy sauce, the salt (if needed) and keep everything going on high for another two, two and a half minutes.

9. Stir the cornstarch up in a little bit of water, enough to turn it into a thick solution.

10. Add the diced Chinese onion to the tofu and pour in the corn starch solution. When that's mixed in, add the chicken broth powder and give the whole concoction a final toss around.

11. Did you remember to make the rice?

Ernie's blog

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