Cooking #
Eating out in San Francisco is how most people quietly lose a thousand dollars a month. Cooking is the fix, and it does not have to be complicated. Everything here is cheap, classic, home-style food, most of it Chinese, all of it doable on a weeknight.
These are not fussy recipes. Most are one pot or one pan. Several are under five ingredients. One of them is literally two ingredients. Every recipe includes what the dish is, what it is good for, and a full list of swaps so you can adapt it to whatever is in your fridge.
Rice and noodles #
- Egg Fried Rice, the best use for leftover rice there is
- Scallion Oil Noodles, a Shanghai classic from almost nothing
- Chinese Stir Fry Over Rice
Eggs and everyday classics #
- Tomato and Egg Stir Fry, the most-cooked home dish in China
- Silky Steamed Egg
- Mapo Tofu, restaurant flavor, home-cooking price
Dumplings #
About $15 of ingredients from Chinatown, and it feeds six people. The best value in home cooking, and the best group activity on this site.
Soups and porridge #
- Chinese Congee (Rice Porridge), the cheapest comfort food there is
- The Easiest Chinese Soup: Pork and Seaweed, Two Ingredients
- Chicken Noodle Soup the Easy Way
- Minestrone Soup the Easy Way
Cooking is one piece of a bigger picture. The rest of living here cheaply is in Frugal SF.