A quick meal that looks and tastes fancier than it is.

I had the best dinner I’ve had in a long time tonight—and I didn’t have to leave my place to get it.

Tonight Antonio and I both decided we had a lot of projects we needed to work on, so we decided we’d do our own thing, which worked out because I ended up needing to make a visit to a friend and, also, I bought some groceries last week that still needed to be eaten.

I pulled up a recipe from RealSimple.com that I had already preplanned. I checked out the comments, because it only had received 3 stars. The comments were not great, which put me in a ‘mood’ while I was cooking. “Why am I cooking this?” I thought. “Someone already said it was bland.”

But I had all the ingredients, so what was I supposed to do?

I am so glad I made this despite a few negative comments! There was nothing bland, in my opinion, of the salmon with gingery green beans and bok choy. I forgot the bok choy at the store, so really it was salmon with gingery green beans and carrots.

The salmon perfectly complemented the cooked carrots, which tasted sweet with the added ginger. Being out of fresh ginger and garlic, I substituted from my spice rack. Green beans, which I can usually do without, tasted wonderfully with the green onions. It was a very quick recipe, with just a little pre-chopping and maybe 10–12 minutes of cooking on a skillet.

But the best part of it was the srirachi. I bought srirachi about a year or two ago after reading a wonderful article in the New York times about it. I wasn’t really even sure what to expect, but I bought it anyway—and loved it! I can’t say there’s cause for me to break it out often, but when I do, watch out! It’s a splendidly fantastic, sweet burning taste on your tongue. And it’s addictive! Try it in soups, on chili, anything that needs a real kick to it.

Try it. Love it. Let me know what you think.