Distant Cousin: Ana cooks fusion: Chinese/TexMex/Italian Fritatta!

Since Ana Darcy came to Earth as an adult she was not invested in any particular Earthly cuisines. They were all new to her. As a result, her instincts in cooking were not shaped by childhood habit--all the new tastes she encountered were fair game for combining. She routinely comes up with some surprising, and surprisingly tasty, dishes. (For many others, see the column to the right, under the picture of cranberry-apple pie.)

We have already reported Ana's adoption of the versatile fritatta, a way to redeploy leftovers in a simple and delicious fashion. Here are several more of her variations of this technique, one Chinese-influenced and one Chinese and TexMex influenced (!).

The night before, Ana had made spring rolls, essentially a Chinese salad in rice wraps. She had a bowl of rice noodles left over. How to use them? Why not make a fritatta? Her husband Matt pointed out that they were not that different from egg foo young, so she looked up a recipe for the sauce used with egg foo young online, found it simple and delicious, and made that too.

Rather than fill a pan with one fritatta, she made individual patties, again like egg foo young. Here's what they looked like. Note that for two, diced ham was added, and for a third, not pictured, she used leftover carne al pastor (marinated beef and pork strips), brought home from a restaurant. Practically any meat will do, for those who enjoy it.