Every weekend in April, when asparagus is plentiful at the farmers market, I take bunches of it home, then spend the rest of the week eating through my haul: I grill it, braise it, toss it into salads, air-fry it, and turn it into soup. I especially love incorporating asparagus into frittatas and quiches—the vegetable has a sweet, grassy flavor that goes particularly well with eggs, dairy, and fresh herbs such as chives.

The recipe below comes from my Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Renu Dhar, who made multiple asparagus quiches to come up with one that was delicious and elegant, but still simple to throw together. Filled with tender asparagus and creamy goat cheese, it’s a stellar vegetarian quiche that can easily be made ahead for a delightful weekday lunch or a celebratory brunch for Easter and other spring holidays. Here’s how to make it.

Getting the Crust for Your Quiche Right

The crust, a flaky pâte brisée, is a riff on Serious Eats contributor Rebecca Frey's French all-butter tart dough recipe. Instead of making the crust by hand, as Frey does, Dhar pulses everything together in a food processor, making light work of an otherwise messy and arduous task. Adequately chilling the dough helps the gluten relax, reducing shrinkage as the crust bakes, and keeping the dough as cold as possible helps the butter stay firm. As the crust bakes, the butter melts, creating tiny pockets of steam that set into satisfyingly crisp layers. To help maintain the crust’s flaky texture, we line the rolled dough with parchment paper and fill it with pie weights, beans, or rice and then par-bake it. This is a crucial step that cooks it thoroughly and prevents it from becoming soggy once filled with the custard.

Skip the Blanch

While many asparagus quiche recipes call for blanching the vegetable, Dhar’s testing revealed that blanching made for an excessively moist filling. For asparagus that doesn't sog the quiche and is also more flavorful, she broils it until it’s browned and crisp-tender. The high heat causes the Maillard reaction; this occurs when heat transforms proteins and sugars in your food, resulting in more complex flavors and aromas.

Triple the Dairy, Please

Three kinds of dairy star in this quiche alongside asparagus: cheese, heavy cream, and whole milk. While Dhar’s recipe calls for creamy goat cheese and Gruyère, you could easily use feta, Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Pecorino Romano in place of either or both of those cheeses. Using both heavy cream and whole milk in the filling produces a rich, silky custard. Just be sure to thoroughly whisk the filling together to ensure the custard is homogenous to prevent unsightly specks of egg white throughout the quiche. But if the spots of egg whites appear, not to worry. The quiche will still be delicious, which is really the most important thing.

For the Crust: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, and salt until combined, about 3 pulses. Scatter butter over top of flour mixture, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, 8 to 10 pulses. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixture starts to clump together, about 8 pulses total. (You may not need all the water.) Transfer onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press until dough just comes together, 2 or 3 times. Flatten dough into a 6-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Adjust oven rack to middle position, and preheat oven to 350°F (175ºC). On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough into a 12-inch round. Carefully transfer to a 9-inch pie plate. Press dough into bottom and up sides of pie plate. Using scissors, trim excess dough, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold overhang over itself to create a thick border that sits on top edge of pie plate; crimp or shape as desired. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Line the pie crust with parchment paper, and fill with pie weights, dried beans, or uncooked rice. Bake until edges are just dry and set, about 20 minutes. Remove the parchment and pie weights; continue to bake until light golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and set aside.

For the Filling: Increase oven temperature to broil. Cut asparagus tips into 2-inch-long pieces; slice stalks into 1/4-inch rounds. On a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet, toss asparagus, oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt together. Roast until asparagus is browned on edges and crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Let asparagus stand until cool, about 5 minutes. Remove asparagus tips; set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (175ºC).

Place goat cheese, Gruyère, and roasted asparagus stalks in bottom of pie crust. In a medium bowl, whisk cream, milk, eggs, chives, pepper, garlic powder, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to combine; pour over asparagus mixture in crust. Top with reserved asparagus tips. Bake until filling registers 170°F (77°C) on an instant-read thermometer and edges of filling are set but the center still jiggles slightly, 35 to 40 minutes. (If crust becomes too brown before center is set, loosely cover crust edges with aluminum foil, .) Let cool for at least 30 minutes, and serve.

Special Equipment

Food processor; rolling pin; 9-inch pie plate; scissors; parchment paper; pie weights, dried beans, or uncooked rice; 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet; instant-read thermometer

Make-Ahead and Storage

The crust can be blind-baked up to 2 days in advance. Once cooled, wrap crust tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Once cooled, the finished quiche can be wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Before serving, let quiche come to room temperature, then gently reheat in a 325°F (165°C) oven until warmed through.

My husband jokes that he doesn't bother asking me what I want for dinner anymore, because my answer is always the same: vegetables. That is especially true during the spring and summer, when alliums, fresh herbs, and green vegetables are abundant. As the weather warms up, I begin swapping hearty soups and stews for crisp salads starring short-lived seasonal ingredients. Ramps, asparagus, peas, and lettuces make their way into all our meals, giving salads, pastas, and eggs a bright pop of flavor. Below, you'll find an assortment of refreshing spring salads—including a tangy pea and preserved olive salad and a Roman-inspired mixed green salad—that are light and bright, and sure to chase the winter blues away.

Spring Vegetable and Arugula Salad With Labne and Cucumbers

The secret to throwing a delicious salad at a moment's notice is keeping an assortment of blanched vegetables ready to go. For the easiest salad, toss blanched spring vegetables, salted cucumbers, and red onions in a punchy dressing of lemon juice, mustard, and olive oil, then pile it onto a bed of rich, tangy labneh.

Roasted Oyster Mushroom and Watercress Salad

Pair pan-roasted oyster mushrooms with watercress—a peppery spring green that is satisfyingly substantial in its own right—with a healthy helping of shaved cheese for a robust spring salad.

Fattoush (Chopped Vegetable and Pita Salad)

Packed with crunchy vegetables, toasted pita, and halloumi, this vibrant salad from Serious Eats contributor Reem Kassis is a star in its own right. It's light and refreshing, and a dressing made with lemon juice and pomegranate molasses brings bold, tart flavor.

Salade Lyonnaise (French Bistro Salad)

This staple bistro salad of Lyon features bitter greens tossed in a warm vinaigrette and is topped with chewy lardons and a gooey poached egg. Cooking the bacon over moderately low heat prevents it from burning, and sautéing the shallots in hot bacon fat mellows out the allium's sharpness.

Pea, Olive, and Preserved Lemon Salad

This easy salad from Serious Eats contributor Nargisse Benkabbou combines sweet peas with briny olives and tangy preserved lemon—and takes just 15 minutes to make.

Roman-Inspired Mixed-Green Salad (Misticanza alla Romana)

The onset of warmer weather means the arrival of tender greens at farmers market, which makes spring the best time to make a mixed-green salad like this one. Modeled after misticanza, a Roman salad that's traditionally made from various wild greens, this salad is especially delicious when made with a combination of tender, peppery, herbal, and bitter greens. A splash of olive oil, some salt, and a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar is all you need to help those flavors shine.

Spring Vegetable Salad With Poached Egg and Crispy Bread Crumbs

Crisp-tender peas, snap peas, and asparagus star in this verdant salad that takes just about 30 minutes to make. Topped with soft-yolked poached eggs and buttery toasted bread crumbs, this simple dinner is a delicious way to celebrate the arrival of spring.

Snap Pea Salad With Creamy Yogurt-Mint Dressing

Though snap peas are delicious raw, a quick blanch helps set their vibrant green color and softens them slightly. Shocking the peas in ice water stops the cooking process, keeping them plump and snappy. A creamy dressing of yogurt and fresh mint brings it all together.

Warm Farro Salad With Asparagus, Peas, and Feta

This salad celebrates the transition from winter to spring by combining asparagus, snap peas, kale, and farro with a tangy vinaigrette, briny feta, and almonds.

Easy Fava Bean and Carrot Salad With Ricotta

Crunchy carrots and fava beans don't need much to shine. Here, we blanch them until they're just tender, then dress them in a bright vinaigrette of lemon juice, zest, and olive oil. Served with toast and a healthy dollop of good-quality ricotta, this salad makes a great side or light meal.

Peas and Carrots Salad With Goat Cheese and Almonds

Peas and carrots are a classic combination in dishes like shepherd's pie, chicken pot pie, and fried rice—but the vegetables are also delicious when turned into a salad. Creamy goat cheese brings a pleasant richness, toasted almonds provide crunch, and a drizzle of honey gives the salad a touch of sweetness.

Tiger Salad (Lao Hu Cai), à la Xi'an Famous Foods

Savory, refreshing, and tart, this dish is inspired by the lao hu cai—or "tiger vegetable salad"—served at Xi'an Famous Foods. It's easy to make: All you have to do is combine peeled celery ribs, crisp scallions, fresh cilantro, and a few slivers of hot chile pepper with a sweet-tart dressing of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.

Though I make my own marinara sauce most of the time, I have a soft spot for the jarred stuff because I grew up on it. Even today, despite my preference for homemade, I still like to keep a jar of marinara sauce in my pantry: Whether you’re using it as the base for chicken or eggplant Parmesan, baked ziti, or simply tossing it with pasta for an easy dinner, a jar of premade tomato sauce is especially handy in a pinch. Today, there are an overwhelming number of marinara sauces to choose from. But which is worth buying?

To find the very best marinara sauces, our editors sampled 24 different marinara sauces you’re likely to find at your local supermarket or online. We placed each in bowls, then sampled them in random order without knowing which sauce was which. After tasting our way through 24 marinara sauces (and suffering some serious heartburn), we tabulated the results and crowned two winners that we’d be happy to keep in our own kitchen.

The Criteria

Marinara sauce should be well-seasoned and balanced. It should have a natural sweetness and acidity from the tomatoes, but taste neither aggressively sharp nor overly sweetened with additional sugar. There should be savory depth and a hint of herbaceous flavor from oregano and/or basil. It should also have a nice, thick texture that’s neither too watery nor too chunky, with some noticeable pieces of tomato and specks of herbs or alliums.

Overall Winners

Mezzetta Marinara Sauce

Every single one of our tasters loved this marinara sauce, which was well-balanced and flavorful in all the right ways. Our senior social media editor Kelli found it pleasantly tangy, and our associate visuals editor Amanda thought it had a nice tomato flavor. This sauce had just the right texture, too: “A little chunky in a nice way,” Amanda wrote. Similarly, our associate editorial director Megan, found it “nicely thick but not pasty.” Our editorial director Daniel enjoyed this sauce so much he decided that the two best sauces should be tied for first. (See below.)

Rao’s Marinara Pasta Sauce

Like Mezzetta’s marinara sauce, Rao’s had great tomato flavor and just the right amount of chunk. “Fruity, fresh tomato flavor,” Daniel wrote. “Classic marinara vibes.” (He correctly clocked this as Rao’s.) Megan described it as “nicely salty and not too sweet,” and appreciated that there was “no weird aftertaste.” Our editors liked the sauce’s crushed texture, which had an appropriate amount of chunks without being too thick. “Good crushed/puréed texture with some tomato-y bits,” Daniel wrote. 

The Contenders

• 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Bertolli Traditional Marinara sauce
• Bionaturae Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Botticelli Marinara Sauce
• Carbone Marinara Sauce
• Cento Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Classico Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Franceso Rinaldi Marinara Sauce
• Kirkland Signature Organic Tuscan Marinara Sauce
• Matriark Gentle Marinara Sauce
• Mezzetta Marinara Sauce
• Michael’s of Brooklyn Marinara Sauce
• Muir Glen Classic Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Newman’s Marinara Sauce
• Paesana Marinara Sauce
• Pomì Marinara Sauce
• Prego Classic Marinara Sauce
• Ragú Old World Style Marinara Sauce
• Rao’s Homemade Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Target Good & Gather Marinara Sauce
• Trader Joe’s “Trader Giotto’s” Tomato Basil Marinara
• Victoria Marinara Sauce
• Wegman’s Smooth Marinara Sauce
• Yo Mama’s Original Marinara

In Conclusion

Many marinara sauces are made with tomato purée, a cooked and strained tomato product. Both our winners start with whole plum tomatoes, according to their ingredient lists: Mezzetta’s from Italy and California, and Rao’s from Italy. As we touched on in our guide to canned tomato products, whole peeled tomatoes are often made from the ripest fruits, and allow manufacturers and home cooks to have more control over the final texture of whatever they’re preparing. 

Other common ingredients in marinara sauce are sugar, dried flavorings like alliums and herbs, as well as calcium chloride to help the tomatoes keep their shape and citric acid for additional tartness. Our editors' ratings indicated that marinara sauces with added sugar were often described as excessively sweet, while those made with citric acid were often described as unpleasantly tart (keep in mind, the tasters didn't know which sauces they were tasting nor their ingredients). 

Neither of our winners contain sugar, calcium chloride, and citric acid, and are instead made with just a handful of ingredients: whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, basil, black pepper. The only difference between the two is that Rao’s contains oregano and Mezzetta’s contains “spices,” which according to the Food and Drug Administration, could refer to any “aromatic vegetable substances.”

The takeaway? For the most balanced and flavorful marinara sauce, look for one that’s made with whole peeled tomatoes and contains a short ingredient list, with no added sugar or citric acid.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill our tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation of actual results possible.

One of the best parts about Easter is, arguably, the big piece of lamb—impressive, succulent, and delicious—at the center of the table. Lamb can be gamey and dry, especially when it's poorly prepared. Made thoughtfully, however, lamb can be a delicious, tender, and mild cut of meat with just the right amount of gaminess. Below, you'll find our nine favorite lamb recipes for the Easter table, including an impressive crown roast of lamb and a slow-roasted leg of lamb rubbed with fragrant rosemary and garlic. (Need some help picking the best lamb for your celebration? Check out our guide to buying and cooking lamb.)

Pan-Roasted Rack of Lamb

With nothing more than a pan and some butter, garlic, and herbs, you can make an astoundingly delicious rack of lamb. An optional dry-brining step seasons the meat and dries the exterior for better browning, and basting the racks with hot fat helps it cook evenly.

Qidreh (Palestinian Bone-In Lamb With Spiced Rice)

Brimming with tender bone-in lamb and fragrant rice, qidreh is the hallmark dish of the Palestinian city of Hebron. Serve it with a side of plain yogurt and a chopped salad, which provide lightness and complement the dish's rich and earthy flavor.

Crown Roast of Lamb With Couscous Stuffing and Pistachio-Mint Sauce

Set on a bed of fluffy couscous and served with a pistachio-mint sauce, this crown roast of lamb is a show-stopping centerpiece fit for a holiday meal. Cook the lamb low-and-slow, then bump up the heat to give it a beautiful brown crust.

Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb With Rosemary, Garlic, and Mustard Crust

Rub your lamb with a fragrant mixture of garlic, mustard, olive oil, white wine, rosemary, lemon juice, and salt, then let it marinate for 12 hours. When you're ready to serve, all that's left to do is throw it on the grill.

Tender Braised Lamb Shanks With Bitter Herb Salad

A fragrant spice blend and a long, slow braise produce flavorful lamb shanks that practically melt off the bone. Here, anchovies give the dish a savory boost, and a mixture of spices—coriander seeds, fennel seeds, ground cumin, and smoked paprika—bring complexity and depth.

Roasted Spiced Lamb Ribs With Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

These lamb ribs are rubbed with a punchy mix of smoked paprika, fennel seed, chile flakes, and cumin, then slow-roasted until they're tender and juicy. Served with a whole grain mustard sauce, they're a meaty, satisfying main dish worth making for your holiday table.

Slow-Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb With Garlic, Rosemary, and Lemon

Leg of lamb makes for a wonderful Easter roast. We especially like a boneless cut, which is easy to season inside and out and cooks more evenly than a bone-in leg. Rub the lamb with an aromatic mixture of garlic, shallots, rosemary, and lemon zest, then roast it until it has a crisp brown crust and a rosy medium-rare center.

Sichuan Roast Leg of Lamb With Celery-Mint Salad

Bring some heat to your Easter table with this Sichuan-inspired lamb dish. Seasoned with ground Sichuan peppercorns, cumin, dried red chiles, fennel seed, and star anise, each bite is satisfyingly hot and numbing—and will keep you coming back for more.

Braised Lamb Shoulder With Dried Chilies and Dates

Stressed about cooking for a crowd? This set-it-and-forget-it dish is as easy as it gets—and lets the oven do the hard work for you. A Dutch oven heats the meat evenly from all sides, allowing it to brown while becoming tender, and sweet dates balance the acidity of the tomatillos and the heat from the chiles.

It's April. Daffodils have sprung up, trees are beginning to bloom, and the produce at my farmers market is getting greener and greener. Still, the weather in the Northeast continues to keep most of us on our toes as it oscillates between freezing winter temperatures and moderately warm days. Thanks to Mother Nature's erratic behavior, some of our staffers are still whipping up comforting and warming meals, while others are dusting off the grill or tossing together crisp spring vegetables to make a refreshing salad. Our list of editors' picks this month includes minimal-effort recipes, like Caesar deviled eggs, a savory carrot tart, and clay pot rice with silky chicken and mushrooms. You'll also find a simple mocha tres leches cake, which takes just about 20 minutes to prep, and fluffy almond rolls that taste like a mash-up of almond croissants and cinnamon rolls.

Cantonese-Style Braised Brisket

"I love when Genevieve publishes a savory recipe because—to be honest with you—the chances that I attempt to tackle one of her delicious baking endeavors is almost always close to zero. I tasted this during a photo shoot and have been thinking about it since." - Amanda Suarez, associate visuals director

Grilled Whole Cauliflower With Teriyaki Sauce

"The image of this golden brown head of cauliflower stopped me in my tracks. With the weather finally thawing out a bit, I can't wait to try this at home. I'm especially excited about the teriyaki glaze—yum!" - An Uong, writer

Cantonese Clay Pot Rice With Velveted Chicken and Mushrooms

"It is not a new recipe, but I have been dreaming of Lucas Sin's clay pot rice with chicken and mushrooms almost daily for weeks. I must make it, and soon." - Daniel Gritzer, editorial director

Fluffy Almond Rolls

"Contributor Zola Gregory's almond rolls—basically cinnamon rolls filled with almond cream instead of the classic cinnamon sugar mixture—sound absolutely delightful, and I can't wait to make a batch this weekend." - Genevieve Yam, senior editor

Fried Pickles

"I love fried pickles—tangy, crunchy, zesty. And even better when they're dipped in ranch." - Grace Kelly, senior editor

Mocha Tres Leches Cake

"I love tres leches cake, and I especially enjoy it when the weather starts to heat up. I've never had a mocha version, but it’s tres leches flavored with chocolate and espresso. What's not to love? Seems perfect for a dinner party when you could use a little pick-me-up at the end of the night." - Kelli Solomon, senior social media editor

Carrot and Raisin Salad

"Carrots are a truly underrated vegetable. I love them raw as a snack or roasted as a side, but I rarely put them in my salads. This salad looks so refreshing and positively screams spring. Plus, it seems like a fast and flavorful side for an Easter roast." - Kelli

Harcha (Moroccan Flatbread)

"Nargisse's harcha are my new go-to weeknight biscuit—the semolina flour gives them such a wonderful sweet and nutty flavor. Plus: They require just a handful of ingredients and come together in just one bowl." - Leah Colins, senior culinary editor

Caesar Deviled Eggs

"I love deviled eggs any time of year, but they're a must-have for Easter for me. I love the classic deviled eggs my mom always made—with mustard, dill pickle relish, and plenty of mayo— but I'm also a fan of creative spins. I was on-hand to taste these Caesar salad–inspired eggs when Daniel was developing the recipe, and they're phenomenally savory and satisfying." - Megan O. Steintrager, associate editorial director

Savory Carrot Tart

"This is the perfect Easter brunch recipe, and you cannot convince me otherwise!" - Rochelle Bilow, editor

Spring Salad of Asparagus, Ramps, Snap Peas, and Peas With Lemon Zest Vinaigrette

"Former editor Kenji's spring salad has everything I want to eat right now: crisp-tender asparagus, sweet peas, and ramps. I am desperate for all of these ingredients to come into season, and can't wait to make this salad when they do." - Genevieve

Some people like to clean out their fridge by making a soup, stew, or stir-fry. I prefer to do it with warm, buttery biscuits, which are a versatile vehicle for the odds and ends in your kitchen. Have rogue cheese, fresh herbs, and random nubs of cured meats? Toss them into your dough. It’s an effective and delicious way to curb food waste, and allows you to come up with whatever flavor profile you want for your biscuits: cacio e pepe, maple syrup and bacon, or, my favorite, sour cream and chives. 

The recipe below comes from my Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Tricia Manzanero Stuedeman, who baked batches and batches of biscuits to land on a formula for tender, flaky sour cream and chive biscuits that are also quick and easy to make. The sour cream gives the biscuits a pleasant tang, and a touch of garlic powder helps amplify the chives’ allium notes and natural sweetness. Making biscuits from scratch may feel intimidating and sound labor-intensive, but Stuedeman’s recipe comes together in just about an hour (only half of that is active prep time). And, with a few tips and tricks, you’ll be able to make light, fluffy bakery-worthy biscuits. 

The Key Techniques for Making Tender, Flaky Biscuits

Add a Little Cornstarch

Gluten is a network of protein molecules that gives doughs and batters their structure. The higher a flour’s protein percentage, the more gluten that flour can develop when hydrated. While gluten is essential in baked goods, developing too much of it can result in tough, chewy pastries. To reduce the gluten potential of a flour, bakers often incorporate cornstarch to “soften” a flour’s proteins. This is what Harold McGee, the author of On Food and Cooking, describes as diluting the gluten proteins. Adding a small quantity of cornstarch reduces the overall gluten in the dough, resulting in tender biscuits.

Triple the Dairy

Butter, sour cream, and whole milk all play a very important role: They provide fat. Butter and sour cream, in particular, help coat the flour particles (and a pair of gluten proteins called glutenin and gliadin) in fat to minimize gluten development, resulting in softer, lighter biscuits. Here, we cut half-inch cubes of butter into the dry ingredients until they’re pea-sized, then toss to evenly coat the flour mixture with fat.

Like buttermilk, an acidic ingredient frequently used to make biscuits, sour cream provides a nice tang and reacts with alkaline baking soda to help the biscuits rise. But because sour cream is so thick, it’s crucial to add extra liquid to hydrate the dough and help it come together, which is where whole milk comes in. Together, they produce soft, flavorful biscuits with good rise.

Laminate the Dough

Laminating refers to the technique of folding pastry over and over itself to create numerous layers. It’s a common technique many French pastry chefs use to create puff pastry or viennoiserie, like croissants. Below, we roll the dough into a rectangle, fold it into thirds like a business letter, then repeat once more for biscuits with plenty of layers.

Keep the Biscuit Dough Cold

Chilling the dough allows the gluten to relax, but it also ensures that the specks of butter in the biscuit dough remain intact. As the biscuits bake, the small pieces of butter melt, creating pockets of steam that give the biscuits their flaky layers and lift.

Adjust oven rack to middle position, and preheat oven to 425°F (220ºC). Line a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and garlic powder. Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly and butter is pea-sized. Stir in chives until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and milk to combine. Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture just until combined and dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Using clean hands, gently press and fold flour mixture in bowl until dough just holds together.

Turn out dough onto a clean, lightly floured surface; using your hands or a rolling pin, gently press or roll dough into a rough 9- by 5-inch rectangle. Fold rectangle into thirds like a business letter. (Dough may still be a bit crumbly at this point but will come together. If you are struggling to lift and fold the dough, use a bench scraper to help fold the dough.) Repeat process one more time, very lightly flouring surface or dough if needed; press or roll dough to 3/4-inch thickness.

Using a floured 2 1/2-inch round cutter, cut dough into 8 biscuits, rerolling and cutting scraps once, if needed; very lightly flour surface or top of dough only if needed to prevent sticking. Arrange biscuits on prepared baking sheet, spacing them at least 1 inch apart. Freeze, uncovered, until firm, 10 minutes. (If your freezer is too small for a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet, you can chill dough on parchment-lined plates, then transfer to prepared baking sheet once biscuits are firm.)

Brush tops of chilled dough with egg. Bake until tops are golden brown and biscuits are cooked through, 15 to 17 minutes. Set baking sheet on a wire rack, and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve warm with softened butter.

Special Equipment

13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet, parchment paper, whisk, rolling pin, bench scraper, 2 1/2-inch round cutter, pastry brush, wire rack

Notes

Onion powder can be used in place of garlic powder, if desired.

Make-Ahead and Storage

These biscuits are enjoyed fresh. Once cooled, leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

To freeze biscuits, place them on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and freeze. When frozen solid, transfer biscuits to a large zip-top bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month.

For the food lover, a visit to any city is an invitation to eat—and eat, and eat. What makes cities such incredible dining destinations is that they are, by nature, dense: with people, with culture, with history, and with food.

City life is often disconnected from agriculture, which might suggest worse food, but in reality, it often means better. Urban dwellers need quick lunches, comforting dinners, and everything in between. The demand feeds an industry of restaurants, market stalls, bakeries, and street carts that thrive on volume, competition, and creativity.

Cities are also crossroads. They rise on ports, along rivers, rail lines, and trade routes. Their foods are among the most immediate and delicious gateways to understanding their histories and the many different people who have passed through or settled down in them. As a result, each city has its own distinct gastronomic fingerprint—encoded into its unique pattern are the influences of rulers and the rich, of workers and the poor, of diasporic communities and religious groups.

All of this makes cities some of the most exciting—and overwhelming—places to eat. A lot of cities have so many places to eat that you could dedicate a lifetime to trying a new one every single day and still not visit them all before you die. So when you're going for just a week, where do you start?

That's where we come in.

At Serious Eats, we’ve long worked with a global network of culinary experts—writers, cooks, and researchers who live and breathe the food of their home cities. They’re the ones we email before we travel. They know where to go, what to eat, and why it matters.

In our Global Eats series, we’re sharing that insider knowledge with you, along with recipes you can cook before you go, while you’re there (if you’ve got a kitchen), and after you return home. Whether you’re prepping for a trip or just hungry for inspiration, this series is designed to get you closer to the cities you’re excited about, one plate at a time.

This is the second installment of Global Eats. In our first, we covered London, Paris, Cairo, Bangkok, Taipei, Buenos Aires, and Mumbai. This time, we’re taking you to seven more cities with distinct culinary identities: Kingston, Rome, Marrakesh, Kuala Lumpur, Santiago, San Juan, and Hong Kong. Think of it as your ultimate dining-out hook-up—a traveler's crib sheet from the people who know these food scenes best.

Cantonese Delights, Soy Sauce Western, and Desserts Galore in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a shimmering metropolis often referred to as “Asia’s World City” and the “Gateway to China." It's where East meets West, and every twist and turn presents an opportunity for food. The city is packed with cha chaan tengs (Hong Kong–style cafés), dai pai dongs (outdoor hawker stalls), street carts, and eateries dishing out local specialties, such as congee and clay-pot rice.

Your guide to Hong Kong is Serious Eats senior editor Genevieve Yam, who grew up in the city during the 1990s, when it was rapidly changing. Now based in the U.S., Genevieve frequently travels to Hong Kong to visit family and eat, eat, eat. Hot off of her most recent trip to the city, she's sharing some of her favorite eateries for brothy noodles, dumplings, French toast, pork chop sandwiches, seafood, and so much more. Inside the guide, you'll also find Serious Eats recipes for many of Hong Kong's most iconic dishes, so you can keep eating like a Hong Kong local when you return home.

Forget Sit-Down Restaurants and Start Liming Like a Local in Kingston

Far too many Americans who visit Jamaica stray no further than the buffets and hotel restaurants they frequent between sunbathing sessions at their gated, all-inclusive resorts. But for any food lover, that's a big mistake. Step away from the resorts, and you'll find a vibrant, ever-evolving food culture that’s a mélange of the island’s African, British, Spanish, and Taino cultures, spiced up with contributions from Portuguese Jews, French Huguenots, Syrians, Lebanese, Germans, Scots, and Irish immigrants—all built upon Jamaica’s agricultural bounty and access to both reef- and deep-sea fishing. 

Visitors from the U.S.—where dining out is the norm—are often surprised by how few sit-down restaurants exist outside Jamaica’s resorts. But incredible food is everywhere, if you know where to look. That’s where our guides come in: sisters Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau, acclaimed Jamaican cookbook authors, caterers, and food TV personalities. They’re sharing their favorite spots for jerk pork (yes, it’s more popular than chicken), pan chicken, beef patties hot from the oven, cornmeal porridge, ackee, and more local specialties. Inside the guide, you’ll also find recipes for iconic Jamaican dishes you can make at home—the ones below are just a taste. Oh, and if you don’t already know what it means to lime, you will soon.

Kuala Lumpur—the Middle Child of Southeast Asia—Claims Its Spotlight

Serious Eats contributor Alia Ali compares Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur to a middle child: “There’s something kind of like wanting to prove herself, but she also doesn't realize she’s already cool," she says. "We’re surrounded by places that are more popular and touristy, like Thailand and Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. People are like, ‘Where is Malaysia?’”

But Kuala Lumpur has so much to offer food lovers, namely a culinary scene that reflects the city's diversity, and is not so much a melting pot as it is an all-you-can-eat buffet, with mouth-puckering fish soups, fragrant rice dishes, rich curries, and an abundance of the sweet-and-savory finger snacks known as kuih. Alia is a native Malaysian and home cook who’s contributed more than a dozen recipes to Serious Eats, and she knows Kuala Lumpur inside and out. She is our guide to the “Muddy Confluence” (the city name’s literal meaning in Malay) and in addition to her picks for where to eat in KL, you'll find her recipes for making many of Malaysia's most delicious dishes at home inside the guide.

Souk to Nuts: The Best Places to Eat in the Ancient City of Marrakesh

Ringed by pinkish, millennium-old walls that give it its nickname, "the Red City," Marrakesh is a city that's "deeply rooted in Berber history with Arab and Andalusian influences, a blend of the Atlantic coast, the Mediterranean, the desert, and the Atlas mountains," says chef, cookbook author, Serious Eats contributor, and your guide to Marrakesh, Nargisse Benkabbou. “But it’s also a city that’s always looking forward—an overload of colors and sounds and smells where ancient history coexists with modern life, like with the ancient souks that have been widened to accommodate bigger crowds.”

The city's food reflects this coexistence of ancient history and modern life, and you'll find different restaurants serving traditional takes and contemporary spins on tagines, harira soups rich with the aromas of stewing tomatoes, turmeric, and cinnamon, and glistening lamb kefta. A native Moroccan and restaurant owner, Benkabbou truly knows the food scene of Marrakesh. She’s also the author of an internationally acclaimed cookbook on Moroccan cuisine, and inside this guide you'll find many of her recipes for bringing a taste of Marrakesh home.

When in Rome: A Short List of Where to Eat in the Eternal City

Rome is one of the few cities in the world that have a distinct cuisine that stands on its own. “How many cities could support dozens of cookbooks dedicated to their local dishes alone? Rome is one of them,” says Serious Eats editorial director Daniel Gritzer. Suffice it to say, the number of wonderful things to eat in Rome is just about limitless—classics such as Roman-style artichokes, pasta alla gricia, amatriciana, carbonara, pizza al taglio, and gelati, for starters. But while many in Rome are staunch cuisine traditionalists, there are also innovative chefs, turning out spins on classics and adding whole new foods to the canon. 

To help you ever-so-slightly narrow down the list of must-eat foods at must-go spots in Rome, we tapped experts Peter Barrett, the author of the Things on Bread Substack and a Roman resident for two years, and Sara Levi, a native Roman and chef at the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy at Rome, to share their insight into what—and where—to eat in the Capital of the World. Our guide also includes recipes for those aforementioned classics, and many more Roman dishes, so you can do as a Roman does even when you're not in Rome.

Sofrito, So Good: An Expert's Guide Eating Your Way Through San Juan

San Juan has long served as the capital of Puerto Rico, not only in political terms but also as the island’s culinary and cultural heart. Its food reflects a blend of Taino, Spanish Criollo, and African traditions. Almost any Puerto Rican will tell you that a trip to San Juan wouldn't be complete without mofongo—tender plantains, crunchy pork cracklings, punchy garlic, and a savory broth, all mashed together to make this beloved Puerto Rican dish—but there are plenty of other can't-miss dishes, including lechon, pernil, a wealth of seafood, and crispy twice-fried tostones.

Your guides to dining in San Juan are Serious Eats contributor and cookbook author Reina Gascón-López and chef and food entrepreneur Manolo López, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico and now lives in New York City. In this guide, they talk about what makes Puerto Rican food so special, what to eat if you’re not already familiar with the cuisine, and where to get the best representations of those dishes in and near San Juan. The guide also includes recipes from Gascón-López to make several Puerto Rican classics so you can better understand how the flavor is built from the ground up (hint: the sofrito is key).

From Hot Dogs to Oysters: Your Guide to Santiago's Eclectic and Excellent Food Scene

Apologies to Serious Eats' home-base of New York City, but if you want to eat the best hot dog of your life, you need to fly to Santiago and get your hands on completos—oversize hot dogs generously heaped with sauerkraut, diced tomatoes, mashed avocado, mayonnaise, and more. Of course there's much more to eat in Chile's capital city than loaded franks, including hearty charquicán, empanadas, and platters overflowing with enough briny oysters to make your eyes pop out of your head.

Santiago, which sits midway from north to south, is where everything in the country flows to, at least food-wise, making for a “very rich and very vibrant food culture,” in the words of Isidora Díaz. Díaz is a Serious Eats contributor and recipe developer, cookbook author, the director of the Chilean food and wine magazine Revista Fondo, and your guide to how to eat like a local in Santiago. Our guide also includes recipes for some of the iconic dishes you'll find in Santiago, including—yes—Díaz's recipe for making completos at home, complete with the sog-resistant homemade buns you'll need to contain a whole avocado and all those other toppings.

In Hong Kong, every twist and turn presents an opportunity for food. The city is packed with cha chaan tengs (Hong Kong–style cafés), dai pai dongs (outdoor hawker stalls), street carts, and eateries dishing out local specialties, such as congee and clay-pot rice. 

The city, a shimmering metropolis often referred to as “Asia’s World City” and the “Gateway to China,” is where East meets West. Towering skyscrapers stand proudly next to regal Victorian buildings, temples, and compact tenement apartments. Neon signs hang off the buildings, and below, double decker buses and trams from the 1900s rumble past, a reminder of the city’s British colonial past. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is home to about 7.5 million people, which consist of Cantonese locals, Mandarin-speaking Chinese nationals, expats from the West, and immigrants from other parts of Asia.

The food, like its population, is diverse. Cantonese food and Soy Sauce Western, a genre of Western-inspired Chinese food, reign supreme. But you’ll also find an abundance of regional Chinese cuisines and South Asian, Southeast Asian, Japanese, and Korean food. At swanky hotels, the British tradition of afternoon tea—complete with scones, clotted cream, and jam—continues. Traditional Cantonese joints dish out clay-pot rice, congee, and noodles, while cha chaan tengs serve rich milk tea alongside spam and egg sandwiches.

The city’s cuisine, for the most part, is a little British, a little Chinese, and distinctly Hong Kong. Chef Tony Tan writes in his book Hong Kong Food City, “While it’s undeniable that Hong Kong is a quintessentially Chinese city with temples and noodle shops, it is also tempered by its British legacy and sensibilities." 

I grew up in Hong Kong in the 1990s, a transformational time for the city. After 156 years of colonial rule, Britain returned Hong Kong to China in July 1997. China was just beginning to open up to the world, and businesses and investors flocked to Hong Kong, eager for a share of the Chinese market. Hong Kong—and Asia, in general—experienced rapid economic growth, and with it came great wealth and drastic income inequality, something that has continued to shape the landscape and social fabric of the city. Many of the beloved restaurants and shops my family frequented when I was a child are long gone, replaced by newer, shinier, international chains.

Though much has changed about Hong Kong, one thing has not: The food remains excellent and plentiful. Local markets sell fresh sugarcane juice and fruit from all over Asia—ripe Carabao mangoes from the Philippines, pungent durian from Malaysia, and sweet, tangy Kyoho grapes from Japan. Wet markets stock locally caught fish for pan-frying and steaming, including grouper, threadfin, and big-eye fish. Food, for the most part, remains affordable. A bowl of tender brisket, tendon, and tripe with rice noodles will run you about $12 USD, and a plate of roast goose and white rice costs just about $8 USD. 

For our second round of Global Eats—a food lover's guide to the culinary capitals of the world—I'll be your guide, sharing some of my favorite restaurants and meals around the city. (You'll find the first Global Eats series here.) A bad meal in Hong Kong is possible, but you’d have to try really hard—and if you eat like a local, you can’t go wrong.

Cantonese Delights

Duen Kee

57-58 Chuen Long Estate
Route Twisk
Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong
+852 2490 5246

No website

This dim sum restaurant is located at the base of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest mountain. Tucked away in the tiny village of Chuen Long, the restaurant is surrounded by mountains and is a hidden gem frequented by hikers and locals. The restaurant is self-serve: An assortment of tea leaves are available for you to brew your own tea. Stacks of steamer baskets, filled with Cantonese delicacies such as pork and shrimp siu mai, beancurd skin rolls, and fluffy barbecued pork buns, are lined up against pink- and white-tiled walls. Sit outside on the terrace, and you’ll be able to enjoy the scenery of Hong Kong’s lush mountains.

“You just feel so far from the chaos of the city,” Charmaine Mok, the deputy culture editor of the South China Morning Post, says. “They still do a lot of the traditional dim sum dishes, like preserved sausage buns. They have their own watercress farm in the back. It’s a wholesome experience and shows a different side of Hong Kong, like the nature surrounding it.”

Hop Yik Tai

121 Kweilin Street
Sham Shui Po, Kowloon
Hong Kong
+852 2720 0239

No website

Cheung fun (rice noodle rolls) are typically made with rice flour and water, with a small quantity of tapioca starch, glutinous rice flour, or mung bean starch for a slight chew. The batter is poured in a thin layer onto a steamer tray or piece of cloth, steamed until translucent, then rolled into noodles. They vary in shape and size: At dim sum restaurants, the noodles come filled and rolled with shrimp, beef, barbecued pork, or youtiao (Chinese fried dough sticks). Another popular method is to stir-fry noodle rolls—trimmed into two-inch lengths—with XO sauce and bean sprouts. Eaten as a street food, the rice noodle rolls are usually left unfilled and garnished with an assortment of sauces.

Locals and tourists alike flock to Hop Yik Tai for the cheung fun, which are silky smooth—a texture locals refer to as “wat loot loot”—with just enough spring. A little cart filled with fresh rice noodle rolls stands at the front of the shop; it’s manned by a gruff employee with a pair of scissors, ready to trim rice noodle rolls to-order. Each portion comes drizzled with sesame sauce, sweet sauce, and soy sauce, with a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds. Word on the street is that Hop Yik Tai seasons their soy sauce with lard, which gives the rice rolls an additional richness and savory flavor. At Hop Yik Tai, you’ll find other local street food favorites, including fish balls and siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings).

Kwan Kee Claypot Rice

Shop 1, G/F
263 Queen’s Road West
Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
+852 2803 7209

No website

Hong Kong’s subtropical climate means the city’s temperatures rarely dip below 59°F (15°C). When it does, however, crowds flock to eat clay-pot rice, a dish of rice steamed and crisped over charcoal stoves. The dish is Hong Kong’s version of a one-pot meal: Assorted toppings like funky preserved pork sausage, spare ribs marinated with black bean sauce, and velveted chicken are nestled onto the raw grains. The toppings gently steam as the rice cooks, and the grains at the bottom char, forming a beautifully crisp crust. 

At Kwan Kee, the demand for clay-pot rice is year-round: The queue for dinner begins long before the doors open at 5:30 p.m. each day, and some wait as long as two hours for a bite of the restaurant’s famous clay-pot rice. The restaurant is particularly well known for its white eel clay-pot rice: Plump morsels of white eel are drizzled in fermented black bean sauce and garnished with fresh scallions and chiles. The soy sauce, subtly sweet and fragrant, has a savory depth that brings the entire dish together. Kwan Kee may be known for its clay-pot rice, but I also recommend ordering several of their excellent side dishes, such as the eggplant braised with salted fish or steamed minced pork patty with salted duck egg, to go with your rice.

Sang Kee Congee Shop

7 Burd Street
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
+852 2542 1099

No website

Sang Kee has been around since the 1960s; the congee shop operated as an outdoor food stall before moving into its current location in the 1980s. Over the decades, Sang Kee has amassed a loyal following. The no-frills shop is known for its congee with tender fish belly, though its congees with beef meatballs and fish balls are also popular. “Pure, thick, and snowy white with fully bloomed grains of rice, Sang Kee’s congee has an elegance that far exceeds the term ‘savory rice porridge,’” writer Betty Richardson raved in the South China Morning Post earlier this year. The congee comes with small bowls of soy sauce with julienned ginger and delicate ribbons of spring onions, but the porridge is so delicious you likely won’t need it. Do, however, order a side of Chinese fried dough—zha leung in Cantonese, youtiao in Mandarin—for dipping.

Shui Kee

2 Gutzlaff Street
Central, Hong Kong
+852 2541 9769

No website

This tiny, crowded noodle stall has been a mainstay of the city’s Central district since the 1940s. In 2014, Lam Kin Wing, the third-generation owner of Shui Kee, told the South China Morning Post that his grandfather opened up the shop in the 1940s, just after the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Located in an alleyway amidst the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, Shui Kee specializes in beef offal, which supposedly comes from freshly slaughtered cows and is never frozen. Diners vie for bowls of soup noodles with beef lungs, spleen, or intestines, though cuts like skirt steak and brisket are available, too. 

Prepare to go early: Shui Kee often sells out before 2:00 p.m., and hungry diners begin lining up around 11:00 a.m. Like Sister Wah below, Shui Kee’s broth has layers of savory depth, and each sip is infused with the rich flavor of beef. Also worth ordering with your offal soup: A side of crispy fried fish skin and a glass of housemade chrysanthemum tea.

Sister Wah Beef Brisket

13 Electric Road
Tin Hau, Hong Kong
+852 2807 0181

Sister Wah is known for its broth, which simmers all day long. When I asked an employee how much broth they make each day, they responded: “We never stop making broth. We make it all day long, until we close.” Clean and clear as the broth is, it is also deeply flavored—there is a touch of sweetness, a hint of star anise that gives it a very subtle warmth, and rich, savory depth from beef. 

The shop is small and cramped, and in true Hong Kong style, I shared a table with three other solo diners: two locals and a tourist, all silently slurping their noodles. The beef brisket, tendon, and tripe noodles here may very well be the best bowl of noodles I’ve ever eaten in Hong Kong. The tangle of wide rice noodles was topped with tender brisket, soft, chewy tendon, and tripe with just enough bounce. The other dishes on the menu, such as the wontons, are worth ordering, too, but the beef brisket noodles are an absolute must.

Sun Hing Restaurant

Shop C, 8 Smithfield Road
Sai Wan, Hong Kong
+852 2816 0616 

No website

Sun Hing is an old-school Hong Kong dim sum spot that’s open from 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day. It’s loud, chaotic, and very Hong Kong: Diners, perched on shabby plastic stools, crowd around small tables as servers shuffle stacks of steamer baskets back and forth. Order the fried milk—a milk custard that’s coated in batter and fried until crisp—a retro dim sum dish that’s rarely found on menus nowadays. The tripe, cooked in a mild Hong Kong–style yellow curry, is tender and springy. Don’t leave without ordering one of the light, fluffy custard buns that Sun Hing is well known for: Filled with a salted egg custard that oozes out, it’s a salty-sweet treat that people trek here for.

Wing Restaurant

29/F, The Wellington
198 Wellington Street
Central, Hong Kong
+852 2711 0063

https://wingrestaurant.hk/

When I asked Mok how she thought Hong Kong’s dining scene was changing, she mentioned that many chefs and restaurants in the city—long enamored with European cuisines such as French and Italian—have been returning to Chinese culinary traditions. One of those chefs is Vicky Cheng, a Canadian-born cook who is an alumnus of Daniel Boulud’s legendary French restaurant Daniel in Manhattan. Cheng moved to Hong Kong in 2015 and dove straight into learning everything he could about Chinese cuisine. “He started experimenting and really began to try to understand what defines Chinese cookery,” Mok says. “What are the ingredients? What are the techniques? That’s when he came up with Wing, which is a love letter to Hong Kong cuisine.”

At Wing, Cheng offers a contemporary take on traditional Cantonese dishes. Ingredients local to Hong Kong and southern China star in his cooking: Braised pomelo pith, a local delicacy that’s difficult to come by nowadays, is seasoned with savory shrimp roe and served in a sumptuous abalone sauce. Threadfin, a local variety of fish popular in Hong Kong, is steamed and topped with umami-rich salted pork and preserved vegetables. His signature dish is a “golden crystal egg,” a housemade century egg with amber whites and a jammy yolk, served with slippery Japanese oysters in a housemade chili sauce. It is, Mok says, a meal to remember—and one to make time for when visiting Hong Kong.

Yan Wo Dou Bun Chong

55 Jardine’s Bazaar
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
+852 2808 4738

No website

Every time I visit Hong Kong, I visit Yan Wo Dou Bun Chong, an eatery that specializes in freshly made soy products. Their soy bean dessert—a silken tofu pudding—is tender and quivers on the spoon. It’s excellent plain with a sprinkling of rock sugar, but is especially delicious when topped with fresh ginger juice for a subtle kick. The savory smell of pan-fried tofu stuffed with fish sausage fills the air, and diners gulp down glasses of fresh, nutty soy milk before heading on their way.

Soy Sauce Western

Cheung Hing Coffee Shop

9 Yik Yam Street
Happy Valley, Hong Kong
+2572 5097

No website

Walking into Cheung Hing Coffee Shop feels like stepping into the 1950s. The tiled floors, ceiling fans, and mid-century wooden dining chairs give the cha chaan teng a nostalgic feel. Opened in 1951, the coffee shop is popular among locals for its puff pastry egg tarts and pineapple buns. The egg tarts—crisp, flaky, and filled with a golden custard that wobbles ever so slightly—are the best I’ve had, and for me, a visit to Hong Kong would be incomplete without one. The pineapple buns are available with various fillings, including satay beef or ham and egg, or stuffed with a generous slab of butter. The scrambled eggs are velvety and delicious on their own, or sandwiched with fried spam between two slices of buttered white bread. I’ve tried to replicate the silkiness of the eggs in my own recipe for the classic Hong Kong sandwich, though in my honest opinion, nothing will compare to the real thing from Cheung Hing. Of course, everything must be washed down with a cup of strong Hong Kong milk tea. Cheung Hing’s is silky smooth, and the evaporated milk’s richness balances the pleasant bitter, tannic notes of the tea. 

Yee Shun Dairy Company

506 Lockhart Road
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
+852 2591 1837

No website

Macaroni and ham in soup and French toast drizzled with condensed milk may not sound like food from Hong Kong, but these local interpretations of Western dishes are cha chaan teng staples. Though Yee Shun Dairy Company hails from Macau, another special administrative region located an hour away from Hong Kong, the cafe is a Hong Kong stalwart frequented by both locals and tourists. My mother often brought me here for an afterschool snack when I was a child, and we’d each demolish a bowl of the shop’s specialty: delicate “double skin” milk puddings. The first skin is the one that forms when boiled milk cools; the second is one that forms when the pudding—a mixture of milk, sugar, and egg whites—cools.

The puddings are available hot or cold, and plain, chocolate-flavored, coffee-flavored, or with ginger juice. Ginger juice is my go-to—its warm flavor complements the natural sweetness of the milk. If you’re in the mood for savory food, consider the macaroni with satay or the Macanese pork chop sandwich, which is really just an excuse to eat a crispy, well-seasoned piece of meat between a toasted bun. Like the pork chop sandwich at Yee Shun, my recipe for the Macanese dish delivers a chop that's well-seasoned and crisp.

Chinese Bakeries and Desserts

Traditional Chinese pastries and desserts aren’t particularly sweet: They’re typically made with nuts, seeds, beans, rice, and fruits. There are dessert soups called tong sui, which means “sugar water,” though most of these aren’t very sweet at all. Most of them use nuts and seeds like walnuts, sesame, almonds, or coconut milk as the base. Sago, grass jelly, taro, sweet potato, and ginger are also other commonly used ingredients in hot and cold desserts. Cakes and dumplings like sesame paste-filled tong yuen are usually made with glutinous rice flour, giving them a pleasantly chewy texture. Fruits have a starring role, too: Mango, durian, lychees, and longan are especially popular.

C Dessert

Shop 1D, G/F, Newman House
35-45 Johnston Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
+852 2493 3349

When the beloved Hong Kong dessert spot Cong Sao Dessert (“Auntie Cong’s Dessert”) shuttered in 2020, locals mourned. The shop offered creative and contemporary spins on Chinese dessert, including longan sorbet with jellies and nata de coco and mango milkshake–flavored steamed milk puddings. Much to everyone’s delight, Auntie Cong returned with C Dessert in 2023. And every evening, you can expect to see a queue of hungry diners—eager for something sweet—snaking around the block. 

The desserts are bold and flavorful: Creamy durian, sweet and funky with notes of gasoline, sits on top of a refreshing bed of shaved ice. Chilled mango soup with pomelo and sago, a classic Cantonese dessert, is bright and refreshing, with pops of acid from the pomelo. The warm coconut milk with black rice, taro, and taro rice balls is creamy and comforting, a cozy dessert best enjoyed on a cool evening. Eat your way through the menu, and you’ll understand why the queue persists night after night.

Fook Yuen

7 Fook Yuen St
North Point, Hong Kong
+852 3106 0129

No website

Fook Yuen is a Chinese dessert spot renowned for their tong yuen. It is tiny and cramped, with barely any room to sit; still, people queue for a taste of the legendary dumplings, with some purchasing a box or two to cook at home. Their tong yuen is pillowy soft with just the right amount of chew, and both the sesame paste and peanut paste used to fill the dumplings are richly nutty and deeply fragrant, with small bits of nuts and seeds that provide a satisfying crunch. 

Kai Kai Dessert

29 Ning Po Street
Jordan, Kowloon
+852 2384 3862

No website

Kai Kai Dessert has been open since 1979, and serves up traditional Cantonese desserts like creamy walnut soup, taro soup with sago and lotus seeds, and fragrant almond soup. (Fun fact: Chinese almonds, called hung yun, are actually apricot kernels. If you ever spot “almond” on the menu of a Chinese restaurant, chances are they’re actually referring to apricot kernels.) Since 2015, Kai Kai has been on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list, making it even more popular among locals and tourists. Over the years, I’ve eaten my way through most of their menu, and my favorite dessert from them is the black sesame soup and walnut soup combination, which allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds. Prepare yourself for brusque service, which is a norm in Hong Kong but may be considered rude by tourists.

Happy Bakery

66-68 Queen’s Road East
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
+852 9490 0156

No website

In July 2022, Happy Cake Shop, which opened in 1977, announced it was closing after their landlords decided to take the space back. Loyal customers prepared to say goodbye, and queued outside the mom-and-pop shop for the bakery’s famous horn-shaped cream puffs, egg tarts, and pineapple buns. Fortunately, Happy Cake Shop returned in 2023 as Happy Bakery just a few doors down from its original location, and today it sells many of the same baked goods it sold at its former spot. On my most recent trip to Hong Kong, I was lucky to visit when fresh egg tarts had just come out of the oven—they were warm and slightly sweet with a crumbly cookie crust. Don’t skip their cream horns and the fluffy buns covered in salty-sweet pork floss.

Hanging in Hong Kong

It’s very easy to get around Hong Kong: The city is extremely walkable, and a vast network of MTR subway stations, buses, trams, and minibuses makes it seamless to get from place to place. There’s plenty to do besides eating, too: Spend the morning hiking the Dragon’s Back, a popular trail in Shek O Country Park, go surfing in Big Wave Bay, or head up to The Peak for a glimpse of the city’s skyline. Or take a page out of my book and go on a food crawl through different neighborhoods. Wherever you end up, something delicious awaits.

You probably have a jar of dill pickles in your fridge, whether for a refreshingly sour snack, to serve alongside burgers and sandwiches, or to use in recipes like fried pickles, dips, and more. There are two kinds of dill pickles, though: Lacto-fermented pickles and vinegar pickles. Lacto-fermented pickles get their sour flavor from lactic acid produced during the fermentation process. Vinegar pickles, on the other hand, get their tanginess from a hot brine that typically includes vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. 

In his book The Art of Fermentation, Sandor Katz writes, “Although vinegar is a product of fermentation, most vinegar pickles use hot vinegar as a means of sterilizing vegetables. In these pickles, fermentation is prevented by this heat treatment, combined with high levels of acidity in the vinegar.” These are the pickles you're most likely to find in jars in an unrefrigerated section of a market (lacto-fermented pickles are almost always kept refrigerated unless they've been processed with heat after fermentation), and they're the common accompaniment to burgers and sandwiches at fast food chains and run-of-the mill diners and delis. 

While the Serious Eats team tends to prefer lacto-fermented full- and half-sours, we also know that the convenience of a more shelf-stable vinegar pickle makes it a worthy purchase. Plus, for some foods, they're just the right choice (we'd much rather a vinegar pickle on a burger or fried chicken sandwich than a Jewish deli–style full sour). So we thought we'd taste a bunch to find our favorite.

In this taste test, we methodically sampled six different vinegar-brined dill pickles you’re likely to find online or at your local supermarket. We had our tasters eat them on their own without knowing which they were trying while rating them on key criteria like flavor, sourness, and texture. In the end, we found one winner we’d be happy to keep in our fridge.

The Criteria

Not all dill pickles are made the same. Some have barely any crunch, some taste like you're eating straight vinegar in solid form, and others lack the herbaceous, spiced note that comes from aromatics like fresh dill or coriander seeds. A good vinegar-brined dill pickle should be sour enough to make you pucker, but not so tart that it tastes of pure, unadulterated vinegar. It should be refreshingly crisp and have a pleasant brininess, with a balanced flavor of fresh dill, and possibly garlic, coriander seeds, and/or mustard seeds. We also prefer pickles that have a natural greenish yellow hue that’s not neon from dye.

Overall Winner

Wegmans Kosher Dill Pickles

Every single taster enjoyed this pickle. “Not overly salty or sour, and no noticeable spice at first, but it has a big dill aftertaste,” our senior social media editor Kelli wrote. Like Kelli, our associate visuals director Amanda and associate editorial director Megan enjoyed the seasoning on these pickles. “My favorite so far—the closest to a lacto-fermented pickle,” Megan noted. Our editorial director Daniel appreciated the pickle’s muted acidity and flavors of allspice and garlic, though he did find them a touch mushy. Others, however, described the pickles as “pleasantly crunchy,” “decent,” and “crisp.”

The Contenders

• B&G Pickles, Kosher Dill
• Mt. Olive Pickles, Kosher Dill Spears
• Nature's Promise Dill Pickle Spears
• Vlasic Kosher Dill Spears
• Trader Joe's Kosher Dill Pickle Spears
• Wegmans Kosher Dill Pickle Spears
  

In Conclusion

Each brand we sampled used calcium chloride as a firming agent in their pickles. Wegmans, however, was the only brand with gum arabic, an ingredient that’s often used as a stabilizer or emulsifier in foods. When used in pickles, it prevents the brine from becoming cloudy or crystallizing. While some companies may use dye to give their pickles a yellow hue, Wegmans uses turmeric. Ultimately, all our tasters would have preferred full sour lacto-fermented pickles to snack on—but agreed that Wegmans’ vinegar-pickled dill pickles would do in a pinch.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill our tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation of actual results possible.

When I'm stressed or have had a bad day, my first instinct is to run into the kitchen and bury myself in baking projects. I start proofing sourdough loaves, make and scoop several batches of cookie dough to freeze for later, and immerse myself in the meditative act of laminating puff pastry dough. Baking up a storm certainly won't solve all of my problems, but it's the most enjoyable and rewarding (not to mention delicious!) way to take my mind off things. Below, you'll find 15 baking projects—including tender cinnamon rolls, buttery brioche, and the very best chocolate chip cookies—that will provide you with a mental escape when you need it the most.

Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)

Shokupan is an ultra-soft, squishy, and impossibly light loaf, with a mild sweetness and a fine, pillowy crumb the Japanese call "fuwa fuwa" or "fluffy fluffy." Here, a scalded flour mixture known as a yudane keeps the loaf soft. Unlike most wheat-based scalds that must be cooked over a stove, this yudane is made with glutinous rice flour, and comes together simply by whisking boiled milk with the flour.

Cheese Danish

These Danishes are rich with butter and packed with sweet, tangy cream cheese—and may very well convince you that the only ones worth eating are warm, freshly baked ones.

Custard Creams

These sandwich-style cookies feature a silky pale yellow buttercream between two crumbly rectangular biscuits. Custard powder gives the biscuits their distinct golden color and custard-like flavor, and keeping the dough cold helps the biscuits retain their shape and embossed detail.

New Jersey Crumb Buns

The Garden State's spin on coffee cake goes heavy (in the best of ways) on the streusel crumb topping. For a soft, rich crumb, cream softened butter with equal parts granulated and brown sugar. Don't skip the hefty dose of cinnamon, which gives the pastry its warm spiced note.

One-Bowl Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

The best smell to wake up to is that of cinnamon rolls wafting from the oven. The magic of this recipe? All the heavy lifting is knocked out a day in advance. Plus: It's a one-bowl recipe, so you don't need to dirty every dish in the house just to make a special breakfast.

Kanafeh (Middle Eastern Cheese and Phyllo Dessert)

Filled with salty cheese and drenched in a floral syrup, kanafeh is a crispy, nutty, and syrupy dessert made for cheese lovers. Thoroughly mixing the shredded phyllo with ghee and baking it in a cast iron skillet—which promotes even browning—ensures the pastry crisps up all the way.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Good things take time: An overnight rest allows enzymes to break down large carbohydrates, enhancing the caramelization and browning process the next day to help the cookies develop deeper flavor. These cookies get their intensely nutty, butterscotch flavor from brown butter and deep molasses notes from dark brown sugar.

Homemade Bagels

A Japanese technique called yukone—which involves cooking a mixture of flour and water on the stove into a thick paste of gelatinized starch before incorporating it into a dough—ensures these tender, chewy bagels stay fresh for days.

Leche Flan (Filipino Baked Custard)

Leche flan is a beloved dessert in the Philippines, and marries caramelized sugar with a rich, dense, and creamy custard. For the silkiest custard, pass the flan through a fine-mesh sieve, then bake it in a water bath, which surrounds the dessert with gentle, uniform heat that prevents it from becoming dry and rubbery.

New England Anadama Bread

You can thank a grumpy fisherman and his wife for this traditional New England sandwich bread. Made with cornmeal and molasses, the loaf is sweet and slightly nubby, and especially delicious when toasted and slathered with salted butter.

Chocolate Babka

Rich, tender, and filled with just the right amount of chocolate, this delicious babka will fill your home with the enticing scent of yeasted dough and cocoa. A simple cooked flour slurry called tangzhong gives the bread its moist, fluffy texture and delays staling, while a cold proof helps the dough develop more flavor and makes it easier to shape.

Millionaire's Shortbread

With layers of tender shortbread, rich caramel, and dark chocolate, millionaire’s shortbread is a luxurious confection worth making at home. Cooking the butter, sugar, and heavy cream to 235°F (113°C) results in butterscotch that's satisfyingly chewy and not too firm or runny, and a dark chocolate topping helps offset the sweetness of the bar.

Classic Yeasted Coffee Cake

With its tender crumb, sweet cinnamon filling, and toasted pecan topping, this pastry is a riff on Sara Lee's pecan coffee cake. Made in the style of Danish brunsviger—a yeasted coffee cake that's typically eaten for breakfast—it's subtly sweet, with a soft, springy crumb.

Brioche

Brioche is the gold standard of enriched bread: It is unashamedly rich with a melt-in-the-mouth quality. This classic brioche is airy and tender, with a deeply rich and buttery flavor thanks to eggs, whole milk, plenty of butter, and hands-off cold fermentation.

Gâteau Basque

Gâteau Basque, which has a filling of pastry cream or cherry jam nestled between a tender and slightly crumbly crust, combines elements of a cookie, tart, and pie. In other words: A crowd-pleasing dessert that ticks all the boxes.

When I was growing up, my family sat down to dinner together every single night. Like many Chinese families, we ate family-style: There were always sautéed greens, fried or steamed fish, and a braise or stir-fry accompanied by steamed rice. It was simple, comforting, home-style cooking. One of the dishes my mom made frequently was a fragrant stew of braised brisket with daikon radish and carrots flavored with chu hou paste, a sweet and savory blend of fermented yellow soybeans, sesame seeds, garlic, and ginger. The dish is a Cantonese classic, and its ease makes it a popular weeknight meal for many families living in Hong Kong.

Traditionally, the stew is prepared by sautéeing ginger and star anise until fragrant, chucking in cubed brisket and vegetables, then simmering it all with rock sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chu hou paste, Shaoxing wine, and water until tender. How the stew is made, though, can vary from household to household. Some cooks, including my mom, use a combination of brisket and tendon: As the tendon cooks, it becomes meltingly tender, and its collagen breaks down into gelatin, giving the sauce body. Daikon radish is usually the only vegetable used, but some households may opt for just carrots or, like me, use a blend of both.

As is the case with many recipes that are passed down from generation to generation, I’ve put my own spin on the classic. My version incorporates several Western culinary techniques that you wouldn’t typically see in a recipe for Chinese braises: I sear the meat before braising, incorporate gelatin to add body, and cook the stew low-and-slow in the oven. While not traditional, it makes for a deeply flavorful stew that requires just about 30 minutes of active time before the oven does the rest of the hard work.

To Sear or Not to Sear?

Most Chinese-style braises or stews do not call for searing, a popular step in many Western-style recipes. I have, admittedly, dumped the ingredients—aromatics, beef, vegetables, and all—into a pot on days when I am exhausted and simply do not feel like cooking. While delicious, I prefer the stew when I’ve taken a few extra minutes to sear the meat. There’s nothing wrong with not browning the meat, and there’s a strong argument for skipping that step in some contexts, like when you want more tenderness or have other assertively flavored ingredients that makes the flavor boost of browning the meat less important. But after my time in culinary school and cooking professionally, I find myself doing it when I have the time and energy, and have come to appreciate the effects of searing.

Searing allows the Maillard reaction—a series of chemical reactions that occur when heat transforms proteins and sugars, creating new, more complex flavors and aromas—to take place. Some recipes for beef stews may have you cube the meat before browning it, but getting a good sear on cubes can take a long time, since there's more surface area to brown, and also because that extra surface area provides more opportunity for the meat to exude water and steam more before beginning to brown.

To avoid that problem, I take a page out of former editor Kenji’s book: I portion the brisket into three steaks, then sear each of them before portioning them into two-inch chunks. “Because of their lower surface area, steaks brown in a fraction of the time of cubes,” Kenji notes in his all-American beef stew recipe. “Meanwhile, even though our beef isn’t browned on every surface, there’s still plenty of browned flavors to mix around the stewpot as it cooks.” You also preserve more tenderness, since you’re not browning every single side of each small cube of beef.

All About Chu Hou Paste (Chinese Fermented Yellow Soybean Paste)

In the realm of fermented bean pastes, doubanjiang (fermented chili bean paste), miso (koji-fermented Japanese soybean paste), and doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) get all the love. But there’s another bean paste that most home cooks in America likely do not have in their pantry: chu hou paste. The Chinese condiment is made by sautéeing garlic, ginger, and shallots with oil until fragrant, then stirring in a whisked mixture of ground bean sauce (mochijiang, which is made from fermented soybeans), fermented beancurd, sesame paste, sugar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and five spice. A little master stock goes in, and the mixture is cooked until it bubbles and darkens in color. Making it isn’t difficult, but here, I’ve opted for a store-bought version for ease.

It’s sweet and deeply savory, and not quite as salty or funky as Chinese black bean sauce. The ingredient is a pantry staple for many Cantonese families, who use it in braises and stir-fries. You can find it online or at an Asian grocery store; I recommend using Lee Kum Kee, which is my family’s go-to brand.

Add a Pinch of Gelatin

As I mentioned above, my mom always made her stew with both brisket and tendon; the collagen in the meat and especially the tendon would melt into gelatin and give the sauce its velvety texture. Because tendon isn’t easily found in most American supermarkets, I decided to skip it here. To make up for the lack of collagen that tendon would provide, I decided to enhance the sauce with unflavored powdered gelatin, something both Kenji and our editorial director Daniel have done many times to give the sauce in their stews a silkier texture without the need of a very gelatin-rich stock. Unlike flour, gelatin helps thicken the broth without muddying the flavors of the dish.

Cook It Low-and-Slow

For the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it meal, I let the oven do the hard work for me. Though this braise is almost always prepared on the stovetop, I’ve found that cooking the stew with the gentle, even heat of the oven results in more tender meat. To prevent it from overcooking and becoming too hot, I leave the lid cracked, which maintains a steady temperature and allows some of the liquid to evaporate and reduce into a spoon-coating sauce. This isn’t a totally faithful reproduction of how my mom and everyone before her made this, but feels like an accurate and delicious representation of my life today.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

Place water in a large bowl or measuring cup and sprinkle with gelatin. Let stand until fully hydrated, about 10 minutes.

In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Season beef all over with salt and pepper and add to Dutch oven. Working in batches, cook steaks, turning occasionally, until beef is well browned on 2 sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer beef to a rimmed baking sheet or large plate and set aside.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil. Add ginger, star anise, and cassia bark, and sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add daikon radish and carrots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are well-browned, about 4 minutes.

Add chu hou sauce, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar, and cook, using a wooden spoon to stir and scrape up browned bits, until sugar has dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes. Add water and gelatin mixture, stirring to combine.

Cut seared steaks into 2-inch chunks. Add beef and any accumulated juices to the Dutch oven. Stir to combine and return to a simmer over medium heat. Transfer to oven, cover with lid partially open, and cook until beef and vegetables are tender and broth has thickened slightly, about 3 hours. Liquid should hold a slow, steady simmer the entire time; adjust oven temperature as needed during cooking.

Remove stew from oven. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with Chinese greens and rice, if desired.

Special Equipment

Large Dutch oven, tongs, slotted spoon

Notes

Chu hou sauce can be purchased online or at Asian grocery stores. My family prefers the Lee Kum Kee brand.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Once cooled, the braised brisket can be refrigerated in an airtight container. To reheat, bring to a simmer over medium-low heat or microwave until warmed through.

The braised brisket can be frozen with its cooking liquid in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

I never leave the grocery store without a tub of plain yogurt: It’s a key ingredient in many dips, spreads, and baking recipes, and when topped with granola and fresh fruit, makes for an easy breakfast or snack. If you’ve ever stood in front of the wall of yogurt at a grocery store, then you’ll know there are many, many options. The question is: Which plain yogurt is worth buying?

To find the cream of the yogurt crop, our editors sampled 10 different plain whole-milk yogurts you’re likely to find at your local supermarket. (If you notice 11 in the photo below, that's because we cut one of the yogurts we tasted from our rankings because it turned out to be a strained yogurt.) We placed each in unmarked bowls, then sampled them in random order without knowing which yogurt was which. After tasting our way through 10 bowls of plain yogurt, we tabulated the results and crowned an overall winner we’d be happy to enjoy with granola or incorporate into our favorite dips and desserts. We also found an admirable runner up for those who prefer a yogurt made from grass-fed milk.

The Criteria

There are different kinds of yogurt, including strained varieties such as Greek yogurt, Icelandic skyr, and Middle Eastern labneh. For this taste test, we focused on plain, unstrained, whole-milk yogurt. Plain yogurt should be creamy, thick, and smooth without being overly set with thickeners such as pectin or stabilizers. It should be pleasantly tangy, but not sour. It should have the subtle, natural sweetness of milk, but not taste sweetened.

Overall Winner

The Best Nationally Available Plain Yogurt: Dannon Plain Whole Milk Yogurt

Though this yogurt is not quite as tangy as others we tasted, our editors enjoyed its mild tartness and loved its thick, creamy texture.  “Good body,” our associate visuals director, Amanda, noted. Our senior social media editor, Kelli, thought it was “all around good,” while both our editorial director, Daniel, and associate editorial director, Megan, described it as pleasantly smooth. “Creamy, mild, tasty,” Megan wrote. “I like it!”

While some overly sour yogurts may not be great in dips and desserts, this yogurt’s mildness makes it a versatile ingredient that can be used in myriad ways, be it savory or sweet. Use it to prepare frozen yogurt, incorporate it into baked goods, marinate chicken thighs, or just eat it on its own.

Runner Up

The Best Grass-Fed Plain Yogurt: Alexandre Family Farm 100% Grass-Fed A2/A2 Organic Plain Yogurt

“Good milk flavor, has that real mammalian funk,” Daniel wrote. “This is a compliment!” Amanda had lukewarm feelings about the “earthy” flavors of the yogurt, but Megan—who adores plain yogurt and says she eats it every single day—thought it was “extremely mild and cream-forward.” Though this yogurt was slightly thinner than some of the brands we sampled, it is still creamy and has good body. Many dairy cows are fed a total mixed ratio diet, a nutritionally-balanced blend of grains and proteins, resulting in sweet, malty milk. Dairy from grass-fed cows, however, is often described as having a more complex vegetal or barnyard-like flavor. While Daniel, Megan, and I all enjoyed the flavor of this yogurt, Kelli and Amanda did not. Grass-fed dairy may be an acquired taste, but if you want a slightly funky, earthy yogurt, you may enjoy this one.

The Contenders

• 365 Organic Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
• Alexandre Family Farm 100% Grass-Fed A2/A2 Organic Plain Yogurt
• Brown Cow Plain Yogurt
• Dannon Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
• Family Farmstead Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
• Nature’s Promise Organic Whole Milk Yogurt
• Seven Stars Farm Organic Yogurt Plain
• Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk Plain
• Trader Joe's European-Style Organic Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
• Trader Joe's Organic Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
  

In Conclusion

Our editors enjoyed the majority of the plain yogurts we sampled. However, our testers had very different yogurt preferences: While some preferred mild and subtly sweet yogurts, others preferred dairy with more complexity, like those of the grass-fed kind. Most of the yogurts we sampled have just two ingredients: pasteurized milk and live cultures. Some yogurts, however, contain pectin, an ingredient that’s often used to thicken yogurt. In our tests, our editors preferred yogurts that had been naturally thickened during the fermentation process: When bacterial cultures convert the milk’s lactose sugars into lactic acids, it thickens and sours it simultaneously. Both our winners contain just pasteurized milk and live cultures, have just the right amount of tang, and are smooth and creamy. 

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation possible.

I’ve always wanted to be someone who meal preps on the weekends so we have several dinners lined up and ready to go for busy weeknights. But the reality is my husband and I simply do not have the time or energy to plan, grocery shop, clean, parent, and cook several meals in advance. Our solution is a little more half-assed: I’ll roast some vegetables, cook some grains, and spin some salad greens on the weekend. Then, during the week, I’ll dry brine some meat or marinate some fish the day before I plan to serve it, then when it's go-time I quickly cook the fish or meat and mix-and-match it with whatever vegetables and grains we have prepped. It might not be full meal prep, but it makes weeknights a lot simpler. 

One meal we make frequently is juicy, tender pork chops with a subtly sweet honey-mustard sauce. The dish is incredibly easy to make, requires minimal prep, and can be on the table in less than 45 minutes—much of that hands-off oven time. It’s a great weeknight meal, but also elegant enough for a dinner party when paired with the right sides. For all of those reasons, it’s a recipe that’s always in my back pocket, and at this point, I can practically make these pork chops with my eyes closed. All you have to do is dry brine them (if you have time), start the meat at a low temperature in the oven, then finish it in a smoking hot skillet before whipping up a quick pan sauce.

Have Time? Don’t Skip the Dry Brine

At Serious Eats, we’re huge advocates of dry-brining, the process of salting and resting food before you cook it. Though dry-brining isn’t essential, I highly recommend it. Salting the pork draws out its natural liquids, which dissolves the salt on the meat’s surface before it’s reabsorbed. As former Serious Eats editor Sasha wrote in his guide to dry-brining, “the moisture that was initially drawn out of the meat is absorbed to counteract the shift in salt concentration from surface to interior, leaving you with a well-seasoned piece of meat that will now better retain its natural moisture content during cooking.” Below, I recommend dry-brining your pork chops for at least eight hours, but even an hour or two—or even 45 minutes—will be beneficial. (As explained in the brining guide, if you don't have at least 45 minutes to brine, you're actually better off not brining at all and should instead cook the chops immediately after salting them.) 

Reverse Sear Your Pork Chops

Former Serious Eats editor Kenji has written at length about the benefits of reverse searing; the method involves bringing your meat up to temperature in a low oven of about 250°F (121°C), then searing it after. That low heat removes any remaining surface moisture and ensures that your meat is evenly and gently cooked. Once it’s almost at the temperature you’re looking for, you can sear it in a hot pan to give it a good crust. Though the technique is often used to prepare steak, it’s also a great way to cook other cuts of meat—and is how our editorial director, Daniel and I both like to prepare our pork chops.

Make a Quick Pan Sauce

There are many sauces that go well with pork chops, including these lemon butter, rosemary, and apple cider pan sauces. Here, I’ve gone the honey-mustard route, a classic flavor combination that has a touch of sweetness and sharpness. After I sear the pork chops and set them on a wire rack to rest, I drain the remaining fat, then sauté shallots and thyme in a tablespoon of butter until softened. A little white wine or chicken broth goes in, and after it’s reduced by about half, I whisk in the remaining butter, along with mustard, honey, and lemon juice for a silky smooth sauce. And that’s all there is to making a tender, juicy pork chop. Serve the sauce smothered chops with a simple salad and some mashed potatoes, and that’s dinner on the table.

Pat pork chops dry with a paper towel. In a small bowl, combine salt and baking soda. Season pork chops generously on all sides with salt mixture. (You may have some seasoning mixture left over; reserve for another use or discard.) Transfer to a wire rack set in a rimmed 13- by 18-inch baking sheet. If dry-brining chops overnight, refrigerate, uncovered, at least 8 hours and up to 24; otherwise proceed immediately to step 2.

Preheat oven to 250°F (121°C). Season chops with pepper. Place baking sheet with pork chops in oven and cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the chops registers 100 to 110°F (38 to 43°C) for medium-rare, 20 to 25 minutes, or 110 to 120°F (43 to 49°C) for medium, 35 to 40 minutes. To prevent overcooking, start checking temperature 5 to 10 minutes before suggested time. Remove from oven.

Heat oil in a large carbon steel or cast iron skillet over high heat until smoking. Working in batches if necessary to not overcrowd the skillet, place pork chops in skillet and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and an instant-read thermometer registers 120 to 130° (49 to 54°C) for medium-rare or 130 to 140°F (54 to 60°C) for medium, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stack pork chops with tongs, hold them on their sides, and sear the fat caps on the edges until crisp, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat, transfer chops to a clean rack set in a rimmed baking sheet, and let rest for 3 to 5 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

Pour fat from skillet; do not wipe out pan. Add 1 tablespoon butter and melt over medium-high heat. Add shallots and thyme and cook, stirring, until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in white wine or broth and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium and simmer until liquid is slightly reduced, about 4 minutes. Stir in mustard, honey, lemon juice, and remaining 3 tablespoons butter until well combined. Remove from heat, season to taste, and serve chops with sauce spooned on top.

Special Equipment

Wire rack, 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet, instant-read thermometer, large carbon steel or cast iron skillet, tongs, whisk

Notes

This recipe can be prepared with boneless pork loin chops, but boneless pork chops won’t be as flavorful as bone-in. They will likely take less time to cook; to prevent overcooking, start checking temperature 5 to 10 minutes before suggested time for bone-in pork chops.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Leftover pork chops and sauce can be refrigerated separately in airtight containers for up to 3 days. The pork chops can be reheated in the microwave or in a 350°F (175°C) oven or air fryer until warmed through. The sauce can be gently reheated in the microwave on low power.

There are many iterations of chocolate cake, and I love each and every one of them. You could hand me a flourless chocolate cake, a chocolate mug cake, or a no-bake cheesecake, and I’d be thrilled to dig into each and every one of them. There’s one, however, that I don’t get to enjoy very often: Guinness-chocolate cake. I almost never think of making it unless St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner, and I don’t come across it frequently in bakeries or restaurants. The cake is incredibly moist and rich, with a deep chocolate flavor that’s complemented by the beer’s malty, tangy undertones.

The stout-infused chocolate cake recipe below comes from my Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Jasmine Smith. Her sheet cake is balanced, with plenty of flavor from both the chocolate and beer, and a malted vanilla frosting adds just enough sweetness—plus the creamy frosting visually evokes the thick, creamy head on a properly poured stout. Here’s how to make it.

4 Tips for Making a Delicious Guinness-Chocolate Sheet Cake

Use Guinness Extra Stout, if possible. Guinness sells several kinds of beers; their extra stout, which is sold in bottles in the US, has a smooth, creamy finish with toasty coffee notes that complement the chocolate in the cake. Here, we use bottled Guinness Extra Stout, which has less water, more concentrated roasted barley flavor, and residual sugar than the Guinness Draft Stout sold in cans. If you can’t find any Guinness Extra Stout, Dragon Stout or Left Hand Brewery Milk Stout both have a similar flavor profile and would be good substitutes.

Warm up your beer. Some chocolate cake recipes, like devil’s food cake, call for stirring cocoa powder and chocolate into hot water or coffee. Here, we use beer that’s just been brought to a simmer, which helps dissolve the cocoa powder. 

Brush the cake with a Guinness syrup. To keep the cake moist, make a simple syrup by whisking Guinness, sugar, and instant espresso powder together in a saucepan over heat on the stovetop, then brush the cake with it. This not only helps the cake stay softer for longer, but also gives the cake additional stout flavor (most of the alcohol will cook off).

Top it with a malted vanilla frosting. Cream cheese helps stabilize the frosting and gives it its rich, creamy texture. Incorporating malted milk powder gives it a delicious nuttiness and savory depth; the ingredient is made from barley that’s been malted—the process of soaking, germinating, and drying grains—which gives it a distinct earthiness. Malted grains are often used to brew beer, and because much of Guinness’ flavor comes from malted barley, the frosting pairs wonderfully with the cake and enhances the bittersweet flavors of the hops and chocolate. If you love malted milk powder as much as I do, then you’ll probably want to eat the frosting all on its own. Just remember to leave some for the cake.

For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 10- by 15-inch rimmed baking sheet or 9- by 13-inch baking pan with butter and dust with cocoa powder, shaking out excess. (See notes.)

In a small saucepan, bring beer to a simmer over medium heat; remove from heat and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together to combine.

Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla to flour mixture; whisk until well combined and no streaks remain. Gradually pour warmed beer into batter and whisk to combine. (Batter will be thin.) Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back when gently touched, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely in pan on a wire rack, about 1 hour.

While the cake cools, prepare the Guinness Syrup: In a small saucepan, whisk beer, sugar, and espresso granules to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium heat; cook, stirring often, until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a fork, poke the cooled cake all over. Using a pastry brush, brush cake with syrup until all the liquid is absorbed. (It may look like a lot of liquid, but the cake will soak it all up.)

For the Malted Vanilla Frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sugar, malted milk powder, vanilla, and salt on medium speed until smooth, using a flexible spatula to scrape down bowl and beater as needed, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to high, then gradually add heavy cream until mixture is smooth and medium-stiff peaks form, 5 to 6 minutes. (Alternatively, frosting can be prepared in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer.)

Using a flexible spatula or offset spatula, spread frosting over cooled cake. Refrigerate until chilled and set, about 1 hour.

Special Equipment

10- by 15-inch rimmed baking sheet, small saucepan, whisk, toothpick or cake tester, pastry brush, stand mixer or electric hand mixer, flexible spatula or offset spatula 

Notes

Be sure to use bottled Guinness Extra Stout Beer, which has less water, more concentrated roasted barley flavor, and residual sugar than the Guinness Draft Stout sold in cans. If you can’t find any Guinness Extra Stout, Dragon Stout or Left Hand Brewery Milk Stout both have a similar flavor profile and would be good substitutes.

If using a 9- by 13-inch baking pan, you may have to increase baking time by 3 to 5 minutes. 

Dark brown sugar can be substituted for granulated sugar in both the cake and syrup, which will give the dessert deeper caramel notes.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The cake can be baked up to 1 day in advance;once cooled, wrap cake in plastic and store at room temperature. The syrup can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container. The frosting can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container; re-whip in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl using an electric mixer before spreading over cake.

The frosted cake can be loosely covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.