Hello there! I hesitated to send a Midweek Gem this week because I realized that Substack sends you a lot of emails about the livestreams that I’ve been doing. Moving forward with the livestreams, I’m going to curtail those emails.
That said, I wanted to share some exciting news with you! Something called an “advance copy” of Cooking Thai recently arrived on my doorstep.
The book is still being printed overseas but my publisher gets a handful of copies. Chef Pim and I each got one and we’re totally gobsmacked about holding the actual book baby in our hands!
What’s on the cover? One of our favorite recipes in the book — Massaman Curry, based on a time tested recipe by Pim’s grandmother. Pim’s curry pastes are stellar and we developed recipes for you to make it with meat or meatless. There are tips to tweak the heat level so you don’t have to have a Thai built-in heat shield to enjoy this food!
A number of Cooking Thai recipe testers are also PTFS subscribers. We were overwhelmed by their positive response to the flavors and techniques.
It’s been quite a journey to bring Cooking Thai to print. Lots of thrills and near spills. We’ve built it as a solid guide for your Thai cooking adventures for years to come. That’s how Pim and I intend to use the book so we hope you’ll do the same!
How and when can you get the book?Cooking Thai releases on August 25, 2026. The printer is in Asia but luckily the books won’t be shipped through the Strait of Hormuz!
To get a copy ASAP, pre-order it from your favorite book store, cookbook shop, or a vendor like the ones listed here. Pim is planning the book tour so more news will come as things develop. Thanks for your ongoing interest and support.
Congratulations to for winning the giveaway. She cooks lots of Cantonese food so I’ll be curious to know what she thinks of adding Taiwanese flavor to her recipes.
Thanks to all of you who shared your soy sauce brands. And, also to who shed light on La Choy soy sauce and then some.
💎 Focaccia di Recco (one of the best things I’ve ever eaten)
If you live in the Santa Cruz area, get yourself to Mentone in Aptos and order the focaccia di Recco off the specials menu! I’d love for chef David Kinch to permanently add the bedsheet thin flatbread-cracker-quesadilla filled with milky crescenza cheese on the menu. My photo on the right does not do the focaccia justice. 😩
I was so taken by it — a marvel in dough management and manipulation — that I looked up how to make it when we got home from dinner. There are a handful of recipes out there but Janet Fletcher has the scoop from Lidia Bastianich’s recipe. It’s all here on Janet’s website. To get a sense of how it’s made, watch this:
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Coming up for this Sunday Special is a cool noodle dish that Rory and I have been enjoying all week long and we’ve not tired of it.
It’s no secret that one of my favorite places in Paris is G. Detou. In fact, I depend on it so much, for everything from chocolate to vanilla—and lots, lots more. I’ve been quoted as saying that if G. Detou didn’t exist, I couldn’t live in Paris. It’s got everything I need.
Owner Benoît Bourloton is a busy man, spending his days keeping the shop well-stocked with a wide variety of French chocolates, as well as other delicacies. Since we’ve become friends (and what a friend to have!), I asked Benoît if I could stop by and discuss French chocolates, and he gladly invited me into the shop to talk about some of them.
You’re going to love this chocolate chia seed pudding. Seriously, though! I’m always suspicious of chocolate “desserts” made with sneaky healthy ingredients like avocado or sweet potato. I can taste them, so they don’t taste like a real dessert.
This chia pudding, however, is a wholesome treat that I truly enjoy. It actually boasts some impressive nutrition stats, including 8 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, and some healthy plant-based fat. It’s easy to make, too—much easier than traditional custard-based puddings.
You’ll need only four ingredients for the base recipe: your milk of choice, chia seeds, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Once mixed together and left to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, the chia seeds plump up and offer a subtle texture. The end result is rather magical!
“This is the perfect chocolate chia pudding. I have tried several different recipes, and this one is just right! I use lite coconut milk.”
I came back from my travels on book tour in the U.S. to a bounty of gorgeous summer produce in Paris. Strawberries, nectarines, apricots, and rhubarb were glowing at the markets and produce shops, and I’m excited to start baking with them.
Here are some of my summer fruit recipes that are favorites around here…
If you want to give summer fruits a glow-up, bake them over a layer of delectable almond cream, aka, frangipane, in this Summer Fruit Tart. It slices into beautiful wedges and the almond cream keeps the crust crisp. It works with many summer fruits. My favorite is to pair it with just one type of fruit and one type of berry. But you do you.
The nomenclature may be a bit “open to interpretation.” I’ve never seen a fruit tart called a galette in France. But if I went around tsk-tsking people (myself included) for calling a fruit tart a Summer Fruit Galette, I wouldn’t have time to bake…or really, do anything else. And who wants to be a spoilsport?
The word galette is, admittedly pretty, and so is this tart, or galette. (Or, er…crostata.) I’m making one this weekend since it’s easy to put together with a no-fail dough and doesn’t require a tart ring — all that’s needed are your favorite seasonal fruits.
Speaking of names, fruit desserts go by monikers such as grunts, crisps, crumbles, and slumps. I wasn’t the brightest student at school so can’t click off all the differences, but I do know what I like, and this Blueberry Buckle is one heckuva dessert. Imbibed with lemon syrup, it’s incredibly moist, so buckle up… make it, and you’ll find it’s one of the best ways to bake up summer blueberries.
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I took a cue from our friends in Germany, who are no slouches when it comes to baking, via my friend in Berlin, and like to bake up her Yeasted Plum Tart. One could argue (again!) that it’s close to a cake, but one could also argue that it has a press-in crust, which means no rolling, so it’s a draw. Either way, it’s a neat way to enjoy plums.
This Strawberry Rhubarb Tart marries tangy rhubarb with its natural partner, strawberries. For those who like not-too-sweet desserts, anything with rhubarb fits that bill. But I won’t say a word if you pair it with a sunny scoop of Lemon Verbena Ice Cream, or spoon liquor-spiked Sabayon alongside, as an accompaniment.
As Elijah Kelley sang in the musical Hairspray, the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice…
And the tumble of dark berries in this Black Berry Galette is both juicy and black. I used blackberries and cherries in the one above, but there’s no reason you can’tswap in blueberries, boysenberries, or if you’re lucky enough to get them, mulberries, which are the juiciest of all the blackest of berries.
Whenever we visit French friends in the countryside, even in the middle of summer, invariably there’s a bowl of apples in the kitchen. If you can’t resist apples either, this Apple-Blackberry Slab Pie, inspired by pie-whiz Cathy Barrow, is sure to please. While the combination of apples and berries might surprise you, I assure you, they’re a perfect match.
As anyone who’s asked me, “What’s your favorite________?” you know I don’t like to play favorites, but I’ll admit that some of my favorite fruits to bake with are fresh apricots. Raw, they’re sweet and juicy but when baked, the skins soften, making them tart and tangy. Under a layer of crunchy, almond-scented topping, this Apricot and Cherry Tart doesn’t need much embellishment, although Vanilla Ice Cream provides a sweet contrast to the assertive fruits in the tart.
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Mixed Berry Shortcakes are the things to prepare when you just can’t make up your mind which berries to use. This dessert proves that you can have it all. Top it off with a crispy-topped biscuit, soaked with a puddle of berry juices, and the whole shebang just screams summer.
When I was at Chez Panisse, a chefaccused us of not cooking, but shopping. Not sure if it was meant to be an insult, or what, but gathering the best ingredients and sometimes doing as little to them as possible are still my goals. Shopping is where it all begins.
We don’t get a lot of blueberries here in Paris, but in the south of France, I find them at the markets, locally grown, and I’ve never tasted better blueberries. This simple Blueberry Cobbler highlights these berries and is easy to make in a skillet, which is great since when I’m staying in someone else’s home on vacation, it’s rare to find just the right size cake pan or baking dish. And this cobbler is adaptable. The drop biscuits on top save you from rolling anything out, which is another reason this recipe is a keeper.
I’m not a fan of “You should”-ing people, but if you haven’t been to Ireland, you might consider going. When I was there, Irish cooking star Rachel Allen made this very tasty Plum-Rhubarb Crisp, a combination that I’d never considered. I should get back to Ireland more than I do, but I still dream about the lunch Rachel made for me, and the hearty Irish Brown Bread I learned to make while I was there. (Unfortunately due to Brexit, I can no longer get the extra-coarse Irish flour that makes the loaf so special. Maybe it’s time to make up and invite the UK back?)
If you want to call something “Texan,” you’d better be prepared to get an earful about it. So I went right to the source, Texas baker Rebecca Rather, baking up her Peach Cobbler. Texans sure like their desserts, and traditions, and if you want something equally all-American, my Peach Shortcake is another way to use a bounty of ripe peaches.
Sometimes you just want a simple dessert that doesn’t require anything more than tossing a few ingredients together and baking them. When that’s the case, theseHoney-Roasted Plums come to the rescue. They form their own sauce in the baking dish and are terrific paired with yogurt, fromage blanc, or a little crème fraîche.
When it comes to frozen fruit desserts, where fruits really shine are in sorbets, such as this Plum Sorbet, which doesn’t have a drop of milk or cream in it. But I assure you, you won’t miss them. This sorbet is smooth and creamy all by itself. I like to serve it with a compote of fresh berries and a few crisp cookies alongside, such as these extra-crisp, nutty Pains d’Amande or Italian Almond Cookies.
Here in Paris, what really gets me excited is when I see piles of cherries at the market. I get even more excited when I see griottes, sour cherries, which are rarities, and fragile, but are oh-so-good. Whether you find sweet or sour cherries, or a mix, all are good in my no-recipe Cherry Jam, which was even a hit (well, mostly…) with the “Recipe, please!” crowd.
I eventually caved and gave exact proportions for it. But if you’re not in a jam-making mood, check out this Cherry Compote, which I like to freeze in small portions, ready to defrost in the colder months. I enjoy serving it with a scoop of ice cream, such as Fresh-Ginger White Chocolate or Fig Leaf and Honey.
Another way to get a taste of summer the rest of the year — I make sure to have a few jars of Strawberry Jam to put on our breakfast table, which are very welcome, well after berry season is behind us.
Today the temperature hit 82ºF (28ºC), and I’m planning to serve glasses of Strawberry Spritz for upcoming apéro hours, a low-ABV refresher that is pretty much summer in a glass.
I’ve got some fresh strawberries infusing in white vermouth at the moment (I’m sure you could use frozen berries, too), which’ll be mixed with tonic water, a handful of ice, and some additional berries.
It’s a long weekend in the United States as we celebrate Memorial Day. I know you’re all busy but I just wanted to thank all the folks like Jim Christol, , , , , and who attended my live video with ! The full video playback is above.
PTFSers asked great questions that got answered and then some. When you watch the video, you’ll glean information about:
When soy sauce got to Taiwan and how colonization impacted the condiment and the island nation’s cuisine
There’s a soy sauce fermentation index that’s akin to the N in fish sauce!
Black soybeans versus yellow soybeans
How fat and protein determine soy sauce flavor
What is tamari? Bottom vat soy sauce? Soy paste?
Taiwanese soy sauce flavor distinctions and how they factor into Heydoh, Clarissa’s new soy sauce company
Single and double fermentation of soy sauce
Soy sauce shopping and storage tips
Heydoh Soy Sauce Tasting Notes and Giveaway
During the interview, I tasted Clarissa’s new soy sauce, Heydoh (named for the Chinese word for black soybean). It was delicious — full of layered savoriness, umami, and with a hint of sweetness. Compared to other regular soy sauces, Heydoh is about 20% lower in sodium.
Heydoh is the first soy sauce I’ve tasted that made me want to just sip it! The Classic is terrific for cooking and dipping sauces. The Silky is double fermented and good for finishing dishes, and drizzling — even on ice cream. Seriously. (I do have a sweet-savory tofu ice cream recipe inspired by a trip to Japan!)
The Classic and Silky are sold at the Heydoh website, where you can also check the store locator to see if it’s sold near you. Meantime, Clarissa generously offered to gift a PTFS subscriber Heydoh soy sauce!
The Heydoh giveaway lowdown:
What is being given away: A complimentary soy sauce duo set
Who is eligible: Anyone with a valid mailing address in the United States: the 50 States, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
When the giveaway closes: Wednesday, May 27 at 10am PST. I’ll randomly pick a winner and notify the person via email.
One thing Clarissa mentioned was the color in soy sauce. It’s one of ways you can sense quality. I was struck by Heydoh’s beautiful amber cast, a result of careful soybean selection and fermentation. After our chat, I compared it to a few other soy sauces I have.
La Choy is not my favorite brand. I keep it around to benchmark what my family first used when we got to America in 1975. It’s not naturally brewed like traditional soy sauce and has stuff that’s not normally found in soy sauce. The color is dark and the flavor is sharp, somewhat chemically.
Pearl River Bridge Special Golden Label is a darker brown than HeyDoh and it’s made in a mainland Chinese/Cantonese style. It’s not as complex tasting as Heydoh but is very good and my go-to for cooking and recipe development.
Zhongba Soy Sauce is the darkest because it contains a special mushroom from Sichuan. The flavor is very deep and intense, as is the viscosity. Look how Zhongba keeps its amoeba-like shape with rounded edges. It is only available through the Mala Market.
So, not all soy sauces are alike. As Clarissa says, and I have echoed about fish sauce, you want to find one that you like for dishes that you like to cook! Check in with my Mega Soy Sauce Buying Guide to delve into the many kinds of soy sauces available.
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Wood Ear Salad and Beginner’s Guide
In the aftermath of the soy sauce chat, I test drove Heydoh against Pearl River Bridge (PRB) in a Wood Ear Mushroom Salad. If you've been to dumpling restaurants like Din Tai Fung, you’ve seen it on the menu and perhaps have tried it. It’s handsome, crunchy, slithery, and tangy savory.
Wood Ear Mushroom Salad done at home is leagues better than what a restaurant churns out! Get the recipe at my website.
Clarissa and Ivy Chen’s recipe in their book Made in Taiwan is much better than what I’ve ever had at restaurants. Wood ear salad (liang ban hei mu er) is not just for eating with dumplings. It’s a nice nibble to go with a rice plate, noodles, or even a green salad dressed with olive oil, as Rory and I had it yesterday.
It’s also super easy to make and you can keep it in the fridge for a good 4 days, if not a week! It’s got ginger for a nice bite too.
The salad was excellent with PRB as it was with Heydoh Classic Soy Sauce, though I had to add just a little drizzle extra of Heydoh to bring the salinity up. Once I made the adjustment, the salad popped with extra nuanced flavor. You don’t need Heydoh soy sauce to make the salad. As Clarissa says in her book, Kimlan or Kikkoman will work for her recipes. Make the wood ear mushroom salad recipe at my website.
What are wood ear mushroom?
You know shiitake but what about wood ear mushrooms? They’re ebony or dark brown, crunchy, and loaded with health benefits while being low in calories. Sometimes they are called black fungus, which sounds scary and lacks the charm of wood ear 🪵 👂. They’re used throughout East and Southeast Asia in a variety of dishes, such as the above salad and classic hot and sour soup (suan la tang).
These Chive Egg Pockets are everything a breakfast should be: crispy, golden, and impossibly satisfying. They’re the kind of comforting handheld meal you’d find sizzling on a griddle at a bustling Chinese street market—sweet, garlicky chives and rich egg tucked inside crispy, chewy dough. One bite and you’re somewhere else entirely. The Breakfast That Lives […]
We’ve been making this Hot Dog Potato Salad for years. It’s perfect for summer gatherings with family and friends when you need a satisfying and tasty side dish! This recipe is a great new way to savor hot dogs, particularly when maybe you don’t have quite enough for each person at the table to have […]
I’m not sure if this is a sign of hitting a certain age — like a sudden interest in bird feeders (check, and please tell me about yours), or beekeeping (well, in the TikTok sense, not sorry), and animated conversations on the best pillows (I hate mine) — but I’ve found over the last year that I have very strong opinions on chicken salad and the correct way to make it, which, naturally, is my way. I hope I’m in the right place to release them into the world.
These scones are made with almond flour, and frankly, maybe all scones should be—whether you need them to be gluten-free or not. They’re 100 percent delicious, featuring perfectly tender insides and golden exteriors that offer a light crunch along the edges. Jammy burst blueberries, lemon zest and a light sprinkle of raw sugar take them to the next level!
I didn’t come up with this idea myself. When I published my Blueberry Scones, which are made with whole wheat or all-purpose flour, I received several questions about how to make the recipe with almond flour.
Since almond flour has become my favorite flour over the past year or two, I had to figure it out. Despite being made entirely with almond flour, the scones don’t taste overtly of almond. They’re easy to make with simple, wholesome, lower carbohydrate ingredients, so they’re a win all around.
It took seven tries to get the recipe just right. Along the way, it became the topping for a Peach Cobbler. I’m delighted with this recipe and all the variations you’ll find below.
These strawberry bars are incredibly simple to make, with just 6 ingredients. A crisp shortbread base holds strawberry jam and fresh strawberries, and the topping is a crumble made from the same shortbread dough! They’re so easy, not-too-sweet, and you’ll make them again and again. Baking Doesn’t Have to Be Hard Sometimes you come across […]
Learn how to clean abalone and make abalone sotbap, a nourishing Korean stone pot rice dish with tender abalone, miyeok, garlic, and crispy scorched rice at the bottom.
Moo shu pork is an iconic Chinese restaurant dish of stir-fried pork, cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms, served on paper-thin, chewy pancakes with a sweet hoisin-based sauce. It is an absolutely delicious combination, and this moo shu pork recipe will yield that nostalgic flavor from American Chinese restaurants past. Moo Shu Memories Fun to eat and […]
Unlike women of my mother’s generation, I’ve never killed a live chicken. However, I have cut up a lot of whole birds to hone my cooking skills, save money, and prepare extraordinary foods.
I was inspired by watching my mom who was inspired by supermarket whole chicken sales. She’d send my dad and me to buy six or so birds. She’d then go at them with her sharp knife — all of which would result in a pot of comforting chicken pho (pho ga), garlicky Maggi roasted chicken (ga ro ti), and a whole host of Vietnamese charcuterie that we’d put into banh mi and much more.
Naturally, when Rory and I started living together, I began buying on-sale whole chickens to experiment on cutting them up myself. I practiced in our tiny apartment in West Los Angeles, and our eating life became full of stocks, stews, liver pate, and roast chicken dinners. He was a poor grad student and I was a low-level university administrator but we at a diet rich in chicken-y foods. (This year marks our 30th wedding anniversary so I guess he didn’t mind my chicken obsessions.)
From cutting up whole chickens, I learned bird anatomy and became and expert carver of roasted chicken, duck, and turkey. I also became a better chicken shopper (When are bigger or smaller birds better?) and cook (What cut works better for which dish?).
My Julia Child moment at home.
Butchering chicken is a cooking lifeskill that unless you are a vegetarian, you ought to master. Unfortunately, most modern cooks do not know how to break down a chicken and make the most of it.
PTFS subscribers have expressed keen interest in learning how to break down a chicken. I’ve had it on my to-do list but something I saw last week kicked me into high gear: Whole Foods was selling boneless skinless chicken thighs for $10.99 a pound! Meanwhile, the WF whole chicken was $2.69 per pound.
A whole chicken is like manna from Heaven. A whole bird can seed many more delicious meals than a pound of deboned, skinless chicken. I bought several chickens and recruited Rory to help me make the four (4) videos in this dispatch:
Chicken rinsing (yes or no and how?)
How to cut up a whole chicken (+ what size and kind of bird to buy)
Cutting and deboning chicken parts (for good flavor and cuts that you can only get at specialty markets)
Chop chicken bones like a boss (for better broth and excellent pho, whack away!)
These videos will also help you with:
food safety issues
buying chicken intelligently
getting better flavor
specialty-style cuts
broth/pho technique
cooking confidence to deal with bones, boning knives, and cleavers
Feel free to share your knowledge and tips too!
These four Chicken Butchering videos comprise a mini class, which is free to paid subscribers. They seed and sponsor PTFS knowledge. Join us to access this complete post, mine the recipe index, and gain so much more. Thanks for your considerations!
Book tours are lots of fun. It’s exciting meeting people, and in spite of the jet lag, and bleariness from sometimes getting up at 4am, you try to get in some good meals, too. Also important is getting fresh food, which we eat a lot of at home, but hard to do while on the road.
Thankfully, some wonderful folks brought me a beautiful basket of cherries and strawberries from the Berkeley Farmers’ Market while I was doing a booksigning nearby at Market Hall Foods, and I enjoyed the fruit as soon as I got home. (Thanks to the women who gave them to me!) I did also get a few gifts of chocolate, some more chocolate, and then, some more chocolate, which I guess is to be expected when you’re doing a tour for a chocolate book. 😊
My suitcase is already at capacity, even though I arrived with it half full. But it’s nice to see people enjoying the book, which has surpassed our (me and my publisher’s) expectations, as well as the venues selling the book. So thanks to everyone who bought or ordered a copy.
I signed a few hundred atOmnivore Books for people who came to say hi, and for others who ordered signed copies. If you ordered one, it should arrive shortly.
I did another event at Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco. That sold out quickly since they could only seat so many people, but if you’re in San Francisco, do stop by. They do factory tours, teach classes, and have a chocolate salon where you can sip hot chocolate and enjoy delicious desserts made with their small-batch, single-origin chocolate. (Pro tip: Go for the S’more, if they have it on the menu.)
At Dandelion Chocolate
We had a wonderful turnout and enthusiastic crowd at Dandelion Chocolate, where pastry chef Stephen Durfee did a masterful job ofbaking and slicing Torta Divina, a rich chocolate cake that’s in The Great Book of Chocolate, adapted from author and baking instructor Nick Malgieri.
I had a really terrific time chatting with Stephen. (I want to call him “chef,” but he’s wearing a T-shirt, so I’m just going to go with Stephen.) We both talked about how the world of chocolate has greatly expanded since I wrote the first edition of the book and since the founding of Dandelion in 2010; the owners came to Paris and did a chocolate tour with me, then returned and started making chocolate.
While I can say that I didn’t have anything to do with their success, I’m glad they’ve been successful, and their chocolate is considered some of the best in the world. I did also mention how bean to bar has now become a thing in France as well, influenced by the American chocolate revolution, as chocolate specialist Chloé Doutre-Roussel dubbed it; they use the English term, bean to bar, in France.
On the road, especially with all the chocolate I’m eating, I make an effort to get as much fresh food as I can, whenever and wherever possible. I was happy to be staying near a greenmarket in San Francisco, and was relieved to see baskets and boxes of berries and other fruits and vegetables that came from local farms.
I know it’s triggering for some when I post pictures of strawberries that cost $7/basket, but since that’s what they cost in France — at least the good ones — I’m not stupefied. I also know that it takes a lot of work to grow, pick, and deliver berries, which are fragile, and I didn’t see any of the berry farmers pulling up in BMWs. All I know is that last year I spent over €80($93) on things that would repel the slugs that decimated our garden, including the peppers, basil, and tomatoes, so I’m fine paying for someone who succeeds in the battle against them.
Speaking of $$, I remember when the $4 toast was considered a harbinger of the downfall of San Francisco.
Now, that seems like a bargain. But one of my first stops in SF isThe Mill, where it’s become a custom for me to meet up with Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks, one of the OG food blogs. Heidi moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, but lucky for me (and for San Francisco), she recently moved back. We caught up over avocado toast and talked about the difference between sunny SoCal and foggy San Francisco. As wistful as I am about San Francisco, the chilly fog that rolls in at night is a deal-breaker for me, moving back there.
The Mexican food scene has ramped up in Paris, partially thanks to my friend Carlos at Comer, which is excellent, but a lot of it still doesn’t match what you can get in California. I arrived rather late in San Francisco the first night and my friends who I was staying with saved me a burrito from El Castillito. Like bagels in New York, there’s an endless discussion about who makes the best Mission burrito in SF. I still rank Pancho Villa at the top. But I had many a burrito from El Castillito in my lifetime — at least in San Francisco — although nowadays, my French-trained tummy can only handle a half of one before I’m full.
Before my event at Market Hall Foods, I had what Diana Kennedy railed about: the Mexican combo platter, at Cactus Taqueria. The late Ms. Kennedy was famously prickly about, well…everything. I once spent a week with her and avoided her wrath but heard about it from others who were on the receiving end of it. However, I stopped caring what people thought of me, or what I ate, a few years ago, and am a lot happier. Besides, if I went around scolding people making non-authentic Niçoise salads or putting chicken on Caesar salads, I wouldn’t have time to write about all the delicious things I get to eat. And when you’re at the airport, or on book tour, a chicken Caesar often hits the spot.
Not sure what Madame Kennedy would have to say about Nopalito, but the crisp quesadilla with asparagus, brussels sprouts, and fresh epazote (above, right) was so good, I went back a second time to have it. Literally everything is good at Nopalito, including the tamal with soft masa filled with ancho-braised chicken, and the enchiladas de mole con pollo, chicken enchiladas with mole, above left. (Yes, there’s a mole recipe in my chocolate book, too.)
A few months ago I went to the Staub factory in France and met Belle English, who runs the test kitchen at Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco. I remember going into my firstWilliams-Sonoma store in San Francisco, which was on Sutter Street, where I saw such wonders as Duralex glasses, Le Creuset cookware, and curiosities like madeleine molds and tart rings from France. Chuck Williams introduced America to the food processor. It was a store for people who liked to cook, and I was fascinated by everything they carried.
So it was a pleasure to be in their gorgeous test kitchen, where I got to play with all the kitchen gadgets, and Belle and I made Bouchons together, from my chocolate book. As soon as they were cool enough to handle (actually, she ate one that was still a bit too warm…), dove into them.
I also stopped into Bitters and Bottles, a shop I discovered during Covid when I was doing Drinking French apéro hours on Instagram. When I wrote the book, I did a lot of checking around to see what French bottles were available in the U.S., and Bitters and Bottles had a stellar selection, including some that are hard to find, even in France. Interestingly, Americans seem to like many French apéritifs more than the French do!
I did see that after my visit, they’re offering a Drinking French box with seven of my favorite bottles, which are perfect for summer, including Cap Corse and Byrrh; these are especially good over ice or with a splash of tonic water and an orange slice for a refreshing spritz.
I loved my meal at Nari, above, and am looking forward to chef/owner Pim Techamuanvivit’s upcoming book, Cooking Thai, co-authored with . I got a sneak preview of it, and it’s not only a beautiful book, but very well-written, making the authentic Thai dishes approachable.
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I was sad to learn a few years back that one of my favorite dim sum places, Hong Kong Lounge II, had a fire and had closed. So it was nice to hear they reopened as HK Lounge Bistro in the unlikely neighborhood of South of Market. In my day, people used to hang out in that area late at night and into the morning hours, when they wanted to have some unrestrained fun, which sometimes involved restraints. Although you didn’t hear that from me…
I was thrilled to dig into a big platter of their beef chow fun, above, was still excellent, and had wok hei, the smoky char that rice noodles get from being wok-fried. That smokiness is a big part of the flavor of a good chow fun. Otherwise it’s just a big heap of noodles.
While they may not look all that good in the picture (above, right), I dreamed about their crisp tofu skins with shrimp. They weren’t quite as good as I remembered, but it was nice to have a big plate of pea shoots, above left. When Romain first tasted pea shoots, he asked the same question as I did: Why don’t we have those in Paris? I even memorized the words for them in Chinese, thinking they might be an “off-menu” item. But no, they don’t seem to exist in France. However, it’s hard to believe anyone could make them better than here.
After my event at Dandelion Chocolate, I met up with friends at The Morris. One of them was owner Paul Einbund, a major fan of, and expert on, Chartreuse. I did a video with him in his apartment, which is filled with bottles of Chartreuse, old and new, but Instagram seems to have buried all my videos somewhere (which is why I’m now doing them here). I started off with an Alaska cocktail. If you go, the Chartreuse Slushy is a must.
We share a whole smoked duck with root vegetables, which was generous enough to feed five of us. I’d filled up on chocolate cake before dinner — oops! That shocked Paul, but others who know me are used to it.
After dinner Paul brought out a special treat: Blueberry Chartreuse. In the 1970s, the monks who make Chartreuse tried to make it more popular, and had the idea to add fresh blueberry juice to it and bottle it. There’s also an orange version and Paul swears there was a raspberry one as well. They’re really hard to find, although one doesn’t drink them for the flavor since they didn’t age well. He called the taste “Flat Coke,” which was hard to dispute.Paul said in an article: “I would actively dissuade my guests from purchasing the late ’70s fruit Chartreuse bottlings.”
I woke up the next day feeling okay. The blueberry-flavored Chartreusedidn’t cause any harm. And I’m looking forward to the book on Chartreuse that Jordan Mackay wrote with Paul, which is the book that I wanted to do. But they know more than I do about the subject, although I’m happy to do more research on it. Maybe that’ll be my next book…and book tour?
Imagine a wrapper so thin it’s almost translucent, yet strong and chewy enough to cradle a mountain of savory filling — that’s the magic of fresh moo shu pancakes, or chūnbǐng (春饼). They are as easy as combining all-purpose flour, salt, and boiling water. We’ll show you the simple rolling technique to get perfectly paper-thin […]
Beef with Snow Peas is a classic Chinese stir-fry that belongs in every home cook’s weeknight rotation. Tender, savory slices of marinated flank steak meet crisp, sweet snow peas in a glossy, umami-rich sauce. It all comes together in under 30 minutes! Serve it over a bowl of steamed white rice and you’ve got a […]
This vegetable stir fry tastes as good as it looks! It features perfectly fork-tender, seared vegetables in a glossy sauce that leans more savory than sweet. I love the vibrant combination of broccoli, bell pepper, carrot and red onion shown here, but you can change up the vegetables with the seasons.
Serve it as a simple side dish, or turn it into a full meal by adding rice and protein, like the crispy baked tofu shown here. Add a sprinkle of green onion and just-toasted sesame seeds, and this healthy homemade dish will taste much fresher than takeout.
On the heels of our fish sauce 101 livestream a couple weeks ago, I reached out to cookbook author and now entrepreneur , who recently co-founded Hey Doh, a new artisanal soy sauce company. Clarissa is among my go-to experts on Taiwanese and Chinese cooking. A former Los Angeleno, she’s now based in Taipei, Taiwan.
She sent me Hey Doh products that I’m going to taste for the first time on Thursday, May 21 during a livestream! I’ve also got lots of soy sauce questions because despite using it regularly, I don’t know enough about it.
Due to our time difference, I’ve scheduled the livestream for 6pm PST / 9pm ET / 9am TPE — it’ll be happy hour or breakfast, depending on where you are. The interview will run 30 to 45 minutes.
To recap, on Thursday, May 21, at 6pm PST, you’ll get a Substack email about the livestream. Click on the link to join our chat about Hey Doh, soy sauce making, and why Taiwanese soy sauce is distinctive.
💎 Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry Blueprint
I’ve been adding asparagus to many recipes of late because it’s one of my favorite spring-time vegetables. Why not indulge till you’re nearly satiated? Susan M. wrote last week and reminded me of a terrific stir-fry from Ever-Green Vietnamese. It’s the Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry on page 195, in the sides chapter. I love that chapter because I could make a meal of sides.
I originally conceived of this stir-fry in spring, when our farmers harvest super delicious asparagus, carrots, and radishes. (Yes, you can cook radishes and they’re good. Chef David Chang got me doing it it years ago and I’ve never looked back.)
I set up the stir-fry recipe as a blueprint for you to plug and play with it. If you don’t yet have the book, I just published the recipe on my website. Make the Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry recipe a couple times and you’ll be riffing on it endlessly.
If you want an asparagus only side dish to serve at room temp, look to my very easy asparagus dressed up with a veil of soy sauce and sesame oil. It’s a great combination of asparagus’s natural umami with that of soy sauce, all of which is made fragrant and enriched by the power of sesame.
I return to this Chinese-ish asparagus annually. I have it on my mind because of next week’s conversation with Clarissa. Get the asparagus with soy sauce and sesame recipe. (P.S. It’s naturally vegan, like the Weeknight Vegetable Stir-Fry!)
💎 Recipe recap from the last 2 months
No wonder March and April flew by. I cooked up a lot for you to play with. Here are the recipes mentioned in my dispatches to you. Below are PTFS recipes as well as those posted at the website. I’ve updated the PTFS recipe index to include them too!
And, don’t forget the mega Fish Sauce FAQ and buying guide at the website. It’s not a recipe but the ingredient figures into so many recipes nowadays.
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Coming up for this Sunday Special are some butchering tips I owe you.
Memorial Day BBQs have always been events at our house to look forward to––sunshine, spring temperatures, the smell of fresh cut grass, and yes, delicious food! Check out this list of unique Memorial Day recipes to shake up your kitchen and/or grill this year and serve something different alongside (or in lieu of?) burgers and […]
A few days ago, someone left a comment here asking which oven we use at America’s Test Kitchen.
I realized then that I never properly said goodbye.
Or perhaps goodbye is the wrong word. The newsletter quietly moved homes a few months ago, and somewhere between filming in Boston, recipe testing, new-book deadlines, and the general chaos of life, I forgot to leave a note on the door.
I still open this app from time to time out of habit. Usually late at night. I’ll scroll through old posts, photographs, recipes, and comments from years ago. It’s a little strangely emotional seeing pieces of your former self preserved in chronological order like that. Tiny snapshots of who you were at the time.
This space holds a very particular chapter of my life.
Just like life, it comes with its own ups and downs.
And somehow, through all of it, many of you stayed.
You cooked the recipes. You sent kind emails. You corrected my mistakes gently. You told me stories about your families, kitchens, and the dishes you grew up eating. Over time, this stopped feeling like a newsletter and started feeling more like an ongoing conversation.
The work itself has changed quite a bit since those early posts. What started as a small food blog eventually grew into books, photography, and now Flavor Forward and In the Test Kitchen. Science became a bigger part of the storytelling. The recipes became more detailed. The audience grew larger than I ever imagined. sitting at that little table years ago, balancing plates near the window, trying to chase good light.
A few months ago, I decided to move the newsletter to a new platform. Mostly because I needed more flexibility and a space that felt better suited for where this work is headed next. The newsletter itself hasn’t changed in spirit, though. It’s still me standing in the kitchen, trying to figure out the best way to make a veggie burger, why certain smells trigger memory so intensely, or why tiny adjustments in technique can completely transform the way food tastes.
I should have posted this publicly here sooner. When the newsletter moved, I was only able to notify email subscribers directly. Over the past few weeks, I started noticing comments stacking up in Notes and realized many people who followed the newsletter here never actually saw that update. One of the strange quirks of these platforms is that followers and subscribers don’t always overlap in the ways you assume
Substack gave me a home to share my writing with you. There was something comforting about the quiet rhythm of writing here and sharing food with all of you. I’ll always be grateful for that. But like all creative work, this space evolved over time, and eventually I did too.
If you’ve recently subscribed here and wondered where everything went, I’d love for you to join me over at The Flavor Files. That’s where all the new essays, recipes, and guides are living now.
And if you’ve been here from the beginning, thank you. Truly.
For reading. For cooking. For staying curious with me for all these years.
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