It’s been a nutty and seedy time my kitchen these days. I mean that in good culinary ways. Two recipes got me thinking about how we transform nuts and seeds to use their lusciousness in foods. More often than not, we think of chopping nuts. Seeds are added whole to dishes.
But if you take a minute to pound or grind nuts or seeds, you’ll release their aroma and oils so they can efficiently enrich dishes. For instance, I pound sesame seeds for a last minute flourish in my Vietnamese pomelo salad (gỏi bưởi). It’s such a lean salad that it needs fattiness to help balance and unite all the components. Pounded sesame seeds enrich without making the salad slick and oily; the seeds are rendered into teeny tiny bits, not a liquid.
Vietnam is the world’s leading exporter of cashews but traditional Vietnamese recipes employ whole or chopped cashews only for stir-fries or candy. Andy Baraghani got me thinking otherwise. He grinds cashews for a creamy nuoc cham sauce that’s voluptuous, tangy, a little hot and a lot umami.
Cashews have a natural fattiness and mild sweetness so grinding them up for the sauce unlocks those qualities and then some. In the photo below, you wouldn’t know that cashews are behind the melon-colored sauce atop the roasted carrots, napa cabbage and mint. (There’s a hint of fish sauce in there but you could sub soy sauce, if you like!)
The purple napa could have been regular napa, mild radicchio, frisee, arugula, Romaine, iceberg or a mixture of them. I was inspired by springtime carrots at our local market and the mint growing with abandon in our garden.
Rory devoured nearly 75 percent of that plate. I should have doubled the recipe. He deemed the dish a keeper. I admitted that I’d simply riffed on the roasted carrots and creamy nuoc cham recipe at my website (which you should bookmark!). I added this iteration to the write up so you have my formula.
Note that the roasted carrots and creamy nuoc cham keeps for days in the fridge (hello meal prep!). Roast the carrots in the evening or early morning if it’s hot where you are. Double, triple, or quadruple the recipe for a crowd. Tinker with it because it goes with many other veggies and even lettuce wraps.
From that nutty sauce, I turned to a seedy recipe for Taiwanese sesame cold noodles (涼麵 Liáng Miàn, literally “Cold Noodles”), published in and Ivy Chen’s Made in Taiwan cookbook. Their recipe headnote (introduction):
There’s a cold noodle vendor called Liu Mama’s 劉媽媽麵館 in Taipei that’s open exclusively from 9:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. By virtue of their hours, they serve a distinct class of night owls who crave sesame-drenched noodles with scoops of julienned cucumbers. It sounds bland in comparison to the typical and perhaps more comforting repertoire of greasy late-night skewers, but there’s something both fortifying and refreshing about finishing off a really late night with a large plate of cold noodles. These noodles are also very much a popular lunch staple. So popular, in fact, that you can buy them refrigerated and ready-to-eat at all convenience stores across the country.
Noodles morning, noon and night? I’m in. I’ve used sesame paste for similar noodle dishes but theirs called for roasted sesame seeds and throwing all the sauce ingredients into the blender. So easy and I happen to have sesame seeds in the freezer!
Ivy and Clarissa’s sesame noodles had a wonderful depth of flavor that I’d not experienced before. It was because of the freshly roasted sesame seeds and their sauce formula. The seeds lent flavor and body to the thick sauce, which was plop-able. Optional garlic and chile garnishes allow you to layer on flavors. WOW.
Even if you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, you’ll love these noodles.
However, we wanted more vegetables and a little less noodles and sauce. I remade the sesame cold noodles several times to tweak it to fit our lifestyle. Additionally, I came up with a shortcut sauce(!), if you don’t want to start from seeds and nuts.
After going multiple rounds with the recipe, I realized that you can take sesame cold sesame noodles many directions — vegetarian, vegan, or with chicken, if you like! I bet you’ll craft more ways to play with the versatile sauce.
Part of my recipe development was trying all toppings, noodles, and sauces.
Below you’ll find:
Sesame Cold Noodles recipe in full text + a downloadable PDF
Shortcut sesame noodle sauce recipe in full text + a downloadable PDF
Sesame seed shopping and toasting tips
Noodle selection tips to go vegan, gluten-free, or whole grain + a pro-tipe for making them ramen-esque chewy
Keep this recipe handy for the summer for easy meals, entertaining, potlucks or taking on a picnic. You can have so much fun with it.
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My book tour was fun, which was how I spent most of May, with a final stop in Paris. Along the way, it was amazing to meet so many of you, including readers and followers, as well as other cookbook authors, bakers, owners of cookbook shops, chocolate-makers, and Paris-lovers.
I was bowled over by the turnout at my events and my only wish was that I could have done more, although it’s hard to be away from home longer than three weeks, and it takes the better part of the week after you return to get over the jet lag and catch up on everything that happened while you were away. Such as somehow in my absence, something smelling like industrial-strength mint syrup (or cleaner?) was put into the refillable spray bottle of locally made, eco-friendly bathroom cleaner that we use, and no one knows what it is or how it got there.
If anyone has a clue, kindly tell me. I don’t know whether to clean the bathroom with it, or mix it with sparkling water.
As anyone who’s traveled lately knows, things have become a lot more challenging both on the ground and in the air. I give a lot of credit to people who work in airports and on airplanes, as well as travelers who can handle the rigors of travel.
Well, except for the guy next to me on the flight from SFO to LAX, who loudly used his phone just until the last nanosecond when we took off, then continuing the conversation, equally as loud, timed exactly at the moment the wheels of our plane touched ground.
All of us in rows 12-22 (but especially me) got to hear all about how Carol wasn’t in on the meeting but Bill and Warren were, and Pam doesn’t know about it but they’ve got to get the files to the branch in Tennessee, although if they don’t make it there, Tom is going to have a meltdown, and Bill and Howard in other branch offices are going to have to cover for them. I learned that Susan may have to be looped in for the meeting about it, but not to tell Carol. I don’t know what that guy does, but it must be important enough to interrupt the lives of everyone around him.
I’ve always found this post about what authors should do, and shouldn’t do, on book tours pretty spot-on. I think I followed most of them, although I’m waiting for someone to write one about how not to behave on airplanes, which people should have to sign a paper stating that they read it and agree to its terms.
Blueberries at the greenmarket in San Francisco.
I tried to use my downtime wisely, to keep my energy high for meeting everyone. But one thing I recommend that everyone do on the road is to eat well. It can be hard to get your fruits and vegetables in when you’re traveling, which, curiously, is one of the things that American visitors tell me they miss when they’re in France. (If you want fruits and vegetables, rather than looking in cafés and restaurants, it’s best to go to the markets to pick them up.) Maybe our reputation precedes us, but when I come across a salad bar when I’m traveling, in spite of the Debbie Downers about them, it feels really good to have a big bowl (or box) of spinach, cherry tomatoes, tofu, florets of broccoli, grated raw carrots, some proteins, and even alfalfa sprouts, which Pee-wee Herman said, look and taste like hair.
It’s nice to eat “healthy” whenever you can….so you can indulge when something extra-delicious crosses your path, such as this incredible Tin Roof Sundae…
The Tin Roof Sundae with caramel gelato, marshmallow sauce, and salted Spanish peanuts on a crisp waffle cookie, at Mozza, was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten.
How could I resist?
I also got to indulge in slices of pepperoni pizza, uber-dark brownies at Hani’s, and marshmallowy S’Mores at a.o.c., as well as Mexican, Chinese, and Thai food. I wrote roundups of what and where I ate in Notes from the Road (San Francisco) and NYC Eats x Book Tour. Apparently I said a few controversial things in New York while being interviewed by on the Taste podcast, which was recorded at my first book tour stop atRizzoli bookstore. The crowd was so nice and welcoming, it was hard not to get personal with everyone who came to the sold-out event, but I guess a few things I said were controversial.
I haven’t listened to it, but I try to steer clear of trouble when being interviewed, since I’m sure some of the things I’ve said over the years have me teetering on the edge of being cancelled. But there’s soooo much to talk about, and I can never resist a challenging interviewer’s question. Talking face-to-face is different than via the internet, where things can be misunderstood or misconstrued. Clearly I need to get out more.
I did get out to the produce stores near where we live when I got home and picked up baskets of fresh cherries and apricots as well as the last asparagus spears at Le Pari Local. I’d bookmarked the Easy, Springy Frittata in Jenna Helwig’s must-read newsletter, Cookbookery Collective, which was adapted from ’s new book, Vegetables the Italian Way…
…and gave it a go. But first, I had to explain to Romain that it wasn’t an omelette because it was fried, hence the name frittata, and wasn’t folded up but served open face, which was when things started to get complicated. So I served it, and hoped for the best. (French people can be quite literal. If you don’t believe me, you should see some of the messages that I get, not to mention the hoops I have to jump through at home.)
I went a bit rogue with the frittata, oven-roasting the asparagus first and adding chopped basil to the eggs, plus a chiffonade of leaves on top. I snuck in an extra egg white since I have a few in the frigo. Mine wasn’t as neat as Jenna’s, but now Romain knows what a frittata is…even though I’ve made them before.
I’m going to go a bit here, who recounts what he’s been watching and reading in his newsletter:
I finally finished The Comeback, which became one of my all-time favorite TV series. It took a few episodes to get into it — season 2 came out ten years after the first season, and the final season, season 3, came out a decade later — but the evolution of Valerie Cherish, the main character (pitch-perfectly played by Lisa Kudrow, who also co-wrote the series), was a tour de force and often very touching. What, on the surface was a superficial character, evolved into something and someone completely different and unexpected.
On the 11-hour plane ride back from Los Angeles, I finished Beef, season 2, which had a bit of The White Lotus vibes but ended up being a deep dive into a group of very complicated humans that, like The White Lotus, cross socio-economic classes. I tried to get into Rooster but not much was happening, kind of Emily in Paris, where the characters end up just circling around each other over and over, with little character progression. I tuned into Margo’s Got Money Troubles, mostly because who doesn’t want to watch anything with Michelle Pfeiffer? Both she and Elle Fanning are excellent actors but like some mini-series (I’m looks at you, Rooster and Your Friends & Neighbors), it could have been half as long. The story plodded a bit, then got much better as it reached its final two episodes. Wanda Sykes has a new comedy special on Netflix, and as usual, she’s hilarious. And some folks may be sad to learn that Emily in Paris is finally saying adieu, and coming to an end.
As for reading, I wrote what I’m currently reading in the links below, but I brought three books back from the States, which was the maximum that my luggage allowance allowed.
My friend, cookbook author, and collaborator Kate Leahy told me that Company was one of the best-written cookbooks she’d come across, so I picked up a copy. I also bought More than Sweet, a new baking book that “breaks down the boundaries between sweet and savory with confidence,” as well as a copy of When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman, one of the most important and influential cooks of our generation.
I love that Madeleine Kamman included how much a recipe costs to make. Some recipes in her classic book are listed as “reasonable” and “affordable,” and this one is classified as “inexpensive if you gather the mushrooms yourself.” 😀
As I write this, we are at the tail end of another heat wave in Paris, with the hottest days on record. (Europe is heating up faster than the rest of the world, and not everyone makes it through.) No one was expecting the heat waves to start as soon as May, but here we are.
During the heat waves, people swelter, and some businesses close due to the heat. Tourists wonder why there are no fans or AC or ice in drinks. Once heat waves are over, people forget about them, so solutions evolve slowly. Sixty percent of the roofs in Paris are zinc, and I lived in a top floor apartment where the temperature would hit 110ºF (43ºC) inside. Painting them white or coating them with something reflective would be an effective solution, but with the city seeking to make the zinc roofs protected as UNESCO cultural heritage, it’s doubtful that that’s going to happen.
If you plan to come to Paris, or anywhere in Western Europe, check the weather forecast and bring light clothing, sunscreen, and a refillable water bottle to beat the heat. You might want to cross “waiting in lines outside to get into museums” off your list. And it’s not recommended that you ignore the advice of city officials and jump into the canals to cool down:
So lieu of that, we’re heading to Copenhagen and Norway this month, where it’s cooler.
In the meantime, I’ve been mixing up glasses of Chocolate Frappés from Drinking French, made by vigorously shaking up 1/2 cup (125ml) whole, low-fat, or plant-based milk, 2 tablespoons best-quality Dutch-process cocoa powder, a tablespoon of sugar, and 3 ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. That gets poured into a glass (it’s okay to add any ice chunks to the glass, too). You can top it with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, or just serve as is. I recommend drinking one of these frappés over the water in the canal.
-David
If you’re in Paris and missed my book event, La Trésorierie (48 rue de Grenelle, 7th) has signed copies of my books.
While I was on book tour, one thing people told me about was how much they enjoyed their trips to Paris, thanking me for restaurant suggestions and other tips I post here and there. It makes me happy when people come to Paris and have a good time, and eat well.
After I flew back to Paris last month and collected my luggage, I did what I usually do: I headed to the taxi stand. The airport has affixed large signs on the floor of baggage claim, which you can follow all the way outside to the official taxi stand. (I’ve also seen young people in official vests, guiding and leading people from the baggage claim area, all the way to the official taxi stand.)
On my way, I was asked by at least a dozen men, who whispered almost under their breath, if I needed a taxi. I kept walking but one guy told me I was going the wrong way, and to go to a different doorway, presumably where his car was waiting.
Most of us are zonked after flying into a foreign city, but whatever you do, never, ever take a non-official taxi from the airport in Paris. Always follow the signs for the official taxi stand, where there will be a person in a vest, organizing the taxis and passengers. Getting into an unofficial taxi means you may be paying more than you should or what was originally quoted to you. In one extreme case, a driver tried to charge some tourists €247($288) for the trip. This does happen in other airports, but Americans tend to be polite when we travel and might say, “Sorry, no thank you.“ Locals will just walk by them without saying anything, which I do, and suggest doing as well.
Official taxi prices to and from airports in Paris are fixed by law (current fares are here) and fares are reasonable.
Pro Tip: To get to and from the airport in Paris, probably the best and most reliable taxi service is G7. You can reserve a taxi online (in French or English) or via their app.
The streets of Paris, and the roads around it, are generally a knot of traffic and official taxis are allowed to use the bus lanes, which are less congested. Drivers for services like Uber and Bolt cannot use them.
When going to the airport, you can reserve a pickup online, which costs a few euros more but comes with more peace of mind. After arriving at the airport, unless you’ve ordered a taxi in advance, you’ll have to take whatever one is available from the queue. But official taxis are obliged to charge the fixed price. All drivers are required to take credit cards, but occasionally one will say the machine is broken, and can you pay cash. I always ask before getting in if I can pay bycarte bleue (credit card), just to confirm.
Tipping is optional but I often add 5%. You can tip up to 10% if you’ve got a lot of luggage or the driver makes an extra effort, but it isn’t required.
In the spring of 2027, a dedicated CDG Express train is set to launch, which’ll take you to and from the Gare de l’Est (as well as other stations), right to the airport for €25 ($29) one-way. The project has been delayed for a number of years but appears to be on track to open then, so to speak.
Some take the RER B train, which goes to CDG airport from several stops in Paris, such as Châtelet, Saint-Michel Notre Dame, and the Gare du Nord. But if you have luggage, you may have to schlep it up and down some stairs, and there are reports of pickpockets on the trains. RER B trains can be crowded and have limited ventilation, and occasionally there may be a problème téchnique or construction that can cause a delay. We once missed a flight because of a colis suspect (suspicious package). Then we spent the day at the airport waiting for the next flight, and got stuck in the middle seats in the last row of the plane, which weren’t the most pleasant eleven hours of my life. That was about ten years ago, but I still haven’t been able to uncramp my legs from that journey.
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.
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