Category — Asian Recipes

Can we talk about David Chang for a minute? He kind of seems like a loose cannon, or maybe even a huge jerk, even, but the recipes he magnanimously shares with the public almost always turn out to be among my favorites. For example, his short ribs easily beat Thomas Keller’s. So when I saw his Bo Ssam recipe in the New York Times this week, I knew I had to try it immediately. I was dying to taste this sweet and salty, crackly, crispy, falling apart pork roast. Since I wanted to make it for lunch and it takes 6 hours in the oven, that meant setting an alarm for 5:30 AM to put it in the oven, then going back to bed. But I knew that David wouldn’t let me down–and he didn’t.

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The other night, I got home from work around 5:15 and had dinner guests arriving at 5:30. I had this easy chicken dish planned, but very little in the way of side dishes. I knew I had some half bunches of produce here and there so thought I would quickly invent a salad on the fly based on what was laying around.

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(Note: This happened several months ago, but I couldn’t find the recipes I wrote down, so I hadn’t posted about it. I found them wadded up in the bottom of a drawer recently, so here goes.)

My Dad and I have birthdays a week apart, and often do things together to celebrate. When I turned 6 and he turned 40, I asked my parents if we could eat at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. (We lived in New York at that time.) I guess at that point my parents realized they had a strangely fancy food-obsessed kid on their hands. I don’t remember much about the food, but I do recall going to the bathroom with my sister, who was 10, and being thoroughly confused by the presence of a restroom attendant. When I turned 16 and he 50, we donned our tuxes and prom dresses and got the best seat at Julius’ Castle, a venerated old dining institution with views of San Francisco Bay. Of course neither of those places is still in business, sadly, but we still try to do food-related birthdays together.

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I love broccoli soup, but I get tired of the same old cheese- and cream-laden preparations. I decided to do an Asian-inspired variation with coriander, ginger, lemongrass, and sesame oil – toasting the broccoli at the beginning, to add an extra layer of flavor.

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Sloppy Joes + Korean BBQ – how could I possibly resist making this recipe? Answer: I couldn’t. For once, I actually followed a recipe to the letter. The marinade mixture reminded me of my favorite short rib recipe, so I decided it was worth a try as is. Result: perfection on a bun.

A few notes to make your life easier: since you are supposed to puree the Asian pear, you might as well take advantage of the food processor for other parts of the prep. So I used the shredding blade to julienne the onions, carrot, and garlic first, then dumped those out and switched to the normal blade to puree the pear. This cut down significantly on prep time. The brisket can be tough to slice but it’s easier if you stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and sharpen your butcher knife well. And do make sure you get really good-quality buns.

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After a week of glorious sun and 80+ degree weather, a spate of drizzly, gray, and decidedly autumnal days are upon us. The upside of this dreary weather is that warm, rich, comforting dishes like these short ribs are welcome on the table once again.

I absolutely love flavorful, slow-cooked, melting-off-the-bone short ribs, and have tried several recipes (including the Thomas Keller version, which paled in comparison to these.) This recipe has been adapted, over five years or so, from a recipe that David Chang supplied to the New York Times several years ago, pre-Momofuku fame and fortune. To my mind, they are the best short ribs I have ever eaten.

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As I’ve previously mentioned, one of my favorite things about Hawaii is the opportunity to eat raw fish three meals a day. Today was an unseasonally hot Sunday (for San Francisco, at least) so I knew I wanted a cool and refreshing dinner to end the weekend. The result was a salmon poke, with cubes of ripe avocado and raw wild salmon seasoned with lime, mint leaves, coriander. Because we’re in that brief green garlic season, I chopped some finely and added it to the mix–but if your summer nights fall past the springtime, feel free to substitute green onions.

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I can never resist an unexplored food product I come across (tiny rice, anyone?), so when I spotted these black chickpeas last week, they were in my grocery cart before you could say “garbanzo.”

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Have you ever heard of white soy sauce? I hadn’t, but when I saw this box at my local store I found myself shielding my eyes from the $18 price tag and bringing it home, eager for a soy sauce unboxing.

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I’ve been really into forbidden rice lately, because it’s actually a whole grain, it’s an exciting color to bring to the table, and it tastes great. Plus, forbidden = fun!

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