ten things debut
Your Friend in Food #14: July 14 2024
Hi friends! Long time, no chat! I’m back! I’ve missed this so much and love this newsletter as a medium to share what I’ve been loving and connecting with folks.
To ease myself back into a writing habit, I’m excited to announce the first instalment of Ten Things; a curated column of fun food things. I experience many things in food, from snacks I can’t stop eating, meals I’ve experienced, and books or articles that have inspired me. They’re scattered in bookmark folders, notes app scribbles, and random texts to pals and now I want to organize them in a fun way that gets me to write more.
Ten Things is something I used to do on my stories many moons ago but I think it’ll make for a good home here on the ‘stack. I’ll also include a few events or experiences that I think you would enjoy because nothing sparks more joy than recommending events or pop-ups where you can experience food and make friends. Okay, let’s get into it.
Also, thank you to the 106 new subscribers who have joined! Welcome to the party!
First Byline for Food and Wine
I got my first byline in Food and Wine a couple of weeks ago!!! The piece was about sobremesa, the tidy Spanish word describing what happens when everyone lingers after a meal. Drinks are set, sweets are brought out, and everyone just lounges about ready to dive into any topic. It was a dream getting to chat with chefs like Enrique Olvera of Pujol, Elena Reygadas of Rosetta, Gabriela Camara of Contrarmar, and Lorea Olavarri of Er Rre on how they encourage sobremesa in their spaces.
Also, two of my heroes, Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen) and Roxane Gay shared the piece in their newsletters which was so touching. I’ve leaned on the words of these when it comes to cooking and culture so it meant so much that they loved my words enough to share. Thank you to everyone who has read it and sent such kind messages!! Y’all are making a girl’s dreams come true.
50 Cocktails You Need to Know by The Educated Barfly
A couple of weeks ago, I made a summer bucket list with a few things I want to accomplish and memorizing five cocktails is on there. I love hosting and putting together a menu but find myself lacking in the drinks department. I’ll reach for a nice bottle of wine or an aperitif topped with prosecco and sparkling water but I wanna get crafty.
Going down a YouTube rabbit hole, I stumbled upon The Educated Barfly’s channel and watched a few of his videos. They’re informative, easy to follow, and full of great history tidbits on how drinks came to be.
I especially loved the 50 Cocktails video for aspiring home bartenders. I also learned that “call drinks” is the umbrella term for a cocktail that you can order at any bar. Pleasantly surprised by what you can put together with some fruit juice, a good liquor, and maybe an herb or two. Watch this space as I slowly enter my bartender era!
Lay’s Suckling Roast Pig Chips
Most people remember trips with magnets, shot glasses, and postcards. For me, I wander the aisles of a grocery store and grab as many chips, cookies, and chocolates as I can fit into my sizeable carry-on. Last weekend, I was in Vancouver for a friend’s wedding and stopped by H-mart to grab some snacks before I caught the ferry to the Sunshine Coast.
I didn’t finish my loot so have been slowly savouring my treasures at home. Expect more chip content in the next few weeks lol. Starting off, we’ve got these Lay’s suckling roast pig chips. If you close your eyes and really imagine, biting into a chip can transport you to a Chinese restaurant, looking at the glistening pigs hanging in the window, watching as one gets placed on your table. They also had this tangy sweet note that reminds me of hoisin dipping sauce.
If you love niche chip flavours as much as I do, check out your local H-Mart and also let me know your favourite chip flavours.
Bessou Nori Crunch Popcorn
Staying on the snack theme, I’ve found my new favourite popcorn that I always need to have in stock. A couple of months ago, I walked into Big Night to show a friend who was visiting and picked up a few snacks. One of them was Bessou’s Nori Crunch Popcorn. This popcorn, topped with nori, furikake, and just the right amount of nutritional yeast, is the perfect snack and I’m embarrassed to say that I bodied the bag in 7 minutes, with a bit of help from my partner.
Bessou’s origins started as a Japanese restaurant and now they have a stand at Market 57, the curated food hall put together by the James Beard Foundation. I got to meet the team at the Fancy Food show and tried their miso caramel, shiso sour cream, and soy butter options. They can’t seem to keep stock of them on their website but check out Big Night to experience this delicious treat for yourself or DM them and ask them to make more :).
Press Butter Sand Cookies from Japan
Like anyone with a penchant for Issey Miyake pleats or Muji notebooks, Japan has been on my bucket list for years and I can’t wait to visit. For now, I’ll try and experience as many Japanese snacks, movies, and delicacies that make it to my corner of the globe.
While at the Fancy Food show a few weeks ago, I bumped into Kim Severson. Kim is one of the most prolific food journalists, working the food desk at The New York Times. So you know her recs must be taken seriously. When I asked Kim what her highlight of the convection was so far, she walked me through the bustling halls to the Japan pavilion where she put me onto the best-packaged cookies I’ve ever had in my life.
Press Butter Sand is a speciality cookie business melding Japanese craftsmanship and unique flavouring. They had two flavours, their butter sand cookie and matcha and scrolling through their website, they also have pistachio, strawberry, and hazelnut chocolate. The butter sand is a hit, two toasty cookies sandwiched between fluffy buttercream and smooth golden caramel.
You can find the cookies in a few Japanese cities, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore but they are aiming to bring them stateside. So if you’re a speciality retailer, please stock these and let me know!!! And if you’re in Japan, bring a few back in your suitcase.
Alicia Kennedy: What Was Part’s Unknown (Substack)
I’ve been thinking a lot about representation in food, especially when it comes to thoughtful entertainment that allows us to see the world from a refreshing perspective. Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and No Reservations were important shows in my household. I have fond memories of gathering around the TV on Sundays, watching Bourdain ease in and out of cities, offering us authentic expressions of how food can open us to understanding one’s culture and connect us to strangers on a deeper level.
Alicia Kennedy, one of my favourite cultural commentators, just penned a brilliant piece about Bourdain’s impact on food culture. It is an honest critique that highlights how Bourdain’s privilege often excused him from confronting the real issues that he experienced on his travels and also praises how his work changed food writing and travel media for the better. We’ve seen a new wave of food television shows that are evidently Bourdain-inspired but none of them have done it exactly like him, which Kennedy argues is kind of a good thing. Check out this piece here.
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
I’m trying to read more fiction, moving away from my natural inclination to read business and food history books. Yet dreams come true when one of your favourite food writers wanders into the world of fiction. Ruth Reichl, famously known for her provoking restaurant reviews for The New York Times, released her second novel a few months ago and it’s a delight! I finished this book over the course of two plane rides and my only regret is I didn’t slow down.
The Paris Novel, set in the 1980s, follows a timid Stella on the adventure of a lifetime. When her estranged mother dies, she leaves Stella with a one-way plane ticket and instructions to visit the city of lights. She hesitates but with the encouragement of her boss, she hops on a plane resigning herself to honour her mother’s last wish.
Shortly after arriving, she falls into her frugal habits, failing to live it up until she is persuaded to try a fabulous Dior dress by a persistent shopkeeper. She buys the dress and struts around Paris, stopping at Les Deux Magots ready to try her first oyster, a religious experience. I won’t say too much more but if you’re someone who loves Paris and all of its beauty, enjoys witnessing a character blossom in a foreign land, or just want a captivating summer read, this is the book for you. Snag a copy here!
Eggplant Fries from Leland Eating House, Brooklyn
The one perk of working freelance is getting to take a long lunch and not feel guilty about it. A couple of weeks, I went out for lunch with my fellow freelance pal Nikita to Leland Eating House, a cozy spot tucked on a quiet street in Prospect Heights. I ordered the mussels, Nikita got a giant salad so it was appropriate to split an order of fries.
When we asked for the golden rods of starchy goodness, the waiter looked at us with disappointment and then quickly suggested we get the zucchini fries. Not to be dramatic but my life will never be the same. They’re lightly tossed in a batter, deep fried, and plated on a bed of jalapeño labneh and sprinkled with salt, maybe MSG, and a generous dash of sumac. I can’t shut up about them and I’ll have to find a way to make them before eggplant season wraps up in October. Will be using this video as my inspo and hopefully I’ll be dancing as much as this guy.
Dinner at Plonk, Mexico City*
The beauty of living in Mexico City is that you get to experience exciting restaurants but never with the hype or the agony of trying to nab a spot from a Resy waitlist. A few weeks ago, I was invited to experience the menu at Plonk, a fairly new restaurant that’s a stone’s throw away from Parque Mexico in Condesa. I loved the details of rustic open shelving, concrete shelving, and imperfect handmade pottery.
Plonk is run by the talented Flor Camorlinga. Born and bred in a small town in Michoacán, Camorlinga has an impressive resumé cutting her teeth in fine dining spots throughout Japan (L’Effervescence) and South Korea (Evett) with brief stints in Copenhagen (Sanchez) and Los Angeles (Vespertine). Now, she’s joining a new class of Mexican chefs bringing their talents home, adding excitement to the city’s already incredible dining scene.
We started with the amberjack crudo, freshly caught from Ensenda, covered in soursop foam with chile habanero and topped with drops of peppermint oil. Other standouts were the udon picante, thick noodles covered in a gochujang peanut butter sauce with meaty shrimp, and the perfectly smoked duck sitting on a bed of pureed cauliflower, charred kale, and fresh coriander.
We couldn’t decide on dessert so we got both. I mean how can you decide between the black rice creme brulee topped with tangy yogurt and the green melon raspado, a Mexican street treat made from shaved ice and topped with fresh mango and tapioca?
The wine list was great, diverse with significant Mexican representation and exceptionally curated by Sommelier Romina Argüelles, an industry veteran who has worked for several bars like World’s 50 Best, Baltra. You can tell they really worked together to make the dishes and the wine shine together.
My favourite was the Beaujolais Blanc from Terres Dorées, a nice dry Chardonnay with citrus, minerally, and grassy notes. We will definitely be back and can’t wait to see what new stuff they add to the menu. Check out Plonk’s IG for more.
* PR experience
Janet Yellen Grub Street Diet Dupe (New York Times)
Thanks to one of my best buds Michael sharing this with me yesterday- it was a great part of my Saturday morning read. I’m not the biggest fan of celebrity lore but I do love a food diary, highlighting how famously busy people make time to fuel themselves. This fascinating piece on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and how she thinks about meals as a way to connect or familiarize herself with a place. She discussed oil prices over salads with G7 prime ministers, persuaded the Irish finance minister to talk international tax agreements over pastries at the Hotel Amigo, and even took an important detour to IN-N-Out before greeting Xi Jinping in San Francisco. Stars, they’re just like us.
THINGS FOR YOU
July 18: Cake Zine Party
New York’s hottest club is a Cake Zine Party. As someone who loves being in bed by 10pm, there are a few things that will get me out of my house like a Cake Zine party. Celebrating their newest Candy Land (order here), the iconic duo Aliza Abarbanel and Tanya Bush are hosting the ultimate hip confectionary-filled party of your dreams. There will be treats from iconic chefs like Camari Mick, Bé Bép Baby Kitchen, and cake artist Jen Monroe of Bad Taste. Be sure to catch a DJ set from folks like Alyssa Stowers, tarot readings by Ana Mirabal, and enjoy a bev crafted with Del Maguey mezcal. You must stay for the cake cutting and leave with some issue-themed left.
There are a few tickets left (get them here) so run and snag them before it’s too late. Sales are not guaranteed at the door and you don’t want to catch FOMO for this special event.
July 15th, 19th: Omnivore Event, Now Serving(LA) and 92nd Street Y(NYC)
Chef extraordinaire and the man lowkey responsible for putting Copenhagen on the culinary map, Rene Redzipi, just launched a new show. I first heard about it at the end of last year and I’ve been eager for it to launch!
Omnivore, a new documentary series narrated by the renowned Noma chef, explores the ingredients that have built our societies and eating habits. Redzepi brings us along to the Peruvian salt flats, the coffee forests of Rwanda, and rice culture in Japan with each episode a celebration of how we grow, eat, and enjoy food.
The 8-episode series launches on Apple TV on July 19th and there will be a few special screenings across the country followed by Q&A with Redzepi and special guests like Somebody Feed Phil’s Phil Rosenthal and executive producer Matt Goulding. Catch the NYC screening at 92nd Street Y on Monday, July 15th (tickets here) and the LA screening hosted by local bookstore Now Serving on Saturday, July 20th (tickets here).
July 24-August 3rd: Symmetry Breakfast North American Book Tour
I’ve long been a fan of Michael Zee’s Symmetry Breakfast account, a beautiful gallery of delicious breakfasts that he made for himself and his partner. Growing up in Liverpool, Zee grew up working in his dad’s Chinese restaurants and moved to Shanghai for 7 years to document and research the plethora of breakfast options. Now Zee has compiled his field notes and photos into his newest book, Zao Fan: Breakfast of China.
This cookbook and travelogue is an exceptional visual representation that transports your eyes and tastebuds taking us with him across the grand country to the stalls, vendors, and shops that serve over a billion people for the most important meal of the day. Michael published the book in April and is now making his way to this side of the Atlantic for his tour.
Catch him in NYC on July 24th in conversation with Christine Wong at the Yondu Culinary Studio, July 30th in Toronto at Good Egg, on August 3rd in San Francisco at Omnivore Books, and in Los Angeles on August 8 at Now Serving! If you can’t make any of these dates, order the book here!
SONG TO DANCE TO IN YOUR KITCHEN
I always love leaving the newsletter on a high note but why not on a dancey one? Here’s a great song to groove to while you mise en place for your next meal or whip up a quick summery lunch.
Thanks for reading along and hope the rest of your weekend is filled with Wimbledon, Euro, and COPA America finals fit with drinks, snacks, and wins! It’s coming home, lads!
Cheers,
Your Friend in Food
Abena