Your Friend in Food #3: November 5 2023
Pantry hauls, cross-country trips, Black excellence in food
Happy Sunday friends! If you’re in NYC, I hope you’ve enjoyed (or are still enjoying) a wonderful Marathon Sunday and if you’re elsewhere on this big blue marble, I hope you started off the day with a delicious Sunday brekkie or brunch.
Apologies for not dropping a newsletter last week as I was on a cross-country tour hitting three states in 7 days. I felt like I had no time to put fingers to keyboard and then when I got back, I was recovering from the exhaustion of moving every few days. Sometimes your body tells you to rest if you don’t get to it.
Thank you to the 6 new friends who subscribed to this newsletter last week! Welcome :)
Okay, let’s dig in!
Pantry Haul
They say you live long enough to become your parents and this weekend I’m dedicating this pantry haul to my mom. Anytime my mom would travel to England or Ghana, she would always save room to bring snacks or spices that she couldn’t find anywhere in our medium-sized Canadian town. Whether it was plantain chips or Fortnum and Mason tea, you were bound to find food in her checked luggage.
I like to stock up my CDMX kitchen with the things that are staples when I’m stateside. Until I open up my CPG bodega-style tasting room in Condesa, this will have to do for now. What’s even more special is that most of these brands are run by friends/acquaintances and it’s so special to see their scale and quick ascent into becoming national brands. Reviews will be coming through in the next few issues.
I copped the HeyDay beans, Graza oil, and Immi noodles from Sprouts Market via DoorDash! Then the Flamingo Estate and Diaspora Co goods came from The Tiny Finch, an adorable boutique in San Antonio, TX.
If you have recs for any CPG products I should bring over next, lemme know! Also if you try these, lemme know what you think.
Recipe/Riffing
This is a digest on the realities of my cooking life this past week.
I’ve been sick in bed all week and shamelessly ordered too much takeout for my own good. My favourite Japanese restaurant makes an excellent miso soup, loaded with green onions, silken tofu and nori. I think that got that two or three times and it filled me up well.
Later in the week, when I was feeling ready to head back to the kitchen, I made the sizzling chicken I talked about last week. I love riffing on this one and this time added some Kashmiri chilli from Diaspora Co. and the Spicy Seasoned Salt from Momofuku. They added this spicy boost to the schmaltzy onions which are still my fave.
One of these days I need to cross-test this recipe with some folks so I can make it legit (hit my line if this feels like your calling)
I then levelled up my classic vinaigrette with the Flamingo Estate Fuyu Persimmon Vinegar. It’s bright, tangy, and I love how you can taste the persimmon once it hits your tongue. It feels like you’re biting into one.
Now that I’m feeling good, I’m making a trip to the farmer’s market and making the most of fall produce. Please send anything that inspired you recently!
DINING OUT/ TRAVEL LOGS
Yes, last week I completed the feat of visiting New York, NY, Seattle, Washington, and San Antonio, TX for personal and professional reasons. Here are a few food-centred highlights from my travels.
In New York, NY, my friend Jay and I caught up over dinner at Dame. I love the team here and the food is exceptional. It’s been beautiful watching it become a West Village/Greenwich Village staple. We got most of the classics (roasted cabbage, fish and chips, Pimm’s Cup) but the standout of the evening was the sticky toffee pudding. The caramel sauce is rich in colour and doesn’t feel too overpowering. Plus the creme fraiche on top adds a level of creaminess that pairs well with the caramel.
In Seattle, WA, we hosted a live event for the podcast I host, The Future of Food is You. It was so lovely to meet listeners and hear what they love about the show. We had a fantastic panel and I appreciated how honest all four ladies were about the realities of building a strong food community in Seattle as it can feel isolating. One attendee sprung to action, taking a paper bag, and asking guests in the area to write down their names. It looks like there is a Slack community that is starting now and excited to see how it blossoms.
The event was hosted at Oh Sun Banchan, a Korean spot owned and operated by Sara Upshaw. I ate so much Banchan and was in awe of the Korean-themed cheeseboard that her team put together. They also have this cute mini-grocery filled with Asian-owned CPG brands and you know I had to pick up a treat!
We also got to tour Modernist Cuisine’s test kitchen which had me fangirling!!! I used to go to food science camp in middle school and I remember seeing the Modernist Cuisine books on the shelves in the lab. I begged my parents for the set many moons ago and they’re still one of my prized possessions. They’re currently working on their newest book and we got to see some of the projects they’re working on. I was so impressed by how much food and science are in marriage. Everyone who worked in the test kitchen either had a PhD, worked in 3-star Michelin restaurants or both.
I was invited by the James Beard Foundation to experience Texas grub at the second Annual Tasting Texas in San Antonio, TX. It was a three-day festival celebrating local cuisine with panels, cooking demonstrations, and a generous sampling of bites from San Antonio restaurants. I was so immersed in all the food that I barely took photos. It was a pleasant surprise to see Filipino, Thai, Italian, and Peruvian influences in many of the dishes, just to name a few.
San Antonio is a UNESCO gastronomy site for its role in crafting TexMex cuisine. Friend of the newsletter Jessica Jin is a San Antonio native and she sent over a few solid recs.
Entering what feels like the inside of a piñata, I stepped into Mi Tierra, a family-owned TexMex establishment. It was started in 1942 by Pete and Cruz Cortez (pictured above) as a three-table cafe for workers. Now it’s a world-famous restaurant with classics like queso, fajitas, and quesadillas. I dug into the queso while waiting for my table and the hostess brought over a horchata colada. More of this please.
Then for the main event, I got one of the traditional plates just to get a healthy sampling of what makes this place so loved. It tastes so much better than it looks. The crispy taco, the flauta, the refried beans, red rice, and tamale in mole sauce were BANGING. If I lived in Texas, I would come here after every Friday night football game.
I couldn’t leave Texas without trying a breakfast taco so I made a pit stop before the airport to The Original Donut Shop. The most beautiful combination taco donut shop I’ve ever seen (I hope fellow Kool AD fans got this reference). While I waited for my taco order, I walked over to the donut shop and got an apple fritter. 10/10 no notes. Fresh chunks of apple, warm cinnamon, and that sugar crunch upon first bite! What more could you ask for?
Thank you to my Uber driver for letting me eat in the car so I could enjoy these tacos at peak warmth. Warm flour tortilla? Perfect. Refried beans? Excellent! Cheddar Cheese? Just the right amount of melt!
I’ll leave you with this note that Jessica sent on her feelings towards TexMex.
The Future of Food is You
Coming to you with a double-feature! I host a weekly podcast on the Cherry Bombe Podcast Network highlighting the next generation of talent. It’s called The Future of Food is You and comes out every Thursday.
Ifrah Ahmed
Last week, I sat down with NYT columnist and pop-up chef Ifrah Ahmed. Ifrah is Somali-American and splits time between Brooklyn and Seattle where she is enjoying food, selling her popular anjero breakfast burritos through her pop-up Milk and Myrrh, or working on her latest column. Ifrah and i talked about her connection to American food when her family immigrated to the United States, the importance of culture preservation, and her hope for the future for immigrant cultures in the American food landscape. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Davenport Sisters
This week, it was a sister act! Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport are the sister duo behind BEM Brooklyn, a bookstore celebrating Black literature and food. The rules of any book that they sell are it has to be by a Black author and food has to be mentioned. We talked about the importance for community spaces that celebrate Black culture, what they’ve learned as booksellers, and their dreams for a permanent space. I can’t wait for BEM to have a home. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Links you’ll love (Events, readings, etc)
Cooks and Books Festival, November 11. Ace Hotel, Brooklyn
Do you love cookbooks and will you be in NYC on November 11th? Then this event is for you! Come to Cherry Bombe’s 3rd Annual Cooks and Books Festival. This all-day event is a celebration of cookbooks, food books and the women who create, style, and write them. Featured guests include Sohla El-Wayly, Zoe Francois, Hetty McKinnon, and Abi Balingit, just to name a few.
I’ll be there too moderating a panel at 11AM. I have the honour of being in conversation with cultural anthropologist Dr. Jessica B Harris and Klancy Miller, pastry chef and author.
These two women are heroes of mine and I admire them for how much they have used their platforms to celebrate women in food, specifically Black women. Dr. Harris is the author of 15 books, including High on the Hog and her memoir My Soul Looks Back. Klancy Miller is a former pastry chef and author of For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes. She is also the founder of For the Culture magazine. Her first copy, which had Dr.Harris on the cover, sold out in just 24 hours.
Not to get mushy on main but this is a career highlight for me and I’m so excited to talk to these women about how they came to love food, the importance of preserving Black culture through literature, and so much more.
Tickets and pre-order links for books can be found here! Hope to see some of you there!
It’s a wrap on this week’s Your Friend in Food! See you next week where I’ll talk about my trip to Ireland and more!
Eat well and be well
Your friend in food
Abena
happy to test any recipe!! been loving this newsletter 🥰