Gingery Wontons in Chile Oil
+ PTFS is a Bestseller! + Kung Fun Nuns + Blessed Viet Egg Rolls
Friends old and new — this is completely unexpected: Pass the Fish Sauce is a Substack Bestseller. Substack told me so! Out of the gate, well over 100 people signed up as paid subscribers. There are newsletters with bigger numbers but we’re just getting started. Your interest and investment caught Substack’s attention, enough for PTFS to be featured on its homepage for a spell.
My recipes and articles have made the covers of magazines and newspaper food sections but they’ve never impressed an online entity. You’re saying a lot by hitting the Subscribe button! There are now nearly 8,900 subscribers, a sizable uptick from the 8,100 group we had last Sunday. Welcome aboard, everyone!
To borrow from the airlines, “You have many choices for reading and I thank you for choosing this newsletter.” Onwards!
3 Edutaining Things
How do extra blessed Vietnamese cha gio “egg rolls” support a small Texas Gulf community? Download this podcast from Gravy, a part the Southern Foodways Alliance. Disclosure: I currently serve as SFA board chair but that in no way makes me biased. 😁
March 15, 7pm EST, virtual book event: The Leung family of the Woks of Life cookbook will be chatting with Grace Young, the esteemed author and Chinatown activist. Don’t know about the Leungs? Make their eggplant in garlic sauce, a recipe in an earlier PTFS dispatch. And, try Grace’s stir-fried chicken in black bean sauce recipe on my website.
Don’t mess with the Kung Fu Nuns in Nepal. “We train with swords, machetes, numchucks, and more,” their website says. Turns out that a group of devotees visiting from Vietnam introduced them to the art and potential of self defense. More on the nuns in this story at the New York Times. (I’m sharing the story via my NYT subscriber article gift link so you shouldn’t hit a paywall.)
RECIPE: Gingery Wontons in Chile Oil
As I mentioned in the last dispatch, paid subscribers will get a bonus wonton recipe this week. Here it is — Gingery Wontons in Chile Oil. The wontons are surprisingly easy to make and remarkably delicious tasting.
You may know wontons as being fried or floating in broth but these wontons are poached then coated with a spicy, salty, garlicky sauce. They look delicate but have plenty of punchy oomph, but not so much that they knock you on your head. My versatile recipe can be taken in many directions: swap proteins or greens. Plus, the filling can hang around in the fridge for day or so.
Here’s the hard part because I’ve never done this before: The full wonton in chile oil recipe is only for paid subscribers, who not only have access to the entire, evolving PTFS archive, but also support my efforts to provide solid cooking content to everyone. There are other cool perks too!