midweek gems #13

16 noteworthy books in 2024

Hello there,

Have you had a chance to try Trader Joe’s frozen Vietnamese chạo tôm shrimp on sugarcane lollipops? Emily did a preliminary tasting. She was our TJ Confidential speaker earlier this year and shared a wealth of info (the Zoom playback is here for paid subscribers).

Answering my suggestion for us to review the TJ product, Emily launched a PTFS chat thread to share her chạo tôm feedback. She asked if she’d eaten it correctly because the packaging didn’t offer much guidance. Post your thoughts in the chat. I have another box of chạo tôm in my freezer and it’s on my to-snack list!

And on an everyday basis, how many people do PTFS subscribers cook for? 88 percent of respondents regularly prepare food for 1 or 2 people. That’s my situation too and why some of my recipes, like the 30-minute sticky rice and roast chicken serves 2. Additionally, I often include tips on how to store or repurpose leftovers. Believe me, I understand!

Onto the books, one of the chief joys of my life. I learn so much from books because it’s not a fully self-curated experience. Books lead us on journeys and surprise with each turn of the page.

This year, I added a broad range to my collection. The weren’t all Asian focused and not all are cookbooks. All are interesting 💎. Let me give you my concise (TL;DR) feedback on each. They’re worth your time and consideration.

💎 Modern Asian, sort of

A new generation of Asian cooks don’t want to be fully tethered to tradition. The Chinese Way by Betty Liu presents old school techniques and recipes plus new school recipes to inform and inspire modern cooks. That’s to say, you can have your biang biang oil sizzled hand-pulled noodles along with spicy honeyed Brussels sprouts. Most recipes fit on a page, in case you hate turning a page.

Singaporean former chef Pamelia Chia daringly published her own cookbook, Plantasia, to present a pan-Asian collection of her favorite vegetarian recipes. She’s a flexitarian and a fan of my books, Asian Tofu and Ever-Green Vietnamese. Pamelia asked me to contributed my lemongrass tofu recipe to Plantasia. If you’re looking for a vegetarian journey through Asia, this is a good companion. Open it up and there’s always something eye catching to read about.

💎 Regional Thai

Who’d think that southern Thailand had so much to say about cooking? Well, who’d think that southern Italy or France have so much to offer our food world?

You’ll learn a lot from The Food of Southern Thailand by Austin Bush, who documented regional specific ingredients and techniques in the book. You may not cook from the book but you’ll gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for Southeast Asian cooking. His recipes are very detailed, in case you’re inclined to replicate the flavors.

For Philly fans of Kalaya restaurant — chef restaurateur Nok Suntaranon’s cookbook provides a window into her Southern Thai roots and foodways. Kalaya sounds like Nok, who’s loves to be a sassy straight shooter.

💎 Kids cookbooks

It’s been a good year for young cooks. Priya’s Kitchen Adventures by Priya Krishna is full of fun, well-written and tested recipes for ambitious young cooks, of which there are many nowadays.

As I told Priya in a recent Everything Cookbooks podcast, I would have benefited from having a book like hers when I was growing up. Also in the episode is

Kristin Donnelly

’s daughter, Elsa who weighed in as an expert. This is one of my favorite EVCB episodes to date.

Also for kids but specifically to empower young women, Rebel Girls Cooks, is loaded with solid recipes and techniques. There are profiles of all the chefs who contributed recipes and guess what? One of them was me! The recipe collection is culturally diverse and peppered with life advice and kitchen wisdom.

💎 Global wholesomeness

Many of us are looking for delicious healthy flavors that don’t leave us feeling deprived feeling. For cozy vegetarian recipes, Erin Alderson’s The Yearlong Pantry will equip you with solid info for crafting plant-based dishes. She created super handy tables for key ingredients and their cooking times and quantities. That kind of info makes this book great for riffing any time.

And y’all know that I enjoy Joe Yonan’s Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking. It’s a good investment that will pay back in vegan dividends for many years. Try the Creamy Sunflower Ramen Noodle Soup and the Aloo Matar Tikii (fried potato patties) recipes from the book.

💎 Cross-cultural collaborations

Like many cookbooks included in this year’s shortlist, Comfort by Yotam Ottolenghi and his team of lead cooks and recipe developers— Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley, is a collaborative effort. The handsome photos are a little messy in that casual-chic Ottolenghi way. The American edition has been edited but some of the charming U.K. phrasing remains.

Easy Weeknight Dinners by Emily Weinstein offers up some of the New York Time’s Cooking portal’s favorite recipes. All recipes have been rigorously tested by the paper. They’re accompanied by concise headnotes penned by the original recipe author. (I’m referenced in a tofu recipe, to boot!) Here and there are tips by cooks who’ve cooked the recipes. The book will get you through the week and then some.

Funny, irreverent but instructive is Anything’s Pastable by Dan Pashman. The single subject book gathers non-traditional, tasty recipes from a broad swath of recipe developers, including yours truly! Dan says that my mapo tofu cascatelli is one of his favorites, and that something I wrote for NYT inspired him to go rogue on pasta. He wants to make pasta less precious by offering practical knowhow for successful creative cooking.

Jim Meehan and Bart Sasso wrote a beverage guidebook and handbook loaded with ideas for anyone who loves a good drink. Count me in. The book itself is gifty feeling but you’ll make good use of it. Get a peek at The Bartender’s Pantry with recipes here and here.

Just so you know, I only contributed recipes to books I know will be solid. Then I review them after they are published.

💎 Focused baking

Just in time for the holidays is Ben Mims’ cookie-centric Crumbs. There are 300 recipes that Ben researched and tested for the book. I’ll be sharing one of the recipes soon. Ben is an excellent and trusty recipe developer who was formerly on staff at Saveur magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Get a jump on holiday baking with Ben’s latest.

Richard Hart Bread by Richard Hart and Laurie Woolever is a deep dive for bread geeks. It’s loaded with practical tips and explains why certain techniques have worked for him over the years. I recently upped my bread game by baking with an inverted Dutch oven, thanks to a pointer from the book.

💎 Compelling women

Currently on my bedside table are Slow Noodles by Chantha Nguon, a memoir about life in wartime Southeast Asia and survival. Included in the author’s journey as a refugee are about two dozen recipes. They illustrate the connections between Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand as well as the power of food to heal.

Ann K. recommended The Women by Kristin Hannah and it’s one heck of a read about American women nurses who served in Vietnam during the war, their experiences in country and their lives once home.

Both Slow Noodles and The Women center the power and potential of women. They reminded me of Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s The Mountains Sing, which is about three generations of women in Vietnam. Combined, these three titles are feminist on many levels but aside from that, they’re just good storytelling.

What are you reading and cooking from these days?

On Sunday, I’d like to circle back to a health related matter from earlier this year.