Hello and welcome back to a very special edition of Five Things I Ate! This week, I am back to Staying in My Lane with food writing. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Cafe au lait at home
This is better if you own a kitchen scale -- which you absolutely should if you hate doing dishes.
Every morning I wake up in Our Year of the Plague 2020 and proceed in one of either two ways. If it’s a slow day, I lie in a pool of my own existential dread, until either the cat gets tired of trampling me or I get tired of being trampled by a cat, whichever comes first. If it’s not a slow day, it’s possibly even worse, because although there is a potentially masochistic enjoyment in being yelled at by one’s cat, there’s no enjoyment whatsoever at the fear of publishing something with incorrect information in it. So to mentally trick myself into looking forward to mornings, I have perfected the art of the café au lait, which in my mind, is the perfect coffee beverage. Since caffeine is the only drug I take on a daily basis and I really like how it feels, this is actually pretty effective. The things you need are: A kitchen scale, a really pretty mug that makes you happy, ¼ to ⅓ cup whole milk (I swear by ultrafiltered Fairlife or Organic Valley, which is way better than Lactaid IMO; if you absolutely must you can use Oatly but don’t even pretend it’s as good as dairy milk), medium-ground coffee (I get Colombian (or another light to medium) roast at Zabar’s; IMO dark roast coffee tastes like incinerated toast) and filtered water. Bring the water to a boil. Meanwhile, set a pour-over cone over your mug, and place one wetted paper filter in it. Place the whole set-up on a kitchen scale, set the scale to zero, and pour in 16 grams of ground coffee. Slowly pour in 250ml of just-boiled water, stopping for 30 seconds after your first pour. Meanwhile, warm up about ¼ - ⅓ cup of whole milk in a small saucepan, until steamy, but do *not* let it boil. Add extra froth with a handheld frother-- you can get it for under five bucks at IKEA but my Fancy Life Dream is to have one of those fancy contraptions that warms and steams milk at the same time. Slowly pour into your mug, and enjoy the temporary peace.
Tomato and egg drop noodle soup at home
All you need is the basics.
Name a more quietly powerful combo than egg and tomatoes in Chinese cooking, I’ll wait. Just when you think there’s absolutely nothing tasty you could make for a last minute dinner at 10pm, you can transform a half-eaten pint of cherry tomatoes into a warming, homey noodle soup. To do it, sautée aromatics in hot oil -- ginger and garlic is best; shallot is also good, and add half a pint of finely chopped cherry tomatoes or one large normal tomato, a dash of soy sauce and a dash of shaoxing. Proceed to sizzle until the tomatoes turn into a chunky sauce, and then add two cups of chicken broth. Bring the soup to a light simmer, add a bundle of Somen noodles, and cook till al-dente; at the last minute, whisk in one beaten egg, streaming it into the hot soup. Take it off the heat and add plenty of white pepper, sesame oil, and chopped scallions and serve immediately. Serves one, and also serves no one.
Roast pork buns at Mei Lai Wah
64 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013
Long have I snubbed baked roast pork buns— the far inferior (I thought) cousin to the fluffy, steamed bao. Why have char siu wrapped in a piece of bread, I reasoned, when it could be hugged in the fluffiest robe of mantou? Even when I went to Mei Lai Wah, I still steered clear of their famous baked buns; that was, until this week, when my life got beat up in a blender and I nearly lost my sanity and I found myself, “suddenly,” in front of a dozen of these buns, ordered from Seamless. In my groggy sleep deprived state I took a bite— and all of my years of baked-bun prejudice melted away. The sweet bun, made of the loveliest milk bread, was anything but the dry toast I feared; the filling was juicy and tender and sweet, but in a pleasant way.
Roasted sweet potatoes with tahini sauce at home
Your tiny kitchen.
Every Sunday, I like to cook a big healthy meal to undo all the sins I committed on Seamless this week. Monday through Friday are for working late into the night and ordering thai food; Saturday for drinking more glasses of wine than you should have so you forget what happened this week. But no matter how crappy the week has been, and how many packets of instant ramen noodles I hate to admit I’ve opened, if I make a big tray of roasted veggies on Sunday somehow I feel good about myself again. Caramelized sweet potatoes with a rich tahini lemon sauce is a “side dish” that morphs easily into a main meal if you add a light salad or bowl of soup. To make it, slice two sweet potatoes (I have found that organic varieties are sweeter and more brightly colored) into thin coins, and roast on a lined baking sheet with ample olive oil at 425, flipping once till browned and soft. Take the tray out and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. In a small bowl, mix a tablespoon of tahini with a tablespoon of water, a squeeze of lemon juice, lots of salt and pepper, and a pinch of chopped parsley.
Tarte tatin at Frenchette
241 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013
I’ve never actually eaten at Frenchette -- so a proper review of the popular restaurant remains to be seen -- but I did manage to come by a slice of the tarte tatin and oh my god it’s so, so good. I’ll add another qualifier that I’ve never eaten tarte tatin before this either, so maybe it’s always like this -- but the apples in this tarte seem to taste more apple-y than apples themselves. Or maybe it’s just the butter speaking, of which there’s plenty, in both the filling and the crust. If you have a great tarte tatin recipe -- please send it my way.
Until next time (although to be perfectly honest my perception of the future is completely blank after November 3rd, because I have been thinking and working on the election for the whole year and my brain is like, short-circuiting),
Soph