I write food blogs not tragedies
CW: Harassment, racism
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, life goes on. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Khao Soi Nuer at Ugly Baby
407 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Check their Instagram for daily specials.
I ordered khao soi from Ugly Baby a few days ago. Khao soi is my favorite Thai noodle dish. The beef version at Ugly Baby is so layered with different kinds of spices that it makes my eyes water just thinking about it (in other words, it is perfect). It was the first time I had ordered this dish in two years, and when I turned on the news I remembered the last time I ate there. It was dark, just before last call, and I had walked thirty minutes in the rain to escape from a visibly drunk man who lurched into my space as I tried to order dinner. The man, who was white, kept asking me if I was Chinese. He asked me repeatedly how I got a visa. When I saw his body threaten to narrow the gap between us, my stomach turned. Before my food had even arrived, I left a twenty dollar bill on the bar and ran out into the rain, without an umbrella. Until this week, I had mostly forgotten about this incident. I only remembered it because I happened to order khao soi from Ugly Baby this week, and I happened to write about it two years ago, and a gunman murdered eight people, six of them Asian women, in Atlanta this week. It is possible that man was having a bad day. But I promise you that my evening was much worse.
There is no easy transition from this story to the next. It is as uncomfortable as it is to process grief and fear in the demands of everyday life.
Black and white sesame granola at home
Make it this weekend, if you so desire.
I love granola. I don’t mean that stale stuff in cardboard boxes or clear plastic bags. I don’t mean things that have puffed rice or are low-fat or carb-free. When I say I love granola, I mean a granola that is so rich and so crispy it’s like oat brittle, browned at the edges, with lacy crisps of burnt honey. If you would like to get fancy, you can add lots of seeds and nuts or maybe even coconut chips; I kept mine plain, with old fashioned oats, white sesame seeds, and tossed it all with ground black sesame flour. It tastes just like the honey sesame seed candy of my Chinese grocery store youth. And it’s so easy to make. All you have to do is stir together ¼ cup of melted coconut oil, ¼ cup of dark good honey, ½ tsp of cinnamon, and ¼ tsp of salt; stir in 1.5 cups of old fashioned oats, 2 tbs white sesame seeds and 2 tbsp ground black sesame seeds. Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 300F for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. A note that granola burns really, really easily— going from pale to charred in a few minutes. It will still be wet when it’s done, and crisp up. That’s all, folks.
Rosemary pappardelle with lamb ragu and fresh ricotta at Vinateria
211 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY
You know that the food is good when I’m writing about noodles and they aren’t Asian. Moreover, these were noodles that arrived 30 minutes late from Seamless, sat on my kitchen counter for another full 30 minutes, and still maintained a delightful texture. A rich, hearty lamb ragu that doesn’t at all skimp on the meat or flavor is tossed with flat, wide, fresh noodles, and topped off with a generous dollop of fresh ricotta. (There’s plenty of ragu to last a meal and a big snack, especially with the accompanying little block of focaccia.) To cut through the fatty dish, I whipped up some spring mix topped with olive oil and balsamic, the perfect accompaniment to a delightful rainy day splurge.
Apple ginger carrot juice at home, without a juicer!
At home
Did you know that you can make juice at home, right now, without a juicer??? You simply blend your fruits and veggies in a cheap lil’ blender with a splash of water or juice and strain it in any old strainer. It takes all of two minutes and now you have endless juice made with whatever you have in your produce drawer, at the ready! This blew my little juice-addicted Millennial mind. You really think that with all that engineering school I would have figured out that a juicer can be substituted with a blend and strain but here we are. Just pull out your trusty blender, throw in half a good juicy apple, sliced, a big chunk of ginger, cut up, a handful of baby carrots, half an orange, and enough water or orange juice to blend, strain, and serve. You’re welcome.
365 by Whole Foods Market, Organic Chocolate Bar, Milk Chocolate, 3 Ounce
You know where to obtain.
My controversial opinion is that Milk Chocolate is Good, Actually. I know that dark chocolate has all the health food propaganda going for it and it seems Weak to admit you like something that was made for the palette of school children. But milk chocolate is sweet, and it is creamy. You might perceive this sweetness as a weakness when in fact it is a strength. Unlike dark chocolate, you can eat one piece and actually be satisfied; for one, because it is so sweet and rich, but more importantly, because a square of milk chocolate has absolutely zero resale value in the virtue-signaling market and therefore this is a piece of candy you are eating for yourself and only yourself and isn’t that the most satisfying act of self-care of all.
Take some time to be kind to yourself this weekend,
Soph
P.S. Next week, on One Thing I Ate, I’ll be writing about the fluffiest fix-it-and-forget-it matcha black sesame cinnamon rolls. Subscribe now to have it delivered to your inbox hot and fresh next Saturday!