Meals to eat at the kitchen table
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Rotisserie chicken, but make it Chinese at my kitchen table
My apartment
A certain editor with an outsized personality at work once asked me what my last meal would be on death row, a very normal and appropriate work inquiry. Because I am not at all a macabre freak who’s been waiting forever for someone to ask me this question, I had my answer ready: A good peaty scotch (Lagavulin 16, perhaps), a medium-rare steak, and ice cream. If that doesn’t make the budget limit, I’d also be pretty happy with roast chicken and red wine, which is a meal that satisfies all parts of my soul even when I’m not faced with death. I’m not the only one who feels this way; there’s even a poem that features this meal. When it gets too hot to cook, I like to pick up half a rotisserie chicken at Union Market and a ten dollar bottle of wine on the way home from work. Then I’ll make some garlic smashed cucumbers, and slice and dip the chicken breast meat into the same sauce (black vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce), for a cheater’s version of Chinese poached chicken. It’s especially good with cold leftovers.
Jelly donut at 7th Ave Donuts & Diner
324 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Take your fancy, maple-glazed, bacon-topped donuts; you can keep them. I’m a fan of the simple when it comes to fried dough.* If a donut doesn’t dip perfectly into a cup of hot milky coffee or tea, it doesn’t satisfy my cravings. For me, nothing will ever top a well-made jelly donut: Fluffy and slightly savory yeasted dough with an adequate squishy center. I must have walked past 7th Ave Donuts & Diner, and unassuming old-school joint, at least a dozen times before I finally tried their donuts, thanks to a colleague at work who brought them in. The jelly donut was both light and rich, and most importantly, it had that je-ne-sais-quoi mystery fruit gloopy jelly center. At just $1.50, it’s more affordable than a cup of Starbucks. I’m looking forward to going back to the diner sometime and holding donut-and-coffee meetings in a back booth.
*Not that I won’t enjoy a Dough Doughnut, it’s just a different beast.
Super fusion hangover breakfast burrito at my kitchen
Please make this in your kitchen, too
This is my proudest breakfast sandwich creation, and to be honest, I eat it far more frequently than I am hungover, which I try to keep to a minimum. It’s the result of several layers of culinary telephone: My mom first turned me onto buying frozen parathas when she read on a Chinese cooking forum somewhere that you could use them as a shortcut dough for scallion pancakes. I bought a pack, but never did make those scallion pancakes. One morning, when I was craving a breakfast burrito but had no tortillas, I fried up one instead, and thus a culinary creation was born. To make it yourself, fry up one roti paratha (this is my favorite brand, and I get the onion flavor for extra oomph) in a large skillet, browning on both sides. Meanwhile, beat two eggs with a splash of Shaoxing wine, one finely chopped scallion stalk, and a small splash of soy sauce. When the paratha is nice and crispy, remove, add a drizzle of cooking oil to the pan, and scramble the eggs until just set. Top paratha with eggs, and cover with salsa and sriracha hot sauce.
Quick and easy iced chai at my kitchen
My apartment
I stopped drinking coffee on the daily about a year and a half ago, and for the most part, I don’t miss it at all, especially not the post-coffee jitters and digestive distress. But there are times where my craving for coffee haunts me like a phantom limb; emotionally, it’s still there, even if I don’t physically enjoy drinking it that much anymore. This phantom craving hits especially hard when the thermometer dips above 75 degrees and cold brew starts popping up everywhere. Is there anything more summery than sipping an iced coffee with sunglasses on?* Recently, I’ve been making iced chai with lots of soymilk and a wee bit of sweetner, and I find that this is an adequate summer drink substitute. I’ll bring a kettle of water to a boil, and pour over about half cup of hot water over two tea bags (because I’m cheap, I’ll use one bag of chai, usually Tazo brand, and one bag of really cheap black tea), stir in a spoonful of honey, sugar, or agave nectar, and then pour it over a tall glass filled with ice. Give it a few stirs, and top with unsweetened soy milk, or regular milk, if you can handle it.
*Except if you’re a nerd who wears glasses, like me, and thus can never enjoy sunglasses without going temporarily short-sighted.
Scallion-and-eggs stir fry at my non-smelly kitchen
My apartment
Growing up, there were a few special dishes that my mom made only when there were no kèrén (guests) around. These dishes included daikon radish stew and stir-fried Chinese chives (jiǔcài) with eggs, both of which would stink up your house for days and cause smelly burps. Unfortunately, the smelly foods were also always the best-tasting foods, but back in the ‘90’s, it was very very not cool to be caught eating non-whitebread foods in suburbia. Anyways, now it’s 2019 and you can even eat kimchi in public, but sadly it’s still sort of hard to buy Chinese chives anywhere, so my quest to make smelly food was not achieved. This is a milder and less smelly take on Chinese chive-and-eggs stir fry, the less pungent, second-generation version, if you will, and it makes a perfect quick dinner with a side of rice. To make it: Beat two large eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt and a dash of Shaoxing cooking wine. Meanwhile, heat some vegetable oil in a pan and cut two scallion stalks, first in half hot-dog style and then into 4 segments. Fry the scallions in the hot oil until wilted, then drizzle a splash of soy sauce over it, and pour in the eggs. Scramble with chopsticks just until set. Eat, or serve to kèrén.