Notes about Recipes in this book

• Israeli grilled eggplant

  • LFL on July 14, 2020

    4 stars. I made this substituting store-bought za'atar for the homemade za'atar in the cookbook and roasting instead of grilling. I also halved the salt, since I'm watching salt. The store-bought za'atar made the recipe dirt simple. I couldn't find Chinese eggplant, only Italian eggplant. So I doubled the sauce, but I think I should have tripled it. This recipe is delicious, providing that you have enough marinade / sauce. I think the proportions in the cookbook are right, and it's just the amount of eggplant that we bought that threw things off. But next time I might make extra sauce / marinade anyway, to be on the safe side.

• Char siu tempeh

  • LFL on July 14, 2020

    MADE TWICE. July 2020 — To reduce saltiness, used 1/2 the amount of soy sauce and sriracha. Added water to make for the soy but not the sriracha, but the sauce was too thin. Used super firm tofu instead of tempeh, so flavor was light but tasted strongly of anise. Overall pretty good but not wow, 3.5 stars. MADE AGAIN June 2022 — Rather than bake, sautéed it in some of the marinade until it was absorbed. This was much better at full saltiness, the flavor intense and bold, though still a little heavy on the five-star powder. We had over double the needed marinade so we stir-fried some broccoli with it and topped it with leftover sauce. Much better this time — 4.25 stars!

• Huli huli barbecue seitan tacos

  • RhymesWithPhone on July 21, 2025

    The recipes in this book tend to be several recipes in one, and this one does have its own spice blend. I made 1/4 of the spice blend recipe, and that is enough for about two batches of tacos. I messed up in several ways - I put the spices and oil into the sauce instead of on the seitan. I was sure this was going to be terrible, but whoah - it is delicious and foolproof. I've made other recipes in this book and they didn't come out (including some that I also ate at V Street the restaurant - RIP). This one is actually quick and easy.

• Chilled spicy sesame noodles

  • LFL on July 14, 2020

    3.5 stars. Chilled Spicy Sesame Noodles. Quick and easy recipe. I accidentally put in a little extra black vinegar. The extra acididty, the saltiness and the spice made this intense. Adding a little agave helped but I don’t know if it’s needed with the correct amount of vinegar. Recipe requires 1/4 cup white parts of scallions in the sauce; the green parts are chopped for the garnish. I ended up with more of the green parts than I wanted to use. Two hungry adults ate enough to kill the whole dish in one meal. Next time I'll bulk this up into a noodle salad with cucumber and red pepper, possibly carrots, and maybe add a protein like tofu. I liked it enough to make it again.

• Shiitake dashi with charred broccoli

  • skvalentine on November 23, 2021

    Very good. Made this for the ramen recipe.

• Dan dan noodles with shiitake mushrooms

  • LFL on July 14, 2020

    3 stars. Tasty, but the sauce is too spicy (and I didn’t even use the optional pickled chili). So I cut back on the scallions at the end and on the sauce. Next time I will substitute more roasted sesame oil for the chili oil, and maybe cut the sriracha some. Once it’s less hot, I will add more scallions, though maybe still less than the full amount. The mushrooms—they were lovely, and so easy to make! I had extra mushroom marinade left at the end, so I cubed some tempeh, mixed it in with the leftover marinade, and baked it along the mushrooms to bulk up this dish. It turned out good, but not nearly as intense as the mushrooms. Even though I used low sodium soy sauce and halved the salt, the recipe was still really salty. If I make it again I might use even less salt, and maybe substitute out the broth in the sauce for water.