Notes about Recipes in this book

• Braised and caramelized Vietnamese Coco pork belly (Thit kho)

  • MmeFleiss on January 29, 2018

    This was a huge hit at the house. The use of the coconut soda worked, even though I had my doubts.

• Braised Coca-Cola jackfruit

  • MmeFleiss on January 31, 2018

    This was really good, although next time I'll stick with regular sodium soy sauce. It also yielded way more than the 2-4 servings. For us it was closer to 8, so I froze half for another day.

• Garlic noodles (aka make-out noodles)

  • rionafaith on November 15, 2021

    I didn't think this (pretty basic) list of ingredients was going to produce anything special, but this was actually very tasty, even though I had to use oil instead of schmaltz and omitted the fried shallots. Pleasantly surprised! I used lo mein noodles. I'd make this again.

• Korean spicy pork belly

  • rionafaith on August 24, 2017

    The marinade on this BURNS, a lot. I seared it on a cast iron griddle and the slices turned black almost instantly, and the sauce just pooled into big crusty puddles that were very hard to scrape off. But other than that, very tasty, even though I only marinated for 2 hours instead of overnight. If I make this again I might try omitting the sugar, using a different pan, or flipping/stirring more to cut down on the burn factor.

• Miso charred Brussels sprouts

  • Kduncan on January 18, 2021

    My SO who can't really cook, had an easy time making these. Great flavor, and we made them again the next week as we had extra Brussels.

  • meggan on October 09, 2021

    These are pretty fast and yummy.

• Spam Brussels sprout fried rice

  • MmeFleiss on January 29, 2018

    So good that I've already made this twice. I added extra Brussels sprouts the second time around because they were my favorite bit.

• Roast pork belly XO fried rice

  • MmeFleiss on January 29, 2018

    I will admit that I made the pork belly just so I could make this. So worth the wait. Yet another recipe from this book that is going to my rotation.

• Food52

  ...I was thrilled with the food I cooked out of this book. It’s an honest look at opening a restaurant during the crazy, DIY years after the recession...

  Full review

• Food52

  ...follows Los Angeles couple Nguyen and Thi Tran from a 2008 layoff to an underground restaurant in their studio apartment to pop-ups and critical acclaim.

  Full review