Notes about Recipes in this book

• Perilla leaf bites with bacon-tamarind caramel

  • hillsboroks on August 06, 2017

    Fun, colorful and bursting with flavor! It is very similar to appetizers at several local Thai restaurants except they use spinach leaves. But when I found out that Perilla was also called Shiso I just had to try this because I had a Shiso plant in my herb garden. I made the full batch of the bacon-tamarind caramel and froze the extra in tiny containers for future use. Everyone loves the fun of choosing what to put on their Shiso leaf and then rolling it up and popping it into their mouth where they experience all the wonderful flavors one after another. It is a great party appetizer and really breaks the ice and brings out the kid in every one.

• Pepperoni-pizza "very warm" pockets

  • chickchickyboom on August 17, 2021

    The recipe ingredients call for roti, but its a very specific kind that is sticky and comes wrapped in plastic, I really wish the book would've included some brand recommendations! I ended up with some roti that was already cooked and didn't stick together to seal the pockets, so we had modified flat breads, which were very crispy and the sauce inside was awesome.

• Crab fried rice with jalapeño aioli

  • meggan on April 22, 2020

    I think this could have benefited from some soy sauce it was a little bland despite the pickled jalapenos. The aioli is good but its not something you want to use too much of because it basically mayo and makes the rice slimy.

• "Egg foo yung" fried rice with shrimp

  • meggan on July 18, 2022

    A little salty - otherwise good.

• Shrimp-brrl shumai

  • VineTomato on August 04, 2017

    Hectic eclectic, but good! I love cooking a recipe where I have no sense of what the finished result will taste like - this was one of those. The smells brought me back to our recent holiday in New Orleans, the crawfish boils and seafood. A boil is not my favourite, but I was intrigued by this recipe. It is a interesting fusion between Lousisana style flavours and cooking and Chinese dim sum. It was quite delicious but for us just a one time dish, I probably won't make it again - although there are some dumpling for the freezer! I left out the Chinese sausage to make the dish pescatarian and it was still full of flavour. I cooked the potato slices much longer than he recommends, I don't think a few minutes in beer would be enough. I left them on a low heat until they were almost done before I added the beer and old bay seasoning.

• Char siu pork with apples, peanuts, and herbs

  • hillsboroks on March 04, 2022

    The pork part of this recipe is fabulous. But I did not make the accompanying apple, peanut and herb salad. Instead I put the pork into Grace Young’s fried rice recipe and the Chau Mein recipe from Eileen Yin-Fei Lo’s book “Chinese Kitchen.” It was perfect in both dishes.

• Orange beef

  • stacymarkow on July 21, 2020

    Absolutely delicious. Cooking the meat this way yields in tender bites with an incredible crunch on the outside.

• Fish with black-bean brown butter

  • wcassity on December 11, 2022

    Tasty. Took awhile to make the black bean sauce. Served with rice noodles and cubed boiled sweet potatoes.

• Grilled kale salad with beets and persimmon

  • Ianknauer on March 04, 2019

    Are you tired of kale and/or beet salad yet? I am. I'm tired of kale and beets each, let alone, together. It's been, like, 15 years of kale and/or beet salads. But, the dressing really makes this one. It's some-sort-of riff on the classic carrot-miso dressing we all grew to love at those ubiquitous sushi places in the 1980's-90's. You know, on iceberg. So good. This is that salad, but of our time. And, it's really, really good.

• Heirloom tomato salad with tamarind vinaigrette and pickled berries

  • hillsboroks on August 06, 2017

    Now that summer tomato season is in full swing this salad caught my eye and I am so glad it did. The new combination of flavors here are so interesting and exciting together. My guests were pleasantly surprised at how well the berries melded with the tomatoes. My new favorite tomato salad!

• Char siu marinade

  • hillsboroks on March 04, 2022

    The ingredient list for this marinade is great because it calls for things easily found in an American grocery store. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the flavor will suffer. We loved this on dark meat pork boneless country ribs. Broiling the meat was a cinch and we used it in two other Chinese recipes from other cook books, fried rice and chow mein. It was delicious!

• The Daily Meal

  The book is light-hearted, and acknowledges that these foods aren’t about molecular gastronomy or the overly-fussy. Interview with Dale Talde on same link.

  Full review

• Eater

  The book mixes illustrations and a hip-hop aesthetic (plus plenty of photos of women in various sexy outfits) with recipes for pretzel dumplings and bacon pad thai.

  Full review

• Food52

  Follow link to podcast of interview with authors about this book.

  Full review