September 2023: My Summer of Components and Splender
Why I hate entrees, love fish sauce chicken wings, and should really learn to read fine print when I order online
I hate entrees.
The last three or four times I’ve gone out to eat the entree or the meat course has been my least favorite part of the experience. Each and every time I eat all I want are sides. I’m at that age where everyone I know is getting married and every wedding I’ve been to I have not wanted to depart from the hors d’ouerve service. No more lukewarm prime ribs with neon green asparagus — just leave out the cheese platter and mashed potato bar all night long.
I’m over composed plates, I want to pick and share and graze. I am at my wit’s end of having to choose one plate. I only want tapas and banchan and mezze and zakuski and dim sum and thali and smörgåsbord.
This summer, the hottest in human history, was not a time for turning on the oven more than once or twice a week. This summer, very busy with travel and work commitments for me, was not a time for ideating complete meals and composed plates. So, once a week (mainly Sunday), I would cook a bunch of meal components to stick in Tupperware to eat cold in various combinations throughout the week. Some of you will call this meal prep. But I did not prep meals, I prepped batch-roasted vegetables and cold chicken legs and pasta salads and tins of fish. Honestly? It was amazing. I may never go back. This might be my final form.
What’s eating everyone right now? And what is everyone eating? I want to know! Tell me about your favorite foods/preparations. Tell me about a thing you always have in your pantry that you swear by. Tell me your favorite brand of frozen chicken nuggets. Tell me why I’m buying the wrong brand of canned tomatoes because you buy the absolute best ones. Strong opinions only. I’m hoping to share these in future issues so, please, do your worst.
What’s for Dinner?
Girl Dinner
The latest trend sweeping TikTok, “Girl Dinner” is when you assemble a dinner from components that, individually, do not make a meal but together… also kind of don’t make a meal. While it’s a new trend, the idea is as old as time. My mom called it “we’re having leftovers tonight”.
It’s nice to see this storied way of eating honored with better branding that evokes unapologetic strong female character energy instead of stressed-out moms and faded Tupperware containers. This particular girl dinner is composed of all the things that my fridge is never without—a deli meat of some kind (prosciutto), cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, herbs (basil), pickles (cucumber), carrots, and homemade bread (focaccia). Perhaps this is a pretentious gourmand girl dinner but such is my lot.
Fish Sauce Wings
Hear me out. If you know you know. and if you’ve never had Vietnamese fish sauce wings, you truly have no idea what you’re missing out on. Whatever taste you’re imagining, you’re wrong. It is exactly as it sounds yet it’s so much more. Chicken wings topped with a caramelly sauce made of sugar, shallots, garlic, chili, and, yes, tons of fish sauce.
I made my wings in the oven (the Alton Brown method of steaming and then oven roasting) and this sauce from Quang Tran. I served it the way all great wings are meant to be served: a mound of rice, slices of cucumber, and a sprinkling of fried garlic and scallions.
The key to this recipe is in the fish sauce. Don’t use that bottle at the back of your fridge that you bought at Shop Rite two decades ago. Buy a better fish sauce (Red Boat is my personal pick.)
Pulled Pork Plate
Working from home has a lot of perks. My favorite perk is that I can eat a slow-cooked meat dish on a weeknight. I take my lunch break to do the prep, get it in the oven, and then four hours later when my work day ends, I have a slow-cooked delight at my disposal.
Pork shoulder sprinkled with salt and a conservative dollop of liquid smoke slapped in a roasting tray, and cooked low and slow for a few hours. Once shredded, I tossed it with the true pride of Washington, D.C.: mambo sauce. I served it with some pasta salad and an arugula salad.
A word of advice, if you’re a single woman who lives alone but has an occasional craving for pork shoulder but can’t justify buying a 6-pound hunk of it, buy country-style ribs. Country-style ribs are literally just boneless pork shoulder cut into the shape of ribs. They come in a smaller package but cook and shred just like a whole shoulder.
In Defense of: Online Shopping
A few years ago, in 2020, I learned about this cool thing we have in the modern world called: Buying Shit Online™. I found out that, for a small fee, you can order pretty much any spice in the world and it’ll be brought to your door neatly packaged in a box. Nowadays, I buy spices, oils, and pastes almost entirely online.
I have a bad habit of buying things online and not looking at the product dimensions or the weight. It’s not great practice but I tend to look at the price and the photo and make a snap judgement about whether it’s a good deal. This has led to a recurring issue of ordering things online and then being confronted with an object that’s either comically too large or way too small. It’s not good, I should probably learn from my mistakes and stop but I’m married to the bit and the hubris of it is pretty funny.
Can you guess what happens next?
Yeah, I bought a 1 pound bag of gochugaru. To put that in a unit that will help everyone understand just how much gochugaru this is — it’s about 8 spice jars. Yes, those 2-ounce spice jars that you probably take 4-6 months to get through.
So, in next month’s newsletter, expect at least one gochugaru-focused dish in the “what’s for dinner” round-up. Probably tteoboki. Actually, definitely tteoboki.
Thanks for reading this week. Happy New Year to all my readers celebrating Rosh Hashana. L’shana Tova!
Also, if you’re able to: get the new COVID booster! Keep yourself and your community safe by immunizing. Do the double feature with your flu shot!