Innehållsförteckning för March 2017 från Bon Appetit

Follow Adam on Twitter and Instagram at @rapo4 COMING TO AMERICA If you’ve ever spent any time in a restaurant kitchen, you know that workplace diversity isn’t some HR initiative, it’s just the way things are. You often hear far more Spanish—or Mandarin or Thai or Korean—than you do English. And if you’ve ever spent any time dining out in this country— I’m just gonna go ahead and call that a rhetorical question—you know how lucky we are for this breadth of talent and influences, and the global flavors that ensue. Last night, for instance, as I was debating what to write for this letter, my wife and I opened up the Seamless app, scanned a zillion choices, and ordered from a Korean ramen joint (yes, that’s a thing) called…

MARINATED MIXED BEANS Combine 1 finely chopped shallot and 3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar in a small bowl and let sit 5 minutes. Mix . cup finely chopped tender herbs (such as mint, parsley, cilantro, chives, and/or dill) and ? cup olive oil in a large bowl to coat herbs. Add two 15-oz. cans ne. DO AHEAD: Beans can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Makes about 4 cups. Salad Daze The way I see it, if you already eat a lot of salad (which science tells us is the key to immortality) there’s only one way to eat even more of it: by using salad as a sauce, and putting that sauce on everything. These “dressing salads” are stupid-simple and keep for days, ready to add tangy,…

owner of Reem’s in Oakland, CA I worked as community organizer for a decade in the Bay Area, but I wasn’t making any real headway. I eventually left and went on a trip with my dad to his home of Syria, then to Beirut, where I saw bakeries that were full of life. Outside on the streets there was turmoil, but inside there was something safe and happy. I wanted to re-create that, bringing together people from different backgrounds to eat Middle Eastern–inspired food highlighting the bounty of California produce. A lot of my customers are Arab and craving something familiar, and then other folks just want to eat good food and learn about our culture. Most of the menu is based around the man’oushe, a flatbread with a za’atar…

co-owner of Juliet in Somerville, MA Hospitalit y is so ingrained in being Iranian that if you asked my dad what it means, he’d have a hard time answering . We have this Farsi word, tarof, which translates to “politeness to almost an obsessive degree.” And when you entertain guests, i t ’s your duty to make sure they all leave feeling happy. At Juliet, our all-day café outside Boston, the kitchen bakes croissants and apple tarts around the clock, so diners are greeted by the sweet aroma when they walk in. As a throwback to my parents’ dinner parties, we serve cof fee and dessert on vintage china. We play lots of Glenn Miller and Josephine Baker—jazz sets the right upbeat vibe. And whether i t ’s writing down…

owner of Guerrilla Tacos in Los Angeles You know what I’m talking about when I say Taco Tuesday, right? The crunchy shell with ground beef and spice mix from a box? That’s pretty much what you would consider the most American version of a taco. I do a version called the Pocho. That used to be a derogatory word used by Mexicans for other Mexicans who’d immigrated to the U.S.A. It meant: You don’t know your roots. Some people see this taco and are like, “That’s not authentic!” I’m like, f*#% you, I like those sh*#ty tacos, so I made a better version. I use good meat, make crème fraîche instead of sour cream, and add a burnt-tomato salsa with serranos and garlic (see recipe, p. 77). Other days I…

owner of The Food Sermon in Brooklyn Some of my best employees walked into the restaurant and said, “Hey, I’m looking for a job.” My wife and my brother also help out even though they have jobs of their own, and my dishwasher, Carl, was a member of the community long before I got here. I had a lot of doubts when I opened, but every time a customer visited, they’d tell me how much they believed in my team. And because they believed in us, we’ve kept our doors open. Here in Crown Heights, you can find curry chicken— the food of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where my parents grew up—on nearly every corner, but people get a lighter version of Caribbean food when they come here. Many…

Taste the Rainbow One type of citrus in a dish is pretty. Two is prettier. Three is…you get the idea. When using slices or segments, pair multiple varieties for an automatic showstopper. Choose different colors and sizes, and shoot for a balance of tart (such as grapefruit) and sweet (such as navel oranges and tangelos). Cocktails Love Citrus (and Vice Versa) Ask bartenders why cocktails have gotten so good lately, and they won’t say it’s because drinks actually taste better when made by a guy wearing suspenders. No, it’s because fresh citrus juice has become a nonnegotiable behind the bar (with all due respect to bottled lime juice). The just-squeezed stuff brightens up liquor—perfect for channeling that “it’s summer somewhere” lifestyle. MIXED CITRUS DAIQUIRI Cut ½ lime into wedges and…

Remember baked Alaska? So do chefs everywhere, who are now lighting all sorts of things on fire—on purpose. From a charred citrus tart at Willa Jean in New Orleans to singed raw fish at Winsome in L.A., everything is fair game for torching and toasting these days. And why not? The tiny-but-mighty flame of a kitchen torch caramelizes sugars, which lends foods not only a deeper flavor but also a stunning presentation. For meat and fish, it achieves a toasty outside while keeping the protein delightfully rare. At Lamberts in Austin, chef and owner Larry McGuire cooks a rib eye over a wood-burning grill to impart smokiness, then sprinkles on some brown sugar, which gets kissed by a kitchen torch. “What we really wanted was that crème brûlée effect but…

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP in the Bay Area, the first day of spring served as a reminder of my Iranian heritage. On this day we celebrated Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a holiday that dates back more than 3,000 years. To mark the occasion, a tabletop called a Haft-Seen was set with seven symbolic items that begin with the letter s in the Persian alphabet, such as apples and sumac berries. And, most memorably, on the eve of the New Year, my mother prepared a feast (occasionally followed by rounds of backgammon or the card game pasur). My menu is in keeping with family tradition: It begins with barbari bread; marinated feta; and kuku sabzi, a deepgreen frittata packed with herbs. For the main course, there are mountainhigh piles…

If you want to know who’s running the buzziest, most boundary-pushing restaurants in the nation, look no further than the children of immigrants. From a Texan take on ramen to a vegan Polish joint in Pit tsburgh, these young chefs and restaurateurs are transforming the cuisines they grew up eating into something undeniably modern and uniquely American. Here, in their own words, is how they’re creat ing the most dynamic food scene in the world…

owner of Julep in Houston Most cocktails stem from a classic . The Common Lily (see recipe, p . 76) isn ’t a combination my tequila-loving father would have put together in Mexico, but it stands the test of time. I t ’s based on a margarita, but the ingredients aren’t conventional: Blackberry seeds add crunch, and the bitter Suze is balanced out by pineapple. In Houston, you can get a frozen margarita everywhere, but that destroys the ice . For mine, the crushed ice maintains structure so the drink doesn’t get diluted.…

co-owner of Apteka in Pittsburgh “Wait, this is Polish food?” We get asked that a lot. There are so many people in Pittsburgh with Polish heritage, but when it came to food, it was the lowest common denominator: cheese pierogis, meat and potatoes, stuff like that. Growing up, I spent summers in Poland with my grandmother; we would forage for chanterelles or Alpine strawberries, and that would go into dinner. My partner, Kate Lasky, and I wanted to show how rich this cuisine really is. So when people ask whether we’re making Polish food, we say, “Well, yeah, it is!” Here’s how. ABOUT THAT POLISH-PIT TSBURGH PARTNERSHIP “Kate and I split all the responsibilities. She is half Croatian and has Slovak- Polish roots, and she’s a sixth-generation Pittsburgher.” A NEW…

owner of Porch Light Latin Kitchen in Smyrna, GA I knew that the legendary La Chuleta Can-Can had to be on the menu when I opened Porch Light in 2015. When I was growing up in Puerto Rico, this pork chop royale (which includes the loin, ribs, belly, and some skin) was sold in most criollo-style restaurants. It’s traditional to eat La Can- Can—named for the shape it takes, as the rind flairs like a dancing lady’s dress—on special occasions. But sourcing the cut in Atlanta was tough; I get Cheshire hogs from the guys at Heritage Farm, and I taught them how to butcher it. First, we brine the two-pound chops for at least a day, then grill and deep-fry them to crisp up the skin. For $28 you…

owner of Night + Market and Night + Market Song in Los Angeles I grew up in my parents’ restaurant, Talésai, where my grandmother was the chef. It was the first mainstream Thai restaurant in L.A. I took it over when I was 25 and nearly put it out of business before my father came out of retirement and helped me correct the course. Then, when I was 28, I turned a former dry cleaner next to the restaurant into my own place, Night + Market. Three years later I opened a second location in Silver Lake. I sat down with my dad, Prakas, 67, to reflect on our family’s three generations of California Thai cooking… Kris: What motivated you to open Talésai? Prakas: In the early ’80s, Thai food…

STAFF PICK FROM P. 14 All-Clad 4-Square Belgian Waffle Maker Real talk: The BA Test Kitchen went a long time without a waffle iron. That is, until we met All- Clad’s stainless-steel stunner. Unlike other (ahem, lesser) irons, it produces luxuriously tall Belgian-style waffles with deep pockets just right for holding pools of maple syrup, saucy berry compotes, and, if you’re really going for it, plenty of soft homemade whipped cream. The unit boasts a clever steam-release system on top of the iron that forces out extra moisture, so your waffles come out perfectly golden and incredibly crispy every single time. But that’s not even the best part: This iron cooks four big ones at once, which means there’s plenty to go around. (No need for food fights, folks.) Needless…

“I could really go for a chilled rosé right now,” said no one in March. Enter this hot toddy from Chicago’s Moneygun: Muddle 1 Tbsp. chopped unpeeled ginger and ½ tsp. whole cloves in a measuring glass. Add 1 bag Darjeeling tea and 1 cup boiling water; stir 10 seconds. Let steep 4 minutes. Fill a mug with hot water; let sit while tea is steeping. Pour out hot water; combine ¾ oz. Jamaican black rum, ¾ oz. cognac, and 1 Tbsp. honey in warm mug. Strain tea into mug; stir well. Add 2 tsp. lemon juice and lemon wedge. Let sit 1 minute. Makes 1…

You know what looks good on vintage china? Everything. I know this because I cook the same boring breakfast every weekend, yet when I eat those soft-cooked eggs on handed-down plates with garish butterflies, people tap my photos like I’m Ryan McGinley. No wonder vintage plates are edging out austere ceramics at restaurants, too. I’ve eaten collard greens off a chipped rosepatterned one at Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans, sliced into a very expensive steak atop stately china at Bateau in Seattle, and admired a little cookie at NYC’s TŽ Company, made sweeter by some elegant gold-rimmed grandmaware.…

RECIPES MENU IDEAS HOW DOES A CHEF with four restaurants and two kids find time to cook at home? “I just improvise,” says Alex Raij, the chef and co-owner, with her husband, of New York’s El Quinto Pino, Txikito, La Vara, and Tekoá. “I grab this, I grab that,” and before you know it, dinner’s ready. It might be a bright salad thrown together from whatever’s in the crisper drawer, or charred short ribs that Raij picked up on the way home, or juicy lime pickle–marinated chicken thighs that even the chef’s picky five-year-old, Lucien, will eat. In the end, cooking for her family isn’t all that different from working in the restaurant: “I have a sous-chef at home,” Raij says. “My seven-year-old daughter, Maayan, likes to chop. She’s actually…

owners of Ramen Tatsu-ya and Kemuri in Austin When we opened Ramen Tatsu-ya in Austin in 2012, we were the first ramen shop in the city, and we didn’t want to Americanize it. Austin’s preconception of ramen was “Oh, the packet stuff?” So customers didn’t know what they were getting with our Tonkotsu Original: Hakata-style pork bone–based soup from Japan’s south. It looks creamy, even though there’s no dairy, from the collagen and marrow. It has a flavor you never really taste here in the States, kind of like pork in your face. Nearby it on the menu, we printed rules. One was “Slurp loudly and proudly.” We’ve since taken rules off the menu (we needed more room!), but now you hear folks explaining it to their friends: “Hey, man,…

owners of Sub Rosa Bakery in Richmond, VA In Turkey, rose-water sweets can be pret ty intense; our Rose Water Shor tbread (see recipe, p . 77) is more toned down. The pistachios in these cookies are from California, but we coat them in rose-water sugar syrup so they have the crunch of the nuts our relatives brought over as kids—we ate them until our fingernails hurt from shelling. When Turkish people eat these shortbreads, they’re reminded of something. But for the average U.S. customer —from Virginia—they enjoy it as something new.…

owner of Hawker Fare in San Francisco Laap (a.k.a. larb) is always a meaty dish: flesh, offal, skin, all minced together and seasoned, sometimes with fresh blood. This version has cauliflower instead (and no blood) but mostly stays true to the dish’s essence. It gives me a sense of comfort knowing the food of Laos, where my dad grew up, can be remixed—just like my whole life. Other Asian cuisines have gotten the mash-up treatment; I always think of David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants and the Korean dishes he created, like ramp kimchi. But most people don’t know what Lao food is, so the challenge is teaching them while also making it relevant for right now. Just like me—the product of both fine-dining training and of learning to cook by watching…

THE VITALS Age 48 Hometown New York City Current role A gym teacher in Fist Fight In the high school cafeteria, you’d find him at The cool kids’ table Probably eating Tater tots and chocolate milk There are two ways to get your Tracy Morgan fix this month: First, catch his new comedy, Fist Fight, out now. Second, head to…Benihana? The comedian is a regular at the crowdpleasing teppanyaki restaurant chain. “I love Benihana. I love the fun, I love the people, and on top of that, the food is good. I try to visit once a month,” says Morgan, who’s partial to Manhattan’s midtown location but also hits up Benihanas in other cities when he travels (his standard order: hibachi shrimp and teriyaki chicken). For family birthday parties, he…