Last weekend V and I both received our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The fatigue and brain fog though, BIG oof! Still, I am relieved at the prospect of being fully immunized in another 8 days (but who’s counting?). 10/10 would recommend!
This week’s newsletter is a round-up of what I’ve been reading and getting excited about. My cookbook collection has grown by two, despite the cooking slump I’ve been working through. (I did batch cook 12+ servings of food this afternoon, but it’s more for sustenance than joy at the moment.)
I’m super excited to dig into Betty Liu’s My Shanghai, which she wrote and photographed during medical school (she’s currently a surgical resident). I first came across her stunning photography on Instagram several years ago and have been a fan ever since. The family recipes are organized by season and I’m tempted to cook through the book so I have an excuse to keep coming back to it each time the season changes. The recipe calling me the loudest right now is her 羌 饼 (Yeasted Scallion and Sesame Bing), delicious in any season!
My other recent cookbook addition is Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown by Brandon Jew & Tienlon Ho. Charlotte Druckman interviewed Tienlon Ho in this Eater piece about the process of creating this cookbook. I was particularly interested in how they navigated pushback from the publisher and the disconnect in how the cookbook was marketed (that perpetuated a colonial narrative around Chinese cuisine, despite the authors giving written feedback to PR!) vs what the cookbook is actually about.
While Betty Liu’s cookbook is full of family recipes written for the home cook, Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown is a “book about cooking” as Druckman describes, where recipes reflect how the dishes in the restaurant are made… exactly. Apparently, there is a duck dish that takes… 10 days!
Lastly, Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart: A Memoir came out this week. After being devastated by her 2018 New Yorker piece of the same name, I’ve been counting down the days to her debut memoir. One of my favorite writers, Mayukh Sen reviews this book here.
If I make the 羌 饼 this weekend I’ll be sure to take some pics of how it comes out.
What have you been reading or cooking, friends?
Marsha