Three Things
Craggy Chicken Caesar, a whirlwind Chicago weekend, the magic of the unexpected
Greetings eaters and readers! What’s for dinner tonight? I’m eating solo, which means it’s either Hetty’s Salt & Pepper Eggplant or the Summery Eggplant Parm from my new book or some reheated Black Bean Empanadas from the freezer, or takeout agedashi tofu with a side of goma-ae, the go-to order I dream about. In reading news, I’m ready to officially declare this the summer of Colm Toíbín. After devouring Brooklyn and his most recent, Long Island, I just finished Nora Webster on audio, every bit as spare and beautiful as the other two. I also somehow managed to get my hands on an advance copy of Ina Garten’s memoir -- you'll hear more about that when it comes out in October, but for now I’ll just say that my stained and sticky copy of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is currently on my kitchen counter, splayed open to her iconic coconut cupcake recipe. My 22-year-old daughter, Phoebe, read the new Halle Butler novel, Banal Nightmare, about a young woman who breaks up with her toxic boyfriend and leaves big-city Chicago to return to the unnamed smaller Midwestern town where she grew up. “It’s cynical in such a funny and refreshing way, and has a real heart.” Phoebe said. “It’s not just one of those character studies where some person is bumping around and then the book ends. It’s so relatable and human. All my friends think it’s genius.” And now, your Three Things…
1. Craggy Chicken Caesar
Yesterday, I did something I have been meaning to do forever: I pulled up one of the dozens and dozens of recipes in my instagram’s “saved” file to figure out what to make for dinner. In spite of my hot-and-cold relationship with the platform, I still check in with it every day, multiple times a day — the culinary creativity out there is just too addictively inspiring, not to mention dog videos and Lionel Messi reels are suddenly non-negotiable components of my daily mental health maintenance. My instagram crushes are constantly changing, but these days, I can’t get enough of Justine Doiron, the chatty, approachable home cook (how good does this one-pan fish dish look?) and plant-based wunderkind Pierce Abernathy, who regularly elicits the reaction I would’ve never thought you could turn that [insert obscure vegetable] into dinner. Others: The Hamptons-based private chef, Rob Li, who walks us through days cooking for his extremely lucky (and extremely wealthy) client; Julius Roberts is still churning out the farm-freshiest comfort food directly from his farm in the English countryside; and lastly, there is Arash Hashemi. I have no idea how I started following him, but in his quest to make everything low-carb (I guess he recently lost 100 pounds) he is constantly dreaming up new and interesting mash-ups of classics. One of those, his Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza, where ground chicken stands in for the crust, has been calling me from my saved file for weeks, so that’s what I decided to make last night.
Except! I was envisioning the recipe less like an oregano-forward pizza and more like a Caesar Salad meets Chicken Milanese, with a massive pile of dressed shredded romaine on top of craggy-edged spiced smashed chicken patties — Phoebe called the end result “rich man’s chicken nuggets”— and I have to say, it was kinda great. Here is the recipe and how I made the dinner my own.
2. Just Back From: Chicago
I don’t want to say I was happy my daughter had to have oral surgery, no I do not. But last weekend, after a few days of dental drama, I flew out to Chicago, where Abby is working this summer, to help get her through the right-of-passage removal of her wisdom teeth, and I had the chance to do something I don’t get to do very much anymore: I got to mother her a bit. Over on Cup of Jo, I wrote about all the baby-food-reminiscent meals I prepped for her — let’s just say the Magic Bullet got a workout — but luckily her recovery wasn’t terrible and we were able to swim in the lake every day and even have a few food adventures. My book editor Raquel grew up in Chicago, and when I asked her for some recs, here’s what she texted:
In the end, we didn’t venture very far from Hyde Park — where Abby is living — heading to Luna in the Pilsen neighborhood for refried beans (her) and tacos (me). FYI, her first choice was the more no-frills Rubi’s, but it was closed the night we tried to go; on Sunday we tracked down post-op friendly xiao long bao dumplings and hand-pulled noodles from Hing Kee in Chinatown; and in between we waited in the long line at Build Coffee for some solid cold brew and frittata sandwiches, which reminded me of Joanne Chang’s famous steamed egg sandwich, all tender and custardy. Lastly… wonderfully…my best friend from college lives in Chicago and even though she was out of town for the weekend, she arranged for a Manny’s Deli delivery: two pints of the most comforting, most chickeny matzoh ball soup. (Would you look at that color?) Thanks, JP! Thanks, Chicago. ❤️
3. The Magic of the Unexpected
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Yolo Journal, the multi-tiered travel empire run by my old friend Yolanda Edwards. I’ve written about her Black Books (guides to virtually any city you want to visit), but Yolo Journal also regularly features interviews with inspiring creative types who seem to know their way about the world more than most people do. (Or, at least, more than I ever will.) Last week, I was reading Alex Postman’s interview with journalist and cookbook author Rebekah Peppler when I came upon this question:
When you arrive in a new town or place, how do you follow your instincts to find great food?
Recently, while in Japan, [my partner] Laila and I followed the sage advice to hop in whatever line of locals was longest. That plus simply trusting your gut feels like pretty good universal advice when traveling, and it’s always those unexpected bites that are truly the most memorable. Often, if it’s feasible, I’ll pop in somewhere I’m curious about and order one thing. If it’s good, I settle in and keep ordering. If it doesn’t hit the way I thought it would, I ask for the bill and head to the next spot. Nine times out of 10, I stay.
I so aspire to be this kind of traveler — the one who follows her instincts — but when it comes to vacation eating, I’m a planner, and experience what you might call “the good kind of anxiety” if I don’t have a power-point strategy for avoiding the dreaded nearing-six-pm conversation that goes something like What should we do for dinner? I don’t know, what do you think? I don’t know, what do you think? Go out? Where can we get reservations so last-minute? I don’t know, what do you think? Why did we not think of this before now? I’ve written several times about my number one rule of vacation, wherever you’re going: Make sure you have your first night planned, whether it’s a reservation at a local restaurant or takeout from the clam shack or dinner in the hotel or some sense of a minimal-ingredient meal you can easily cook in your airbnb kitchen. To me “planning to relax” frees up psychic energy better spent on answering more important questions like “pool or beach?” But I do realize this can mean I’m often missing out on the magic of the unexpected. I am excellent at trusting my gut when I’m wandering around New York, so I’m not entirely sure why this M.O. is so elusive to me when I travel. What do you think? Are you Team Follow Your Gut or Team Power Point Planner?
Have a great week,
Jenny
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Usually I am team Follow Your Gut, however a few choice reservations or recommendations always come in handy when we get tired. Thanks for the IG recs - some of those recipes look so fantastic I can't wait to try them.
Very amused by the restaurant recommendations (all good ones) - it's a fun sampling of mostly places within a mile of my house. My Hyde Park recs if you are back are the Medici, Daisy's, and Virtue.
I'm in between following my gut and power point planner. I always have a first night in a new city dinner planned/reserved. I do a ton of research and have options mapped out, but I like to leave plenty of room for that spontaneity.