Enjoy Thai iced tea at home — sweetened or unsweetened, and with your choice of milk or milk substitute.
Who doesn’t enjoy sipping up a creamy, fragrant Thai iced tea with spicy Southeast Asian food?
Now, you can make your own in a jiffy — and customize it however you like.
Heather Howitt, the founder of Oregon Chai, has developed Thaiwala, billed as the first brand of authentic Thai tea concentrate.
Just combine equal parts Thaiwala concentrate with whole milk, half and half, condensed milk, almond milk or any other dairy alternative in a tall glass with ice. You can even go fancy and add your own tapioca pearls to make bubble tea.
The concentrates come in two varieties.
The concentrate is vegan and gluten-free, and can be enjoyed either cold or hot.
Bring Hawaii’s iconic huli huli chicken to your own backyard grill.
If ever there was a dish to help prolong summer, it’s huli huli chicken.
Ubiquitous in Hawaii, where it’s a staple of food trucks and roadside stands, this flavorful grilled chicken can’t help but transport you to sun, surf, and sand.
There’s no better version to try making at home than the one by favorite Hawaiian son and “Top Chef” Fan Favorite not once, but twice, none other than Chef Sheldon Simeon, owner of Tin Roof and Tiffany’s, both in Maui.
His “Huli Huli Chicken” recipe is from his cookbook, “Cook Real Hawaii” (Clarkson Potter, 2021), written with Los Angeles food writer Garrett Snyder.
“Huli” means turn in Hawaiian, and that’s what you do with this chicken as it cooks on the grill. Just be sure to keep a close eye on the heat of your grill, as the sugar in the glaze will mean your chicken will char easily, as, ahem, my husband found out. Even if the skin gets rather ebony in parts, it will still taste fantastic.
That’s because the glaze is made up of butter, chicken stock, oyster sauce, brown sugar, pineapple juice, ginger, garlic, scallions, and sesame oil that all gets simmered first to thicken and concentrate its flavors.
Char some lemon and cucumber to make a gin & tonic extra special.
Gin & tonic has always been one of my favorite cocktails, even — ahem — before I officially turned 21.
We’ll keep that between you and me, of course.
Evocative of a walk through a spring meadow, it’s a sip that’s light, bright, and so refreshing that it’s nearly impossible to resist — even when you’re 20 3/4. Or, uh, something near that.
Now, South American chef Francis Mallmann has taken the classic up a notch by incorporating a bit of fire.
“Gin and Tonic with Burnt Lemon and Cucumber” is from his newest cookbook, “Green Fire” (Artisan), of which I received a review copy. It was written with co-writer Peter Kaminsky and collaborator Donna Gelb.
If you’ve ever watched any of the late-great Anthony Bourdain’s shows, you’re probably already familiar with Mallmann, who owns Siete Fuegos in Argentina, Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, El Garzon in Uruguay, 1884 Restaurante in Argentina, and Los Fuegos in Miami.
Usually, he’s shown cooking over an immense live-fire grill with enough adjustable racks and levers to make it resemble some sort of medieval rack.
While some of his previous books were especially challenging because few — if any — of us are equipped to grill quite like that, this one thankfully is not. In fact, the recipes offer options for cooking the dish indoors, too, such as on a cast-iron pan or griddle on the stovetop.
Leave it to Martha Stewart to come up with this two-in-one dessert classic.
Got a soft spot for banana bread? And a passion for pineapple upside-down cake?
Then, you’re sure to love this cake that is both those classics combined into one.
“Pineapple-Banana Upside-Down Cake” is like your favorite comforting banana bread gone next level with sugary, jammy pineapple slices all over the top.
With more than 100 recipes showcasing all manner of fresh and dried fruit in sweet treats, this is sure to be a book you turn to again and again year-round.
It’s thoughtfully arranged by the seasons, too, with summer bringing forth “Blackberry Pie” and “Melon Pops”; autumn showcasing “Pear Skillet Cake” and “Cranberry Port Sorbet”; winter announcing itself with “Orange Marmalade Cake with Roasted Oranges” and “Deep-Dish Dried-Apple and Cranberry Pie”; and spring delighting with “Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Cake” and “Lemon Rhubarb Bundt.”
It’s been a banner year for Brandon Jew, who won two James Beard Awards — one for “Best Chef in California” and the second for “Best Restaurant Cookbook” for “Mister Jiu’s Chinatown” (Ten Speed Press, 2021) that he co-authored with San Francisco food writer Tienlon Ho.
Since opening in 2016, his fine-dining Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco’s Chinatown has racked up accolades galore. And his more casual Chinese-American eatery, Mamahuhu, which debuted on Clement Street in January 2020 just before the start of the pandemic, is doing so well that a second outpost is poised to open this year in Noe Valley.
On a recent trek to San Francisco, I made a beeline to try the takeout at Mamahuhu. As you crane your neck to find parking in the Richmond neighborhood, it’s easy to miss the restaurant, as its name is not easily visible in English above the door, but rather in neon-lit Chinese characters. Just look for the storefront’s vivid teal color, though, and you’ll know you’ve found the right place.
The restaurant’s small, whimsical sign at its entrance.
The restaurant’s name, which means “so-so” in English, salutes the Chinese-American staple dishes that Jew and so many of us grew up on, but is done here with better ingredients and greater balance.
