Gumbo, Jambalaya, Yakamein?
Gumbo, Jambalaya, Yakamein?
Get to know one of New Orleans’ lesser-known street foods.
This week’s newsletter is a reprint of my most recent newsletter for TASTE (plus some Snack Cart additions), where I’m part of a rotating cast of newsletter writers. To get my newest stuff as soon as it’s out, subscribe to TASTE.
A few weeks ago, a friend texted me. He was with his buddies in New Orleans and looking for restaurants to try. I sent him a few recommendations, including places that specialize in fried chicken, gumbo, crayfish, and sandwiches. Turns out I should have recommended noodles.
Amelia Ayrelan Iuvino writes about yakamein, one of the true street foods of New Orleans. The Chinese and African-American dish has a long history in the Big Easy, where it’s also known as “Old Sober.” Next time you’re in New Orleans, look for a street festival or parade, and you might be lucky enough to score a bowl.
Read
The Los Angeles school district has rolled out a new school lunch program designed to save money, reduce waste, and appeal to kids. Definitely give this a read to learn about the tangled web of regulatory and commercial issues that go into feeding hundreds of thousands of kids every day. The food looks pretty good!
Make me insanely jealous, and join cookbook author Suzy Karadsheh and TASTE editor in chief Matt Rodbard on a trip to Puglia this June. This definitely will sell out, though there will be a waiting list.
The combo of tomato and eggs has gone from something kinda foreign to me to a household staple. Join me (and the rest of the world).
Freeze-drying candy can turn something you’ve known since childhood into something completely new.
If you’re a millennial of a certain age (which I am), then the name Four Loko immediately flashes you back to a time and place. Jaya Saxena is always a must-read, but definitely spend some time with her remembrance of the drink on its 15th anniversary.
It feels like Midwestern food is building toward a moment. Prepare for that moment by reading this interview with Madison chef Tory Miller. Learn how the best Midwestern food draws its inspiration from traditional dishes combined with heartland farming.
🎶And then a hero comes along . . . 🎶
A few weeks back, food media took a big hit when Vox Media, the parent company of Eater, announced a number of layoffs. Eater New York’s restaurant critic Ryan Sutton was one of those cut. Read his last piece, full of practical advice on how to get a meal at “impossible” restaurants. It’s part of a larger package on the role Resy plays in the lives of New Yorkers.
Noma is gone (sorta). Its impact on food was massive, yet more toxic than we might think at first glance.
My only complaint around this Nneka M. Okona piece on the history of the fish fry in Black culture is that it isn’t twice as long.
The two closest Dunkin’ Donuts in Massachusetts are inside a train station. This is like some bizarre Josh bingo. As is this profile of the last mustard maker in Dijon.
The New York Times looks at how the corporate cafeteria is changing. It’s almost cliché for stories about layoffs in Big Tech to talk about the demise of fancy perks, but this article makes it seem like fancy food perks are alive and extremely well.
“It's a warm Nisannu night in Lagash and you've just gotten off work at the ziggurat. King En-hegal can be a real bear to work for, but at least he pays on time. It’s been a long week, and you could really use a drink.”
Cook
TASTE’s Kaitlin Bray is an advocate for “aging” your cake, because fresher doesn’t always mean better. That goes for the usual suspects, like panettone and black cake, but also for layer cakes, olive oil cakes, and sheet cakes—with intel from Claire Saffitz, Brigid Washington, and Melissa Weller.
If you cook at all, you’ve heard of Rancho Gordo. The heirloom bean brand that everyone in the food world is obsessed with became a bona fide sensation during the pandemic. Get to know Steve Sando, the man behind the beans.
Once you’ve done that, think about making a big pot of Nina DeeDee’s beans.
And if you really want to level up, serve them with homemade flour tortillas.
Fighting with your partner over what to keep and what to throw out? Check in with J. Kenji López-Alt on when food *really* goes bad.
How to make Sunday sauce like Martin Scorsese’s mom.
In the early 1900s, Italian Fascist and Futurist artists waged a public war on pasta. Read more about the campaign and the recipe for the delish pasta sauce that led the rebuttal at Gastro Obscura.
Watch, Stream, Listen
This week on the TASTE podcast, Matt sits down with James Hoffmann, coffee YouTuber and influencer. This is a great conversation. James talks about how to embrace your inner ridiculousness, along with strategies for convincing people vs. arguing with them.
Matt also talks with one of my favorite writers, Anne Helen Petersen, about misplaced nostalgia for office lunch and soup.
If you aren’t subscribing to the TASTE Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon, click that button now. It’s the best way to ensure you won’t miss an episode.
Apple TV picked up Drops of God, a TV series based on a famous Japanese manga focused on the wine industry and sorta about competitive wine tasting (the plot of the manga is insane). Keep an eye out for the show that will become the food world’s next obsession. If anyone knows how to get an English language copy of the manga, please let me know.
Keith Lee, a former MMA fighter turned Las Vegas TikTok food reviewer, has taken over the platform with his laid-back and positive vibes. He’s popular enough that restaurants are seeing huge spikes in visitors after one of his reviews. I watched a bunch of Lee’s videos, and they are utterly charming.
A brand-new, extremely gentle yet charming Japanese food show? You shouldn’t have.
Out of Context J. Gold of the Week
I have consumed thousands of animals in my lifetime: seen lambs butchered, snipped the faces off innumerable soft-shell crabs, killed and gutted my share of fish. I had, I thought, come to terms with the element of predation inherent in eating meat – and I am thankful to the beasts that have nourished me. But this was the first time I had ever come up against one of the most basic of nature's postulates: You live; your prey dies. In order to eat, you must first rip into living flesh . . . not by proxy, not from a distance, not with a gun or knife, but intimately, with your teeth. - Link