tag: side

One of the best things about being back in LA? The farmer’s markets.

Sure, there are a ton of open air markets in Paris, but a large chunk of the produce vendors get their fruits and vegetables from Rungis, a huge warehouse wholesale food market in the suburbs. This beautiful bundle of rainbow chard, on the other hand, was purchased at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market, from a kindly gentleman from Jimenez Family Farm, who informed me that no pesticides were used in growing it — “We use bugs to kill bugs.”

I used the leaves in a sausage and sweet potato soup, and was left with the vibrant rainbow stalks. So I pickled them. Waste not, want not, right?

Added benefit: after a few days, the brine leeches a bit of the color out of the stalks, making the prettiest picklebacks ever.

Continue Reading

Posted in: sides | Tags: chard pickles, color, condiment, david chang, food, food photography, mason jar, momofuku, photography, pickle, pickles, quick pickle, rainbow chard, rainbow chard pickles, recipe, side, stak pickles, vinegar | 4 COMMENTS

It’s story time with Miss Diane! Gather ’round kids.

Once there was a little girl who was a very picky eater. She didn’t like spicy foods, she didn’t like foods that were “too green,” and was generally scared of foods she’d never tried before. Eventually, the little girl grew up to be a college student who, while still being a picky eater, loved to eat.

One day, the girl had a realization. If I get over my pickiness, she thought, I can eat more food! Maybe I don’t actually hate the things I don’t think I like… maybe I never gave them a proper chance.

And so she started with mushrooms. She took some plump, pretty mushrooms, and stuffed them with everything she liked: bacon, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic…

If I don’t like them stuffed with all these good things, she thought, then I probably actually hate them. She took a fat, juicy stuffed mushroom between her fingers and took a bite. She’s been loving mushrooms ever since.

Continue Reading

Posted in: appetizers, cooking, party food, sides, snacks | Tags: appetizer, bacon, bread crumbs, cooking, food, mushrooms, side, snack, spinach, story time, stuffed mushrooms, tomato | 3 COMMENTS

The inspiration for this salad was, if you can believe it, cafeteria food.

Remember that trip to Zurich? At Tim’s office, I had a tiny layered salad similar to this, served in a shot glass. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to reproduce it on a larger scale back home.

The thing about this salad is, it’s like a full meal: you get the meaty component, the green component, and at the end, the sweet component. The layers only mix with each other selectively, so each bite is unique.

Continue Reading

Posted in: cooking, salads | Tags: arugula, composed salad, layered salad, salad, side, strawberries, strawberry, summer | 4 COMMENTS