Follow By Email: This Tamales Story Is Still Being Written

This Tamales Story Is Still Being Written

By: MATT RODBARD

Have you been listening to the TASTE Podcast? We've put out some really cool episodes in recent days, including this week's talk with Bon Appétit editor in chief Dawn Davis. It's exciting times over at One World Trade Center. And we have some seriously amazing guests lined up for the coming weeks, including a TikTok food star who is legit cool, a food TV legend, a food TV rising star, and a number of writers I (and perhaps you) read all the time.

I bring up the podcast at the top to mention Ji Hye Kim, who joined me in the studio this spring. Kim is the chef-owner of an incredible Korean restaurant located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her food represents a style of modern Korean cooking that is being expressed coast to coast, from the modern banchan stall at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles, Shiku, to the zippy salads and Korean-leaning wellness drinks being made at the small East Village cafe Hi Noona. Chicago's Parachute, the acclaimed restaurant run by partners Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark, has reopened after a long pause, and I hear the menu is moving in a cool new direction.

As Ji Hye and I discuss in our conversation, Korean fusion cooking (blending flavors from inside Korea and out) is being widely embraced by Korean-American chefs. No longer an "F word," fusion is actually the next frontier, which I will be covering in my upcoming book with Deuki Hong, Koreaworld, and in the pages of TASTE. We have some exciting stories in the works, and I really look forward to bringing them to you.

READ:

This week, Nico Vera writes about how the ever-evolving Mesoamerican corn wrap, known widely as tamales, connects Latinx, Afro-descendant, and Indigenous communities throughout the Americas. This is so worth a read.
Back in the fall of 2018, TASTE launched a special issue dedicated to Emilia-Romagna, Italy's most expressive region for food. In it, we covered gnocco fritto, met a truffle whisperer outside Bologna, and took a spin around a cheese factory. And not just any cheese factory—we're talking the king of cheeses. You can read the entire issue here.
Speaking of Italy, chef and cookbook author Sara Jenkins believes that everyone loves arancini, but real Romans reach for the tomato-spiked supplì.
Some people say they're sick of tipping at restaurants. But tipping is the only way to cover workers' income. Something has to give. Adam Reiner has a strong report for Bon Appétit.
Honestly, vinegar got cool all of a sudden. How? Aliza Abarbanel wrote about it last fall for Eater. We will be staying on the vinegar beat at TASTE, don't you worry.
On a very snowy New Year's Eve in 1998, a young painter and bartender named Andrew Tarlow changed the course of the Brooklyn restaurant scene. Back in 2016, I wrote about Tarlow's restaurant Diner and his cookbook, Dinner at the Long Table, and my takeaway was that the Diner burger will forever be one of NYC's best, and that his recipe for duck confit is an absolute keeper.
"Freshly cracked pepper?" You dig? The phrase, and the gesture that followed, was once the sign of fine dining at its finest. Until it wasn't.
Ashley Rodriguez puts the humble pancake under the microscope and finds out there's much more going on than you may think, involving ancient grains, bubbling sourdough starter, and the occasional savory interlude. This is all to say, are you making pancakes this weekend?
Korean rice cakes, once reserved for the gochujang treatment, are reimagined to the tune of chopped cheese and cacio e pepe. Giaae Kwon writes about ddeok beyond the bokki.

COOK:

This week, Sonal Ved writes about how mild British tea transformed into masala chai, the spiced soul of India. With ginger and cardamom, a beverage steeped in colonization became something distinctly Indian.
Some cakes just taste better the next day. Here's a look at why.
The best thing about going vegan? This date snack.
The Today show reports on 23 Asian American–owned food and drink companies to fill your fridge and pantry with.
I love this take on chickpeas cooked in oil (technically, it's a confit) from Sonia Chopra, writing in Epicurious. It's a take on a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad's newest book, Shelf Love.
Pepperoni crumbs > bacon bits.
Anything bread crumbs can do, crushed potato chips can do better.

WATCH, STREAM, LISTEN:

This week on the TASTE Podcast, we're excited to welcome Dawn Davis. Dawn is the editor in chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious and a really fun person to get to know a little better. Before joining Condé Nast in August 2020, she was a longtime book editor, most recently at Simon & Schuster. What a great conversation!
And if you aren't subscribing to the TASTE Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you should be!
Architectural Digest has a video tour of the new Matty Matheson restaurant in Toronto, Prime Seafood Palace. It's stunning.
James Hoffmann on the best portable espresso machines.
Chaz Bundick, aka Toro y Moi, aka one of the best recent guests on How Long Gone, has a great set on NTS. "Busy Code" by Bianco gives you a sense of the vibe.
Long Beach's long-running KJazz 88.1, all day and every day.

FOLLOW THE EDITORS OF TASTE

Follow along with our cooking (and let us know about your cooking) on Instagram. You can follow us at @taste and see what the editors are up to at @mattrodbard and @elorasharon.

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