Homey simplicity
Good morning. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.! We drove down for a wedding and ate all over town, cosmic kids in full costume dress. There was exceptional pizza from Talula’s on Cookman Avenue, and a fine pork roll, egg and cheese on an everything from Bagels International in Bradley Beach the morning after. We housed an Italian sub from Della Cucina in Toms River for lunch, went to the beach for the ceremony, had a huge spread at McLoone’s Pier House in Long Branch afterward and slept like kittens. We rounded out the proceedings with another pork roll, egg and cheese for breakfast, this one on a fantastic hard roll, from Frank’s Deli back in Asbury, then beat feet for the big city to the north of town. Congratulations, Mol and Nick! Thank you for having us. The cured meats put me on a pork kick: smothered chops; twice-cooked tenderloin; katsu with pickled cucumbers. And for this weekend: Kay Chun’s new recipe for braised pork with leeks (above), an inexpensive take on the classic French stew blanquette de veau. I like it for its homey simplicity and rich, silky sauce, a perfect complement to buttered noodles and a glass of light pinot noir. Featured Recipe Braised Pork With Leeks and MushroomsAfter that, though, I’m off the pig for a while. (This is the way of the world, when you’re food-obsessed. You go deep on chicken cutlets for a week and then downshift into udon, or start considering the lobster for a midweek feast.) I’ll serve a celery salad with apples and blue cheese instead, some lentil egg drop soup. I might make a Sunday supper out of kung pao tofu or mushroom shawarma, vegetarian tortilla soup or spring soba with tinned fish. This would be a fine weekend, too, for morning glory muffins or buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, for tuna crunch sandwiches and turkey chili for lunch. Assemble some silken tofu with spicy soy dressing for Sunday dinner and you’ll be off to an exceptional start to the week. But if none of those recipes appeal, there are many thousands more to choose from waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Go browse our digital aisles and see what you find. Of course, you’ll need a subscription to do so. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven’t taken one out yet, would you consider doing so today? Thank you! Do write for help if you find yourself caught crosswise with our technology or your account: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me if you’d like to complain about something or — better yet! — to cheer my colleagues: hellosam@nytimes.com. I can’t respond to every letter. But I read each one I get. Now, it’s a considerable distance from anything to do with honey or whey, but my pal Josie put me on to the YouTube channel English Like a Native, which has, among other things, greatly improved my Brummie accent. I enjoyed David Marchese’s recent interview with the poet and novelist Ocean Vuong, in The New York Times. For Esquire, David Gauvey Herbert went deep on the martial arts kingpin Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann. Finally, I can’t get enough of Jon Caramanica’s “Song of the Week” videos for The Times, mobile pop-music criticism, most recently assessing Playboi Carti’s latest song, “Evil J0rdan.” “Bro — it’s crazy work,” Jon says, and he’s not wrong. Enjoy that and I will see you on Sunday.
|
