365 Days of Food

Lemon shortbread cookies. There was something about them that tasted familiar, and then I realized I was remembering those cookie tins that feature the Union Jack or other British symbols, with their cookies shaped into wreaths or other cutout patterns, and they are called “butter cookies” or something similar. I had never tried a homemade…

We went to celebrate with Viet’s sister and her family before they left for the holidays, and his mom prepared gỏi cuốn and chả giò (summer rolls, spring rolls), and noodles and rice with nước chấm, and a plate of fried chicken diced into small bites. Their oldest daughter wanted to play hide and seek with…

Our first holiday party was at a house in Takoma Park, where there were so many Christmas lights it looked like an underwater blur of primary colors. They had gumbo with sausages and a table full of sweets, like cranberry bread and brownies topped with red and green candy. As it is with most social…

A bagel and cornbread for lunch, because it was too much trouble to go outside and buy anything else; on the second day of the polar vortex I had to spend a lot of time twisting and winding in and out of coats and sweaters whenever I entered or left a building. (Photo: Grandma’s Ice…

For our work holiday party we went to a Benihana and watched our cooks juggle knives and use the electric stove as a percussion instrument. Office functions can be an excuse to go on theme park-style adventures that I’d be far too sophisticated to pursue on my own; a plan for next year is to…

Chicken soup. Viet was at a friend’s house and her mother, who was visiting from Guatemala, made homemade tortillas for him to take home, and a chicken breast soaked in broth, which fell apart once you touched it with a fork. Traditional American chicken soup always seems to be missing something, but this tasted wholesome…

Gingerbread persons with a frosty glaze. If you really think about it they should be called molasses bread cookies, but ginger is the traditional ingredient we put forward verbally. The molasses, with its melancholy flavor, is combined with a rush of pure sugar for the frosting, and they look like thin slices of chocolate stored…

Bratwurst boiled in water, with sauerkraut. Since I didn’t have the chance over Thanksgiving I made cranberry sauce on the side. You can just boil the cranberries with enough sugar to cover and a little orange juice, and it’s easily the most delicious thing I know how to make in proportion to the effort required….

Gỏi cuốn with beef. To make the Vietnamese summer rolls, we folded the meat, bagged lettuce, and kimchi into rice paper and dipped them in nước chấm. Summer rolls are usually light and refreshing, but adding the beef made me greedy to finish them almost like I was eating a Vietnamese hamburger, and maybe I…

Gazpacho blanco con uvas; that is, white gazpacho with grapes. It’s a cold soup made of almonds and garlic, with grapes added for contrast. There’s a version of it on the menu at Jaleo that I was attempting to reproduce. The only time-consuming part is to blanch the almonds, which is unavoidable if you want…

Apple rolls at Seoul Food: Giant pastry buns with apples stuffed in the middle. They’re like a cross between cinnamon rolls and an apple cake. Besides that I ordered what I always get, a bibimbap with chicken (or pork, or tofu) mixed with arugula and rice, and an egg on top to make it a…

Chicken with blue cheese in a tortilla. After a holiday gathering which gave me the pleasant opportunity to talk to coworkers about something other than the minor hiccups in the projects we’re working on, I followed Viet down the street and had crazy ideas for an elaborate meal at a fancy restaurant, but he fortunately…