Susan Feniger - Susan Fenigers Street Food: Irresistibly Crispy, Creamy, Crunchy, Spicy, Sticky, Sweet Recipes

Copyright 2012 by Susan Feniger
Photographs copyright 2012 by Jennifer May

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-307-95259-2

v3.1

MY FIRST LOVE has always been food. But in the search for ever more interesting and challenging cuisines, I discovered my second love: learning about people and their cultures. Nothing pleases me more than to travel in some foreign place, stop at a little stand on the street for some amazing dish Ive never heard of, and suddenly find myself engaged in a conversation with a complete stranger. I believe that in any country, what you see and taste on the street is the best food youll find, because its usually one familys recipe handed down and perfected over generations. There arent any frills; theres no service; all the focus is on the food.

Only at a street stand, barely speaking the same language, can you start out as a customer and end up invited home to cook with the chefs mother or grandmother. I have been taught so many recipes and learned so many styles of cooking, and often my only form of communication has been our common language of food. As we cook, I learn. All over the world, Ive seen the same beauty of culture and people, of simplicity blended with spirituality, warmth, and artistry. And it always comes together around food on the street or in someones home kitchen.

Opening Susan Fenigers STREET in Los Angeles was like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. That indefinable magical street experience is what I wanted to re-create. It meant that, in doing something unique and delicious in the spirit of street food, I also had to create the warmth and friendliness that marked part of that mystical experience of a street stand in a foreign country. So I set to work with Kajsa Algerpartner in and executive chef at STREETto try to accomplish the task. And I think we did! Now our best nights at STREET are when strangers from neighboring tables strike up conversations about the food and sometimes even pull up chairs and share dishes.

I want to give you, the home cook, the chance to get your God-given tools for mixingcalled handsdirty. Theres no daintiness in street cooking; theres rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in a new culture with brand-new flavors and lots of joy. World cuisine sounds exotic and difficult, but once you learn the basics, its fairly simple.

Yes, you will be pushed to expand. No question. But honestly, arent we all sick of making the same dishes over and over, mac n cheese and blueberry muffins aside? This is my chance to share the burning curiosity that has been my driving force. And its my invitation for you to step onto the wild side, learning totally new recipes and styles from the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to the streets of Kochi, India. Everything from all countries is on the table. (Sorry for the pun.)

Ill share kitchen tips and techniques Ive picked up along the way in my thirty years of cooking and traveling, and Ill tell stories about some of my most favorite travel moments, and my hope is that by the end of our time together you will know me better and will have a brand-new bag of tricks for kitchen techniques. Maybe youll even be inspired to take your own street food tour to some exotic place!

One thing you should know: I love to play with my food, so everything in this book is geared toward supporting you to do the same. Have a blast and enjoy!

COOKING WITH new spices and unfamiliar ingredients from different cultures can sometimes feel like wandering in the wilderness. The thing to remember is this: Taste is universal. It doesnt matter what country or culture you are exploring, salt is still salty, sugar is still sweet. Different cultures use different ingredients to accomplish the very same tasks. Once you understand that and get to know those ingredients, finding your way around international cuisines becomes much less mysterious.

In looking at how the kitchens of the world are organized, you can see that there are more similarities than differences. The goal is to feel less lost and more in command when youre cooking with the myriad ingredients that global cuisine has to offer. You will gradually learn how to taste for balance and create it as you broaden your knowledge of this language of ingredients. When you become fluent is when the real mystery deepensand the adventure begins.

Most of the flavors in the lists below need one or more flavors from the other lists to balance them. The key is to know that each flavor does something different on your tongue and to learn how to combine the ingredients. The blend is what counts. Thats why I stress balance so much. Its my way of cooking well.

Soy sauce. Tamari. Fish sauce. Brines. Achiote. Miso. Dried shrimp. Anchovies. Capers.

Salt is a flavor that people are hesitant to use because it can seem overpowering. But without salt, dishes taste flat and the other flavors dont reach their full potential. Salt makes every other flavor sing. It can be such a beautiful complement when it comes in the form of something like a dark Malaysian soy sauce in a seafood dish, or ground dried shrimp in a Nigerian sauce or Brazilian fritter. Fish sauce makes a crisp, clean Vietnamese spring roll pop with brightness. For example, in the United States were just beginning to become familiar with the many different types, textures, colors, and flavors of all the varieties of sea salt, and thats still just in the form of rock salts! Remember, the depth of flavor in a dish doesnt come from the laundry list of ingredients, but from the balance that is created by the combination of those ingredients.