Guides

My 2024 in Games

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I appreciate games as works of audiovisual art. They are an amazing way to challenge your thinking and how you approach problem-solving. I often think games influence the playful nature of my cooking.

It’s no wonder (haha), that I surround myself with game culture by making the menu at Wonderville, a Brooklyn indie arcade bar.

Here’s my 2024 in video games, tabletop RPGS, board games, and card games:

Highly recommended video games…

  • Inscryption - Do not Google anything about it! You pick up a card game in the middle of an already in-progress game save. It blew my mind when the host told me I could stand up from the table. Inscryption also had a cult-following ARG that I wish I had caught when it first came out.

  • What Became of Edith Finch - A rich, mysterious narrative point-and-click adventure through a weird old house. If you love looking through people’s stuff (heyyy, remember Gone Home?) and hearing family stories, this is a delight.

  • Fallout: New Vegas - Finally got around to playing this! The hype around the story is real. My only gripe is the clunky VATs system, which is much improved in Fallout 4. It was truly strange to traipse around the Mojave Desert in a game because my family lives there and I recognized bits of it.

  • Hoverburger - Developed by Nick Santaniello, Hoverburger has a unique spin-dial control and weekly updating maps. You play as a pilot in a burger-shaped ship trying to outrun the devourer of worlds, the space ram.

  • Speglar - A really fun 4-way battle where you use mirror reflectors to ricochet and hit your opponents. I can’t help but scream while playing this game.

Nice video games…

  • Samorost 3 - Gorgeous style and I love the soundtrack. However, the puzzles are not intuitive to solve.

  • ART SQOOL - An indie game designed by 3-D artist Julian Glander, creator of the film Boys Go to Jupiter. I kept falling down into the ether.

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 - I’m still attempting to play couch co-op, which is very slow-moving. I’m playing as a Drow druid named Ivi.

Tabletop RPGs I played…

  • Something is Wrong with the Chickens - I picked up a simple pamphlet at the Many Sided Media booth at PaxU. You play as Eldritch chickens who want to overthrow a corporation.

  • Blister Critters - The setting is a Saturday morning cartoon show where you play as critters who survive the poof, where humans disappear from Earth; leaving behind all of their stuff. I played a game on the podcast Why We Roll.

  • DIE RPG - For my second DIE mini-series, I took on the role of the emotion knight for the Twice Rolled Tales actual play show DIECHOTOMY. If you missed the first game, I recorded a podcast series with Dead Ghost Productions called REPLAY.

  • The 7-Part Pact - The 7 most powerful wizards try to hold the world together. I was fortunate to play a multi-day playtest of this elaborate game! I took on the role of the Mariner, which felt overwhelming at first, but my logistical skills as a caterer kicked in.

  • Danse Macabre - My partner’s debut game! You are supplicants during a time when death stops happening. You return hours later each time you die with a new trait or “malaficia.”

  • Succulent Sorcerers - The houseplants are alive! And they are wizards!

Board Games & Card Games I Enjoyed…

  • Hoddog - A card game where you race to build the longest hot dog.

  • Sosig - The fun sister-game to Hoddog, where you build sausages, or sosigs in this game, to order.

  • Pickleball Blast! - When I looked at the box, I thought it was a pickleball set. But when I opened it, it’s a surprisingly fun physical board game. You set up a pickleball net and your ping pong a spinning pickle attached with a wire. It’s so silly, but so enjoyable.

You can follow me on Itch and Twitch to see what games I play throughout the year.

My 2024 in TV Shows

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I went through a TV fast through high school and college. When I wasn’t downloading music, I had movies passively on HBO and Cinemax while I did my homework. The show we watched every day at home was Jeopardy! at 7pm. In New York, I watched shows periodically on my laptop or would make an event of it to watch Lost at my friend’s house.. It wasn’t until last year that I owned a tv. It’s an improvement from the computer screen!

When I ran out of anime to watch (impossible, but at the time, it felt like it), I turned to new shows. My highlights span a majority of Korean dramas, reality competitions in comedy and cooking, thrillers, and mysteries. Big themes I noticed were revenge plots and redemption. Then again, there was time for silliness with a woman turning into a chicken nugget and Freaky Friday-like body swaps.

Here’s my 2024 in TV…

Highly recommend…

  • The Boyfriend - Perhaps the only show on this list to make me kick my feet up excitedly. It is a wholesome reality show where a group of queer Asian men from different backgrounds bond while living together in Japan and running a coffee truck. Give Kazuto a break! He’s already working at a restaurant every day.

  • Marry My Husband - CW: murder. The only K-drama I didn’t find on Netflix, but on Amazon Prime. A woman’s boyfriend and best friend murder her. She wakes up 10 years earlier to enact revenge.

  • Physical 100 (S2) - As a person who doesn’t exercise much, it is truly thrilling to watch people push themselves to their physical limits. Twist: they bring someone back from S1 for a chance at redemption.

  • Navillera - A grumpy ballerino learns patience and compassion through teaching a 70-year-old man how to dance. Sweet odd couple energy and some cheeky moments.

  • Mystic Pop-Up Bar - CW: self-harm. A woman needs to resolve the dreams of 100K people for a crime she committed centuries ago. She accomplishes this by getting them drunk at her pocha pop-up bar.

  • Ready, Set, Love - A dystopian Thai mystery where most of the men in the world die off, so they are kept on protected farms. The most eligible bachelors are put on a reality dating show. Excellent commentary on reality tv.

  • Culinary Class Wars - Similar to Physical 100, 100 chefs are divided into two classes: white spoons who are established and made a name for themselves; and black spoons who are newcomers. Black spoons chose nicknames and if they win at the end, they will have made a name for themselves and shed the nickname. I learned so much about East Asian cuisine from watching this show.

  • KAOS - Woefully canceled. Gorgeously shot modern-day re-telling of Orpheus and Eurydice. The stand-out star is Misia Butler as Caeneus.

  • Chicken Nugget - This completely weird and absurd Korean alien mystery where a cute girl turns into a chicken nugget. A man who has a crush on her witnesses this transformation and tries to find a solution with her father.

  • The Queen of Villains - CW: violence. An abused and bullied teen turns to wrestling in Japan. She is cajoled into being a heel despite her sweet nature.

  • Great British Baking Show (S12) - Alison Hammond is a welcome addition to the wholesome baking competition. I always love the technical challenges to teach me about old recipes.

A Commitment, but overall good…

  • Mr. Queen - CW: self-harm. A chauvinist chef is framed for a crime and in an attempt to escape, he jumps from his balcony and wakes up as a Joseon-era noblewoman.

  • My Demon - A CEO marries the devil when he temporarily loses his powers.

  • Agents of Mystery - Very elaborate celebrity reality mystery series.

  • Blown Away (S4) - It always fascinates me how flexible glass blowing can be.

  • Fermat’s Cuisine - Slightly awkward acting in a culinary drama. A math genius becomes a chef in a high-end restaurant.

  • The Hot Life - A multi-part documentary about different styles of hot pot.

  • Record of Youth - Two Korean male models fight for the attention of the public and a make-up artist.

  • Business Proposal - A Korean woman takes the place of her best friend who was set up on a blind date with a high-powered CEO. He finds out the ruse and extends the contract to pretend to be his girlfriend.

  • The 8 Show - CW: violence, self-harm, bullying. 8 people who are about to take their lives are stopped with an opportunity to earn a lot of money.

  • Siren: Survive the Island - Teams of women play an epic game of capture-the-flag on a small island.

  • House of Ninjas - A family of ninjas seemingly retires until called back into action.

  • New World - Korean celebrities live in luxury on a remote island until they find out about the unique economy to get the items they need.

  • The Devil’s Plan - Korean celebrities play brain games against the Devil.

  • School Spirits - High school teenage murder mystery. Ghosts go to therapy.

  • The Glory - CW: bullying, violence. A woman plots elaborate revenge for a group of rich kids who hurt her.

  • Love Alarm - An app chimes when someone loves you. It gets complicated.

  • Comedy Revenge - Reality competition with improv and roast challenges.

Not My Thing…(Some Hate-watching)

  • Squid Game: The challenge - The very concept of this show is upsetting. I morbidly watched my least favorite person win. Ugh.

  • Doona! - A moody pop star jerks a very nice college student around.

  • Nevertheless - Art students get together, break up, lead each other on, on repeat. ALTHOUGH, I did discover a great band through this show.

  • The Influencer - Barf. Social Media was a mistake.

  • The Umbrella Academy (S4) - I wanted to like it. An upsetting end to the series. I was very happy to see a Filipina love interest on the show.

  • Kevin Can F*ck Himself - I like the conceit, but Kevin’s parts were too uncomfortable for me and the transitions are jarring. Annie Murphy is phenomenal.

I have a goal of watching more movies this year, so this list might be a little shorter next time.

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My 2024 in Songs

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In high school, I spent my spare time downloading music and burning CDs. I started with my dad’s cd collection and when I ran out, I scoured Kazaa and Napster, clicked on questionable rave links, and barely slept so I could trade with a few friends at school.

It’s amazing what I could accomplish on a dial-up AOL account. In college, I discovered the school’s radio station, KDVS. It was a formative time in my life that catapulted me to New York City in 2006. My first job was at a music agency where I specialized in indie rock and electronic music. My listening habits at the time were albums straight through so we could learn how to promote them to radio stations across the country. I felt the change of new media” bloghaus. We stopped mailing CDs and staff was laid off because there was less to do when you could just email a link promo to a reporter.

The rise of streaming and Spotify radically changed the way I listened to music. I was disengaged from the artists on the algorithmically generated playlists (an example in Palehound below). Music was served to me in mixes, rarely in cohesive albums. I did not feel completely represented by Spotify Wrapped, so I made a concerted effort to diversify my listening sources in the last couple of years. I love to directly support bands on Bandcamp, which pays artists significantly more than Spotify. I dug into my college radio notebooks to revisit bands I liked, some of them listed below. I also dove into the archives of community-supported radio at Dublab, specifically Rona Rapadas, Jamie XX, and Daedalus.

According to my Last.Fm (which only tracks Spotify), I listened to 44% new artists, 64% new albums, and 74% new tracks. That’s pretty cool. I may be a chef in my professional life, but I listen to music every day. I can’t do anything without it. I don’t think about which band is the best or that I listen to any type of genre reliably (debatable). I like to think this way applies to my whole life, always open to listening and learning.

Here’s my 2024 in songs:

New bands for me

  • Say Sue Me - If you played their songs side by side with Camera Obscura, I almost wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! This Korean band hails from Busan and I discovered them on the Netflix k-drama Nevertheless. Adorable surf rock and a massive catalog I could listen to all day.

  • Ratboys - My friend Justin turned me onto this band. He described them as “sorta country-ish, but I like it.” An optimistic, earnest band that hooked me within minutes. Super fun to see live.

  • Palehound. - A sleeper hit for me! I went to see them live (with the above band) and slowly realized that I knew many of the words to their songs. I never connected the name of the band with what I was listening to on Spotify mixes, but here we are! It was Palehound all along.

  • Sega Bodega - My friend Liz introduced this artist to me on a car trip. Their slow, deliberate covers fill so much space in my ears.

  • |||||||||||||||||||| (pronounced Barcode) - Extremely hard to Google band, perhaps this was on purpose. He tags his tracks as ambient brainjazz.

  • Polinski - The side project of Paul Wolinski from 65daysofstatic. It makes sense he’d creep into my listening algorithm, it’s been very ambient and post-rock.

Discovered on Bandcamp

  • Chuquimamani-Condori - I’m late to this one, but it was on repeat for most of the year. No skips.

  • r.r. barbadas - I managed to nab one of the last cassettes from their Wet Hair EP. Side project of DJ Rona Rapadas.

  • Alex dl - An old friend, new moniker. Alex, formerly known as the chip artist IAYD is now pioneering a neo-trance with modular synthesis.

  • Disasterpeace - Rich Vreeland, composer (and also an old friend) released a bunch of unreleased sketches and soundtrack ideas.

  • Mark Sparling - The composer behind the indie game A Short Hike.

Old Favorites

  • 65daysofstatic - Back when I worked with Monotreme Records, the Destruction of Small Ideas was one of my favorite albums. It’s so cool to see the band making cool generative music projects and video game soundtracks.

  • Pete & The Pirates - Joyous indie rock from the UK. I repped this band for a short time in the early 2000’s.

  • Black Moth Super Rainbow - I spent a few years repping and supporting BMSR early in my music career. They’re the nicest, most humble folks you’ll meet. We bonded over our love of vintage sythesizers.

  • Lali Puna -One of the earliest bands I played on my KDVS radio shows. If you like this, listen to Ladytron and Broadcast.

  • Safety Scissors - On the edges of weirdo sampling and IDM, lots of fun remixes by indie electro favorites like Dntel.

  • To Rococo Rot- Palimdromic, electronic post-rock.

  • Caribou - He’s still active but his early record Manitoba was on rotation often back when it came out.

  • Alias & Tarsier -An album very close to my heart. Brookland/Oaklyn represented my bi-coastal lifestyle of the 2000’s. I wondered what happened to the band members and managed to track down Rona Rapadas to Dublab, where she still DJs!

Fun Visualizations

If you’re interested in seeing my complete music interests, you can follow me on Spotify or check out my wishlist on Bandcamp.

My 2024 in Podcasts

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I first got into podcasts in 2012 with Welcome to Nightvale. While I didn’t finish the series, it was a great entrance to the world of audio fiction. I found myself drawn to shows like Limetown, Within the Wires, Archive 81, and Hello From the Magic Tavern — some of which have been turned into TV shows!

My list isn’t long, but I wanted to log them so I could observe the change over the next year. I’ve finally fixed my Bluetooth headphones so I can also add audiobooks to this list next time.

Here’s my 2024 in podcasts:

What I’m listening to…

  • I start every morning with Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day. It’s especially fun when I recognize the current event example they cite. For example, September 2nd’s word of the day was incandescent and the author they quoted was Alexander Chee, a person I have been following online for years.

  • I haven’t listened consecutively, but I pick and choose a few artists I know on Song Exploder. My favorite episode so far was FKA Twigs, a very emotional journey behind the song “Mirrored Heart.”

  • Never Post is about the internet. Despite my deletion of Twitter, I still am interested in the wild world of the online creative class, I am part of it! Never Post is made by a group of notable internet personalities, one of which is Mike Rugnetta a friend and collaborator.

What I recorded this year…

  • Fun City is an ongoing narrative play podcast based on the world of Shadowrun, a tabletop role-playing game. We’ve created many of our homebrew rules, making it easier to tell the story of a group of New York criminals in the year 2021. We recorded episodes 47 through 54.

  • Why We Roll is a game design podcast and occasionally, I will join as a playtester. On this episode, I joined Anthony Grasso, the creator of Blister Critters to play a session live and improvised.

  • I got back together with the cast of REPLAY to record Replay Rewind, a post-adventure chat show for Dead Ghost Productions.

  • At the Winter Fancy Food Show, I sat down with BevNet and Nosh.com to chat about trends for CPG week.

I’m excited to record more and announce a new podcast project in 2025. Stay tuned!

My 2024 in Anime

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My relationship with anime has always been peripheral compared to music. You’d assume I watched a ton of it in high school because I had bright red hair, sticking out jauntily with tons of pomade like Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop was my gateway show back then. I didn’t pursue anime any further because I was obsessed with its soundtrack by Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts. I watched Ghibli movies and sought out their soundtracks at Best Buy. I spent my spare time downloading music on Napster and trading mixtapes (more on this in another post).

It wasn’t until June 2021, when Viz Media reached out to me to test the recipes in the English translation of One Piece: Pirate Recipes by Sanji. I felt a little embarrassed that I had never watched the show, the longest-running franchise in the world. I figured, “Why not get to know the source material?” Many people laughed at me when they heard I was binge-watching One Piece. I did the math, if I watched 4 episodes per day, I could catch up to the current episodes in 9 months. It was fun to be cheered on by strangers on Twitter and celebrate when the 1000th episode aired in real-time. I joined the millions of people who wait for new episodes every week. My journey even earned me an interview on the One Piece podcast. I loved it so much, I re-watched One Piece when my partner said they hadn’t seen it. Yes, I’ve seen the whole of One Piece twice.

Once we were done, I developed a daily habit of watching anime during my meals. It was perfect because they ranged between 15 to 25 minutes, enough time for me to step away from my computer and to sit down if I was cooking all day. I’ve learned about the kinds of anime I like to watch: heart-warming adventures, isekai “another world”, cooking shows, slice of life, and some boy’s love (ooh la la). This is the first time I’ve written a list. I hope it helps folks new to anime find a show or two they might like.

In no particular order, here’s my 2024 in anime highlights:

Highly recommend

  • Barakamon - A disgraced calligrapher moves to a remote island for inspiration.

  • Bocchi The Rock! - A secretly talented guitarist has paralyzing social anxiety.

  • Laid-Back Camp - Teenage girls discover the peace of winter camping.

  • Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End - After an epic adventure, an elven mage reckons with the passing of time.

  • My Daemon - Sci fi where a young boy adopts an illegal creature with weird powers.

  • Fruits Basket (2019) - Beware, there are two of these on Crunchyroll! The 2001 version is not complete. An orphaned girl befriends a mysterious family with an astrological secret.

  • To Your Eternity - An alien lives for eternity on Earth, slowly becoming part of it.

  • Polar Bear Cafe - If talking animals had a sitcom in a cafe.

  • Ranma 1/2 - An arranged marriage becomes complicated when a ninja is cursed to transform whenever he gets wet.

  • The Aquatope on White Sand - A teen idol quits the spotlight and becomes an employee at a small-town aquarium.

  • One Piece - Yeah, I’m still watching this pirate adventure.

  • Spy Family - Amid a cold war, the world’s best spy embarks on his most difficult mission yet: building a fake family.

  • Apothecary Diaries - A Murder-She-Wrote period dramedy.

  • Delicious in Dungeon - An adventuring party is ravaged and broke but must go back into the dungeon to save one of their own. Their solution? Eat the monsters they defeat.

  • Welcome, Chitose - Delightful shorts of a tiny penguin exploring Kyoto.

  • Demon Lord 2099 - A demon lord awakens after 500 years of slumber to a futuristic world immune to his influence. So…he becomes a Twitch streamer.

  • Buddy Daddies - Two assassins kill a little girl’s father without her knowing and take her in as their own.

A nice watch…

  • Pluto - Serious! Someone’s killing all the robots.

  • Tonari No Yokai-San - If you like Japanese folkore.

  • Those Snow White Notes - All about shamisen!

  • Snow White with The Red Hair - Political intrigue mixed with a feminist retelling of the fairytale.

  • White Album 2 - High school love triangle.

  • Bartender: Glass of God - Lots of cool cocktail history.

  • Ramen Akaneko - Cats run a ramen shop.

  • Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness - All about the art of wagashi and family obligations.

  • Let’s Make a Mug, Too - High school girls get into pottery.

  • Do It Yourself!! - Adorable all-girl DIY club. Recommended if you love crafting.

  • Forest of Piano - A piano savant enters a piano competition against a life-long rival.

  • Thermae Romae - A Roman architect time travels to modern-day Japan whenever he falls into bodies of water.

  • Grandma & Grandpa Turn Young Again - Exactly as the title says.

  • Erased - Time travel mystery where a man awakens as a child again.

  • Spice & Wolf - A merchant befriends a wolf god who protects the harvest.

  • I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too - Like if you woke up and discovered your life was an RPG and you could level up.

Watched but…not my thing

  • Kakegurui - The bullying is pretty intense and the concept is silly, a high school that runs on high-stakes gambling. The live-action is a little better, which leans into extreme over-acting. The series did not reach a conclusion, alas.

  • GOOD NIGHT WORLD - I did like the concept of a family unknowingly playing an MMO together, but the incel-type behavior of the main character was very offputting. It was too gloomy overall for my taste.

  • Uncle From Another World - At first I thought it was funny how obsessed the uncle was with Sega consoles, but his misogyny is unforgivable. I couldn’t finish the series.

I’m continuing to watch every day in the new year and am excited to learn about more new anime series.

#AD - Stock The Shelves with Gorgeous Cookbooks, A 2024 Gift Guide

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I love working on cookbooks. From an idea, a dish is tested over and over again before it gets sent to me. I examine its ingredient list, headnotes, methods, and develop fixes if it didn’t work out. I pass them along to editors and copywriters who ask a ton of follow-up questions. Meanwhile, photographers, prop stylists, and food stylists take gorgeous photos. Designers take the final words and photos to lay them out on digital pages. Cookbooks are woven together by many people and pop out of a big printer as a book! It’s more complicated than that, but my part in it feels magical. All of my close reading, cooking, and measuring results in something you can hold in your hands—that is a cool gift.

This gift guide is comprised of a few lists: the books I worked on this year, books I enjoyed, books from my friends, and my others books (and one that isn’t out yet, if you’re interested).

All of the links I use below are affiliate links, meaning I get a little commission if you purchase from them. I provided both Amazon and Bookshop links for your convenience.

The Books I Worked on in 2024

Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking--125 Recipes from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean Islands

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

Von Diaz is a journalist, researcher, and great friend of mine. ISLAS is a look at the common cooking practices and unique resilience across disparate island nations. I developed and tested half of the recipes, focusing on Southeast Asia. I worked in tandem with my co-developer Brigid Washington, whose expertise surrounds the Caribbean. I particularly loved making gato pima, lechon kawali, chicken jook, lemon lasary, Kālua pork, and Chamorro bbq chicken.

ISLAS is one of Food & Wine’s best cookbooks of 2024.

Di An: The Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy Flavors of Vietnamese Cooking with TwayDaBae (A Cookbook)

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

Tuệ Nguyễn is a Forbes 30 under 30 social media star, restauranteur, and now author. We worked together for 2 years to tell the story of her Vietnamese roots, culinary journey, and her hopes for the future. I tested every recipe in the book and they sing of Vietnamese culture. Start with the fish sauce chicken wings, Asian banana bread, pandan waffles, clay pot chicken, and squash soup.

Di An is one of the LA Times’ best cookbooks of 2024.

The Four Horsemen: Food and Wine for Good Times from the Brooklyn Restaurant

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

The Four Horsemen is a beloved restaurant in Brooklyn known for sourcing the freshest ingredients and curating a James Beard Award-winning wine menu. It was founded by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem fame, the late Justin Chearno, Randy Moon, and Christina Topsøe. I worked with chef Nick Curtola and co-writer Gabe Ulla to test all of the recipes in the book. It is massive at 336 pages and almost 3 pounds! You must try the ravioli with English peas, maple glazed doughnuts, kedgeree, white asparagus, beef short ribs, and the frangipane apple tart.

The Four Horsemen Cookbook is on Eater’s best gifts for wine lovers list and Chowhound’s Best Cookbook list.

Justine Cooks: A Cookbook: Recipes (Mostly Plants) for Finding Your Way in the Kitchen

Buy it on Bookshop | Buy it on Amazon

Justine Doiron is a plant-forward, flexi-pescatarian social media personality, and NYT Best-Selling author. I tested half of the recipes in her debut cookbook. I highly recommend making her pistachio dukkah, Parmesan-crusted butter beans, fava beans with lemon walnut cream, lentils, and smashed honey-nut beans with crisped mushrooms.

Justine Cooks is one of Food & Wine’s best cookbooks of 2024.

Books I Enjoyed in 2024

Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes for Tin-thusiasts and A-fish-ionados

Buy it on Amazon | Buy it on Amazon

Anna Hezel was my editor at TASTE Cooking back when I started my freelance food writing journey. I also catered her wedding back in 2022. While Tin to Table came out last April, I found myself opening her book over and over again as I made my way through the tinned fish collection in my pantry. Healthwise, I made a concerted effort to eat more fish because oily fish like salmon and mackerel are excellent sources of vitamin D. My favorite recipes from the book are potato chips with mussels, smoked trout dip, sardine curry puffs, spicy tuna kimbap, vanilla butter with anchovies, as well as the bucatini with sardines and caramelized fennel.

Mayumu, Filipino-American Desserts Remixed

Buy it on Bookshop | Buy it on Amazon

Abi Balingit is a friend I made through Twitter (bless) during the pandemic. We bonded over our shared journey from the West Coast and growing up with Filipino-American families. We’ve shared many meals and commiserated about the long cookbook publishing process. Mayumu is inventive but nostalgic, a unique telling of modern Filipino foodways. Try her famous adobo chocolate chip cookies, kare kare cookies, lengua de gato, pan de sal, food for the gods banana bread, and milky avocado popsicles.

The Geometry of Pasta

Buy it on Amazon

It’s not a new one, but it’s a workhorse reference book. The Geometry of Pasta is design-y black and white guide with graphics of each pasta shape, each with a few accompanying recipes. I’m an acolyte of the pure egg yolk fresh pasta recipe! The texture has changed my life and I also discovered that it worked with sous vide egg yolks and lightly cured egg yolks. While the book references a lot of extruded, store-bought pasta, there are plenty of pasta shapes to be made without a machine like lasagna sheets, canederli dumplings, fazzoletti handkerchiefs, gnocchi, gnudi, and orecchiette.

Click through the carousel to see a cumulative list of cookbooks, memoirs, novels, and graphic novels from people I’ve interviewed and friends I’ve made along the way. Hosted on Bookshop.

My Other Books

Showdown: Comfort Food Chili & BBQ

Buy it on Fourthwall (signed copies!) | Buy it on Amazon

My first cookbook is a collection of 100 recipes I created for cookoffs and competitions. Features bacon chili oil, chicken mole tortas, stuffed poblanos, tasso ham chili, arroz caldo, and grilled adobo chicken wings.

My 5 Best Recipes in ISLAS: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking

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ISLAS is my first major collaboration with author Von Diaz, who wrote Coconuts & Collards. We met through Nicole Taylor the night we were quietly celebrating the release of The Last OG Cookbook at her home. This time, my role was more involved than just testing the recipes. I developed and consulted on half of them, focusing on Southeast Asia and the Pacific. I also had the opportunity to contribute a multi-page guide to rice, it is a staple very close to my heart because I grew up eating it every day.

Von organized her recipes by cooking method, not by meal or country. She discovered many parallels in her research and travels across islands that are hundreds of miles apart. Despite limited access to ingredients and tools, islanders possess a unique resilience when it comes to cooking with these methods:

  • Marinating

  • Pickling + Fermentation

  • Braising + Stewing

  • Frying

  • Grilling, Roasting, + Smoking

  • Streaming + In-Ground Cooking

Our book team was bigger than most (and I hope others follow suit). I worked in tandem with Bridgid Washington, another recipe developer. After we developed the recipes, tested them, and reviewed the headnotes before they went off to the presses. A few years later, we’re proud to see ISLAS on bookstore shelves and named one of Food & Wine Magazines Best Cookbooks of 2024. If you do not have a copy of ISLAS, you can purchase one here.

What are my best 5 recipes in ISLAS?

Of the Recipes I worked on…

  • Chicken Jook - Hawaiian rice porridge may look and sound like Filipino arroz caldo (page 155), but its construction and flavor profile are different. Instead of using leftover rice as with arroz caldo, the raw grains are cooked with chicken broth and finished with scallions.

  • Lemon Lasary - Malagasy lemon zest and chile pickle require some patience! It is best cured for 4 weeks and can last up to a year. I loved it so much that I put it on the hot dog menu at Wonderville and called it the Lemon of Zelda with brie cream and poppy seeds.

  • Gato Pima - These fritters with chile are a lot like falafel except they are made with lentils and not chickpeas. I especially loved that it was easy to make and flash freeze for easy meals.

  • Beef Tapa - A classic Filipino breakfast protein. In most recipes it is tenderloin, but I opted for sirloin or skirt steak for its availability. The beef is sliced thinly, marinated with calamansi, and oven-dried a little. It is then fried and served over rice.

  • Sinigang Sa Mangga - I grew up eating Filipino sinigang na isda, a sour tamarind soup with fish and tomato. This version adapted from Yasmin Newman’s 7000 Islands leans on green mangoes as a souring agent.

As a Meat Eater…

  • Griot - Haitian fried braised boneless pork shoulder. This celebratory dish is often eaten with Pikliz (page 99).

  • Churrasco - Puerto Rican grilled steak marinated with garlic, oregano, and vinegar. It’s then finished with a tart wasakaka, a Dominican herb sauce with lots of lime.

  • Poulet Boucané- Martinique sugarcane smoked chicken! It is also known as “buccaneer chicken.” The chicken is marinated in lots of allium, lime, rum, allspice, and thyme before it is grilled with sugarcane pieces.

  • Lechon Kawali - A Flipino classic! Crispy deep-fried pork belly. Best enjoyed with bottled mang tomas and/or Sinamak (page 48).

  • Soup Joumou - Haitian “freedom soup” to commemorate Haiti’s independence from France in 1804. Its base is pureed pumpkin and cooked with beef or goat with vegetables and scotch bonnet peppers.

As a Pescatarian…

  • Vindaye Poisson

  • Kinilaw Na Isda

  • Mas Riha

  • Cari de Poisson Et Potiron

  • Bouyon Bred

As a Vegetarian…

  • Asar

  • Keshi Yena - Replace the beef with plant-based ground “meat”

  • Mofongo Con Guiso - Pork rinds are optional!

  • Ensaladanf Talong - Omit the shrimp paste.

  • Curried Green Jackfruit

For Building a Cool Pantry…

  • Asinan

  • Ginger Beer

  • Jerk Pork Tenderloin

  • Seychellois Massalé

  • Tamarind Chili Salt Salad

If I were Throwing a Massive Party…

  • Kālua Pua’a

  • Chamorro BBQ Chicken

  • Red Rice

  • Shoyu Ahi Poke

  • Pickled Green Papaya

I would love to hear if you cooked any recipes and posted them on social media. Make sure to tag me or send them along via email to randwiches at gmail dot com.

Hold Up! Stay Humble with Humble Bundle Games - AD

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This is a sponsored post. TL:DR I’m working with Humble Bundle and receive commissions when you purchase through the links in this post.

In addition to cooking, I also love to play games when I have downtime. From tabletop RPGs to indie titles and expansive open worlds, it’s fun to get out of the kitchen and immerse myself elsewhere. What if playing games could help the environment and other causes I believe in, too?

Humble Bundle started as a limited time pay what you wish package of 3 to 5 indie games. During that period, you could gain bonuses like extra games or soundtracks (which were always good!). You could choose how much of that purchase went to charity.

Nowadays, Humble Bundle is an alternative storefront for games against corporate enterprises which are riddled with bureaucracy and long approvals. It’s a cool, new way to support independent creators while spreading the wealth to worthy causes.

What is in my Humble Library?

I gravitate toward narrative adventures, though below you will also see some puzzle and platform games. I periodically stream gameplay live on my Twitch Channel.

Here’s a peek at some of the games in my Humble library:

  • Broken Age - An epic adventure from Double Fine. You play as two characters: Vella, who has been volunteered for a maiden sacrifice, and Shay, a lonely boy who lives on a spaceship.

  • Dave the Diver - A big diving hole in the ocean provides fish for your new sushi restaurant. Other folks from the community ask you to find stuff down there, too.

  • Gone Home - Explore your childhood home during a rainstorm. Recommended if you love going through people’s stuff and cassette tapes.

  • Inscryption - A surprising card game that reveals itself to be much more than it seems as you progress.

  • Kentucky Route Zero - Gorgeous, musical, and trippy story.

  • Machinarium - You play as a little tin dude who solves puzzles in a steampunk world.

  • Night in the Woods - A college dropout heads home and unravels a local conspiracy.

  • Samorost 3 - Point-and-click exploration game from the same studio as Machinarium.

  • Stacking - You play as the smallest Matryoshka doll who can jump into bigger dolls. You solve puzzles by stacking dolls with different skills to save your family from an evil baron.

  • Sword & Sworcery - I won’t spoil it, but it’s beautiful and mystical with some real-world bleed. The soundtrack by Jim Guthrie is incredible, too, I have it on cassette!

What if I don’t know much about games? Where do I start?

That’s okay! If the store is overwhelming, you can also try out Humble Choice, a flexible membership with a curated mix of games. On the first Tuesday morning of every month, the games are revealed and you can choose between a monthly membership or an annual subscription. You’ll be presented with various game genres from RPGs to strategy to shooters and indies. The current price is $11.99 USD per month, though you might want to check the Humble Choice Hub for the latest updates. And guess what? 5% of your payments will always go to charity.

What charities does Humble Bundle support?

Charity giving is a huge part of Humble Bundle and they are transparent about how much money goes to each organization. Every month, they feature a new charity and send 5% of all Humble Choice membership fees to the nonprofit. In 2024, they donated $253,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Other organizations they support are Coral Guardian; Trees, Water, & People; Cool Effect, Kiss the Ground, One Tree Planted, The Trevor Project, It Gets Better, Malala Project, Girls Who Code, and many more.

FAQ

What is Humble Bundle?

Humble Bundle sells games, ebooks, software, and other digital content. Their mission is to support charity while providing awesome content to customers at great prices. They launched in 2010 with a single two-week Humble Indie Bundle, but have humbly grown into a store full of games and bundles, a gaming membership service, a game publisher, and more.

What is your relationship with Humble Bundle?

I am an affiliate partner of Humble Bundle. That means I earn a commission when you use my links to purchase from the store or join their paid membership programs.

Allwell Is My Go To For Local Sustainably Grown Asian Greens - AD

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This is a sponsored post. TL:DR I’m working with Allwell Greens and receive gifted products for events and content.

I met Judy and John Cari of Allwell Greens through my friend Liza de Guia. Liza produces a tv show called Food. Curated. on NYC Life. She hosted a party to celebrate the release of season 6 at The Woods in Williamsburg. It was a huge community potluck with featured chefs and local businesses. I brought a tray of vegan pancit and steamed persimmon buns. As I browsed two whole rooms full of food, split into sweet and savory; I found small boxes of fresh bok choy. I took one and looked at it quizzically, “What’s this doing here?” John leaned over and said, “Go ahead! Take it home!” And Judy added, ”It’s bok choy from our farm.”

I was surprised to hear about their vertical farm in Long Island City. Allwell Greens exclusively grows sustainable Asian greens! I was so happy to learn about them because I buy a lot of Asian produce and would like to serve locally grown vegetables. John showed me photos of their mini-farm and told me about scientific trials on the resilience of their plants.

At home, I marveled at how long the petit bok choy lasted in the fridge. They were still perky and crisp after 3 weeks! Judy invited me to visit the farm and showed me around. Because they grow everything in a closed system, their crops are pesticide and herbicide-free. Plus, you don’t need to wash the vegetables when you take them home. They are so crisp and flavorful that you can eat them raw in salads. She even let me peek at some experiments for future crops. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Judy and John love to eat at restaurants, too. We have since become great friends and collaborators thanks to our introduction through Liza. I periodically join them for a calm afternoon of harvesting bok choy.

To learn more about Allwell Greens watch their feature on season 6, episode 6 of Food. Curated..

Where do you get Allwell Greens?

As of 4/17/24, you can get Allwell Greens in the NYC area from Farm to People, Umami Cart, Essex Farm at Essex Market, Urban Market, Jubilee Marketplace, Dumbo Market, and Double Green Produce. Stay tuned to their Instagram for updated vendors.

What can you get from Allwell Greens?

Here are the most current offerings from AllwellGreens.com. Pay attention to their social media for specialty harvests and tests for new veggies.

Petite Shanghai Bok Choy 上海苗

The Shanghai Bok Choy has a bulbous light green stem and oval leaves. It is a mild and sweet-tasting vegetable. Shanghai Bok Choy is the most versatile leafy green in Asian greens, great for stir-fries, soups, grilling, and is a great crispy green for salads.

Petite Yu Choy 油菜苗

Yu Choy's literal translation means "oil vegetable" in Chinese. It has a crunchy stalk, oval-shaped leaves and when it blooms there are small edible yellow flowers. Yu Choy has a sweet, green taste similar to baby spinach, with subtle peppery notes. It is great for stir-fries, steaming, and blanching.

Baby White Bok Choy 奶油苗

The delicate leaves are dark green to light green, the stems are a milky white color, crisp, smooth, and wide. Baby White Bok Choy is tender and crunchy with a sweet, mild cabbage-like flavor with a slight mineral note. It is used in stir-fries, soups, and salads.

Petite Gailan (Chinese Broccoli) 芥蘭苗

The stems are pale green, smooth, and crunchy, and the broad blue-green to dark green, waxy leaves are semi-glossy. Our Gailan is harvested while they are young, hence why we call it "petite". Our Gailan will taste sweeter and less bitter than the larger full-grown version.

Water Spinach (Ong Choy) 青空心菜

Water Spinach also known as Kong Xin Cai/Kang Kung Belacan, has become a regular in Asian and Southeast Asian households. The stem is hollow and the leaves are tender, when cooked the crunchiness of the stems complements the soft tender leaves with a crisp clean taste.

What do I make with Allwell Greens?

Here is a running list of dishes I’ve made with Allwell Greens!

Bok Choy Ranch Salad

Crispy loose leaves of bok choy over a yogurt-based ranch dressing with sunflower seeds and watermelon radish.

Yu Choy Cream Cheese Dip

Just like spinach dip! I sauteed and squeezed all the liquid from a box of yu choy. I mixed it with cream cheese and spices for dipping bread and crudites. It could be served cold or warmed up, too.

Shiso Bun Cha

Allwell’s specialty shiso leaves are so big! They’re great for wrapping bbq, but also amazing in raw salads. Here I mixed it with some frisee, spicy microgreens, cucumber, and rice noodles to go with a piquant fish sauce dressing.

FAQ

What is Allwell Greens?

Allwell Greens is a vertical farm located in Long Island City. It was founded by Judy and John Cari. Their goal is to revolutionize the Asian produce business by providing responsibly grown, pesticide-free heritage Asian greens. 

What is your relationship with Allwell Greens?

I am an unofficial ambassador for Allwell Greens. I receive gifted products for my events and content.

D'Artagnan Dares to Deliver Conscientiously Raised Meats & Delicious Farm to Fork Goods - AD

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This is a sponsored post and contains affiliate links. TL:DR I’m working with D’Artagnan and earn commissions when you shop through my link.

For years D’Artagnan has been a leader in specialty meats and the only place to get duck, truffles, and foie gras shipped to your door. With the rise of many other services, D’Artagnan has persisted in its mission to consciously raise meats from independent farms to keep their practices transparent.

I was lucky enough to attend the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) conference in 2018 and caught a duck butchery demonstration with Ariane Daguin, the owner and CEO of D’Artagnan. She also happened to receive a Trailblazer award that year. She made herself available to the audience to ask questions about her landmark products and how hands-on she is in the production process. She is known for launching the first domestically made foie gras in the United States. D’Artagnan defines foie gras as “enhanced” duck or goose liver. It’s a fraught food because geese and ducks are typically force-fed to enlarge their liver. The practice was even banned in California and has been tied up in courts up through last year. At D’Artagnan, they make foie gras from Moulard ducks and explain their stress-free process:

“Waterfowl have a natural propensity to gorge themselves before leaving on long migratory flights. They store the fat in their liver, which serves as a gas tank, and under the skin, which protects them from the cold at high altitudes. Humans discovered this fattened and delicious liver while hunting migratory ducks and geese, and soon found a way to reproduce it when the fowl was domesticated. The first record of fattening ducks is in Egyptian tombs, where vivid paintings depict the special feeding. Since the esophagus of a duck is thickened to protect it from harm when swallowing whole fish, frogs, and other prey, it is impervious to pain. A small funnel slipped into the mouth of the duck delivers a quick burst of mashed corn directly to the gullet. This high-calorie diet reproduces the natural process of gorging and causes the liver to expand and grow fatty.”

To be honest, I rarely ate duck. My family never cooked it and it felt too expensive to splurge on Peking duck at restaurants. Duck was part of my culinary awakening in my late 20’s, I tore through Kitchen Confidential and visited Les Halles where Anthony Bourdain used to work. I ordered the duck confit and it clicked. How wonderful is it that duck can taste so good, get so crispy, and even better, you can use its rendered fat to roast potatoes. It’s lower in saturated fat and higher amounts of “good” unsaturated fats compared to beef and pork fat. Whenever I need duck, premium charcuterie, and ethically made foie gras, I look to D’Artagnan.

How do I use D’Artagnan?

Here is a running list of dishes that I’ve made with D’Artagnan products.

Foie Gras Butter

I ordered the foie gras chunks, which are offcuts of the larger pate and torchon. I trimmed them and tossed them in a dry cure. After curing overnight, I blended the foie one piece at a time into softened unsalted butter. The result is a luxurious smooth butter for biscuits, finishing steaks, and fancy floats for soup.

Cheese & Charcuterie Grazing Board

For Valentine’s Day, I created large grazing boards with cheeses, fruits, nuts, and homemade focaccia. I also featured D’Artagnan duck rillettes, the above foie gras butter, wagyu bresaola, wild boar lonza, and sliced Iberico jamon.

Jamon Iberico & Mushroom Nabe

Japanese nabe or hot pot is traditionally made with uncured pork belly. It is generally advised that bacon is too salty for this application, but a single slice of this otherwise vegetable forward dish gives it a savory, luxe finish when you dip it in ponzu and eat it.

FAQ

What is D’Artagnan?

D’Artagnan is an online meat and luxury food company. They are known for their free-range, natural production, and sustainable humane farming practices on products from organic chicken to grass-fed beef to lamb, heritage pork, and other meats. They are also a leading source of specialty mushrooms, foie gras, and finishing oils. Moreover, they partner with independent family farms and ranches. You won’t catch them using added antibiotics or hormones.

What is your relationship with D’Artagnan?

I am an affiliate partner. That means that I get compensated by D’Artagnan for every purchase made through my links on this post.