The food comes out wrapped in a banana leaf, folded shut, hot enough that you feel it through your fingers when you pick it up. Nobody opens it for you.
Peel it back and you catch a face full of steam. Coconut, chili, and something green underneath that you won’t be able to place.
That’s nasi bungkus. If you eat one good new thing this month, make it this.
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Shakshuka is eggs poached in a simmering pan of tomatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic, spiced with cumin, paprika, and enough cayenne or harissa for real bite. The name comes from Arabic and roughly means “mixture” — about as literal as a dish name gets. The sauce cooks down slow until it holds its shape, then the eggs go in whole, cracked into wells carved out of the sauce, and the pan finishes under a lid or in the oven until the whites set and the yolks stay loose enough to burst at the first touch of a fork.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
