Here we are in August already. The July 19 banh xeo sizzling crepe class sold out (hard to believe!!!) and the fun 2-hour session flew by. There was clean up afterwards (of course) and exhaustion but I had dinner made already!

The next day, we packed for a week-long trip to Kauai. It’s our second time there this year to hang out with our dear friend, the fashion and jewelry designer Chan Luu. Where I eat while I’m on the island? At Chan’s home. Her property is loaded with fresh tropical fruit, produce, and now hen-laying chickens. We do market runs to Foodland, Safeway, or Costco for anything else we need!

Some notes on the photos:

• The pineapple crowns I saw in January now have fruits! Chan grows many kinds and the pink one looks cool but has little flavor, Chan says. The white Sugarloaf is a bit too sweet for me. The yellow one (above) had a balanced sweet-tanginess. We clean up the pineapple crown so it will root and then Chan’s staff replants them. About 1 1/2 years later, there’s fruit to eat! You can grow from store-bought pineapples but success all depends on growing conditions. She has well draining soil and very good sun on a slope.

• The spiky fruit in the basket is soursop, which has a tart-sweet flavor. We had lots of tasty bananas, too.

• We also harvested and processed a jackfruit! The tree isn’t big but it produces fruits weighing 12 to 15 pounds. That felt like a giant bowling ball. You don’t want one to fall on your head. If you have to cut jackfruit apart, oil your knives, wear gloves and work on a tarp to minimize its latex mess.

• And, next time you’re near a fresh coconut, remember this tool:

Construction workers on her property gift her food they catch (fish!, crab!), hunt (wild pigs!), or forage. One of them, a generous young man named Kaiola, took us into the rain forest on Native Hawaiian land where we picked edible pohole fern tips. Loaded with nutrition, they’re snappy and have flavors similar to asparagus and green beans but with a slightly mucilaginous quality.

Absolutely delicious for stir-fries, salad, and soup. They need to be washed well and then quickly cooked to preserve their texture and color. We wrapped them in banana leaf to keep for about 3 days in the fridge. The fern is available in Thailand, where it’s called pak kood, and is made into salads, stir-fries and even dessert.

Island life is good in Hawaii — the most Asian of all States in the nation.

🤙 Kale and Shoyu Mushroom Salad 🤙  

When you wish a vacation would continue, it means it was a good vacation. The day after we got home, I opened Alana Kysar’s new cookbook, Aloha Veggies. Alana has a knack for capturing the spirit of her native Hawaii in recipe form while making the dishes doable for mainlanders like me.

Mushrooms in my fridge and ripe cucumber, green onions, cherry tomatoes from my garden led me to Alana’s Kale and Shoyu Mushroom Salad. All I had to buy was trimmed lacinato (dino) kale leaves from Trader Joe’s. While I roasted the mushrooms and made the sesame soy dressing, Rory cut the greens. Our restorative lunch came together in about 30 minutes!

The vegan salad is simple to make yet layered with the cultures and foodways that make Hawaii inviting and interesting. It was deliciously energizing (dark leafy greens with plenty of fiber!) but moreover, it allowed me to savor island life a little longer. For Alana’s Kale and Shoyu Mushroom Salad recipe, head to my website, where it’s available for free.

Summer in 30+ recipes and oodles of kitchen pointers

Looking ahead at the rest of the year for PTFS, I had to look back. When I did, I realized that we’ve covered a hella lot of territory in since mid May, when I posted the last recap.

There have been so many delicious recipes and a bunch of focused deep dives. Anything marked 🆓 is available to all. The others are for PTFS paid subscribers.

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Recipes

• Agedashi Tofu (deep-fried or air-fried, your choice)

• Vietnamese Rice Paper Pizza (Banh Trang Nuong)

• Restaurant-style Lemongrass Pork (Thịt Heo Nướng Sả) 🆓

• Apricot Ginger Jam 🆓

• Spicy Apricot Sauce 🆓

• Apricot Almond Cake 🆓

• Nuoc cham vinaigrette

• Nuoc Cham Tell-All in 3 recipes (Classic, Make-ahead, and a Vegan Hack)

• Ginger Herb Sauce (Ginger Chimichurrri) + 4 recipes to use the sauce

  • Crispy Tofu and Ginger Herb Sauce

  • Ginger Herb Grilled Chicken

  • Emerald Potato Salad

  • 30-Second Green Salad

• Vietnamese Green + Red Seafood Sauces (Muối ớt xanh, Muối ớt đỏ)

• Hanoi-style bún chả grilled pork with rice noodles

• Sichuan Tofu and Peanuts

• Chicken pho 🆓

• Garlicky Maggi Roasted Chicken (go ahead and grill the chicken!)

• Master Kung Pao Chicken Recipe

• Kung Pao Scallop

• Kung Pao Mushoom

• Versatile Veggie Stir-Fry Blueprint 🆓

• Asparagus with Soy and Sesame 🆓

• Taiwan Sesame Noodles

• Vietnamese Mixed Rice 🆓

• Wood Ear Mushroom Salad 🆓

• Chinese American Roast Chicken and Rice 🆓 + done in Combi Oven

• Vietnamese pomelo salad (gỏi bưởi) 🆓

• Roasted carrots and creamy nuoc cham 🆓

• Stir-Fried Beef and Collard Greens 🆓

Tools + Techniques + Tastings

• Wok tips (selection, seasoning, and how to wok well) + 13 wok recipes! 🆓

• Fish Sauce 101 + Virtual Tasting 🆓

• How to Butcher a Chicken at Home (a 4-part mini video tutorial)

• Soy Sauce Pro Tips from Clarissa Wei of HeyDoh 🆓

• How to Make Egg Sheets 🆓

Cooking Thai Sneak Peek on 8/12 @ 9am PT

Cooking Thai releases on August 25 but Pim and I are going to do a fun chat about the book for (International Association of Culinary Professionals). If you want to check out the book before (or after) you pre-order it, sign up here for the virtual session. All are welcome to the free IACP event.

I’ll share info on SF and Santa Cruz book events soon!

Hope summer is treating you well — that you’re not overheating somewhere. Stay cool and well fed.