Salt Bread (Shio Pan)
Crisp, buttery, soft and browned to perfection: these are the adjectives that describe these salt breads, which originate from Japan. The rolls, shaped like croissants, are stuffed with blocks of butter, enriching them even more. When they bake, some of the butter leaks out, making the perfect frying environment to help produce their iconic crunchy bottoms. After baking, the tops are basted with the remaining butter for extra richness and shine.
Scallion Pancakes (Cong You Bing)
A flaky flatbread built from rolling and spiraling layers of dough. It’s China’s version of laminated dough — serve it warm with a light dipping sauce. The goal is a crisp exterior and a tender, layered interior.
Chạo Tôm
Chạo tôm is a very popular Vietnamese hand-held appetizer or element of a main course that features flavor-packed shrimp paste wrapped around sugarcane. The paste is fried and then served with lettuce leaves for wrapping and a sweet and tangy nước mấm sauce for dipping. Although you can peel and cut fresh sugarcane, I prefer the ease of canned sugarcane in syrup which can be found year-round next to the canned fruit in most southeast Asian grocery stores. Another ingredient swap I make is trading the traditional pork paste (giò sốn) for mayonnaise, which has been my go-to binder for chạo tôm for years. I find it gives the dish the same signature bounce while utilizing an ingredient I always have in my refrigerator.
