The Perfect Pantry

Chinese egg noodles (Recipe: mee goreng/fried noodles)

When Bee invited me to write a guest post for Rasa Malaysia, one of my favorite Asian cooking blogs, I knew I had to tell the tale of my relationship to mee goreng, one of Malaysia's favorite street foods. Please visit Rasa Malaysia for the story and recipe.

There are, I think, two secrets to making great Asian food. One, use a hot hot hot wok. Two, cook with authentic ingredients.

Chinese egg noodles, fresh and dried, are one of the authentic Asian ingredients that have a permanent home in The Perfect Pantry. 

Tamarind (Recipe: Mozambique chicken)

Guest post and photos by Peter in Brazil, chef and co-owner of Pousada do Capão

We lunched at Al Arabe Lebanese Restaurant last week during our routine weekly shopping junket to Diamantina. A cold, tall glass of tart tamarind juice, over ice and lightly sweetened with brown sugar, was just what I needed to take the edge off the noonday heat. And it was the perfect accompaniment to a plate of Ahmed’s meat kibbeh and delicious fatoosh salad.

As we returned to the center of town to finish up a few errands before heading home to São Gonçalo, I couldn’t resist buying some tamarind pods from a street vendor, whose wheelbarrow was brimming with not only tamarind, but also mangoes, okra, araticum, pequi, and other delicacies of the cerrado.

Usually I write about my pantry items that are native to Brazil and were globalized with the help of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers. Tamarind, on the other hand, is native to Africa and subsequently was naturalized all over the tropical world by colonizers and traders.

Its uses run the gamut from dyestuff to laxative to cattle fodder to furniture-making, but today I'll stick to its culinary appeal.

Other People's Pantries #61

From Dianne (A Stove With a House Around It), in Akron, Ohio:

We just renovated our pantry, and since it is now my favorite room in the whole house, I thought I'd send along photos for your site. Really, I think I would live in there if I could.

My Dad is my architect and contractor -- we are lucky to have access to his carpentry skills and brilliant pantry-planning mind! The space once housed the washer and dryer, but we moved them to another spot in the house to make way for my dream pantry.

It was important to me to make room for the microwave and toaster oven in the pantry, to free up more counter space for prep work, kneading, the rolling out of dough, etc. I also wanted to incorporate some of my cookbooks to give the space a more bookshelf-y, furniture-y quality (that's also why I asked Dad to build it from wood, instead of that open wire shelving -- I wanted it to be like a piece of furniture).

The space isn't complete yet: on the left side, in front of the floor-to-ceiling shelves, Dad will build a rolling unit that hinges to the center support and will swing out and to the right.  That way, I can store the less-often-used items on the shelves you now see, and nearly double the space for storing canned goods, pastas, grains, etc.

Thank you for indulging my pantry pride, and keep up the good work on the site!  It is rather addictive, I must say....

(You can read more about Dianne's pantry here.)

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries was going to end early in 2009, to make way for a new Saturday feature. However, pantry photos continue to roll in, so I'll keep featuring them on Saturdays, in the order in which I receive them, for a while longer. If you've been thinking about sharing photos of your own pantry, now's the time to send them.

Here's how.

Cayenne pepper (Recipe: Bob's smoky beef ribs)

Twenty-five years ago, the City of Boston planted a tree in a hole in the brick sidewalk in front of our house.

Every dog in the neighborhood loved, and I do mean loved, that little sapling.

To discourage the gifts those dogs left us (in the days before pooper-scooping was mandatory), we sprinkled cayenne pepper on the ground at the base of the tree. Every so often we'd hear a little sneeze... and we'd watch a very surprised puppy move along, to find a kinder and gentler tree hole.

Pecans (Recipe: classic pecan pie)

When Harry met Sally, sparks did not fly.

What did fly were some of the funniest ad libs in movie history.

In one of my favorite scenes, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harry decides they will speak only in funny nasal voices, and ad libs the line, "I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie."

Sally tries to repeat it in just the same singsong way, but cannot, and Harry coaches her. Pee can PIIIEEEEE. She tries again. Pee can PIIIEEEEE.

Would the scene have worked as well with if Harry had said pee KAHN? Who knows?

Dry bread crumbs, and a cookbook giveaway (Recipe: baked cherry tomatoes)

Since the age of seven or so, I've worn eyeglasses.

As a little kid, I hated them, and when I reached high school, I couldn't wait to get contact lenses. But in college, the combination of my night job and early-morning classes made it difficult to pry my eyes open and put the contacts in every morning.

So, reluctantly, I went back to glasses. I had one pair, which began to bore me after a week or so, and I shoved them on my nose every day and never gave them a second thought.

One day, my mother said to me, Glasses are just a fashion accessory. You have more than one jacket, why not more than one pair of glasses?

Aha!

Accessories -- like a colorful scarf or red Birkenstocks, Lego cufflinks or a bug bra -- dress up whatever they're with, and in cooking, that's exactly what dry bread crumbs do.

Other People's Pantries #60

From Cora, in Irvine, California:

Thought you might find amusing this photo I took of a pantry at a rental cabin in Heber, Arizona. The cabin is rented out to the public and is full of signs like this.

And here's what we found in the fridge!

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries was going to end early in 2009, to make way for a new Saturday feature. However, pantry photos continue to roll in, so I'll keep featuring them on Saturdays, in the order in which I receive them, for a while longer. If you've been thinking about sharing photos of your own pantry, now's the time to send them.

Here's how.

Almonds (Recipe: amaretti cookies)

Adapted from an archived post, with new photos, links and recipe.

I'm a sucker for princess tales, especially when food is involved.

According to Greek mythology, the lovely princess Phyllis was dumped at the altar on her wedding day by Demophon, her fiance. She waited for years for him to return to her (why, we wonder?), but eventually she died of a broken heart. The gods took pity and transformed her into an almond tree.

When Demophon wised up and returned to find Phyllis turned into a flowerless tree, he embraced her, and the tree burst into bloom, proving that his love was greater than death -- or that he loved almonds.

Ketchup (Recipe: barbecue sauce)

At any time, more than fifty bottles and jars and tubes, fancy and oh-so-ordinary, jostle against each other in my refrigerator door.

Condiments come and condiments go, but some are forever, like hot dog mustard and mayonnaise (well, this stuff), soy sauce and oyster sauce, chili paste with garlic and harissa.

And ketchup.

I'm never, ever without ketchup. Not just because it is the only acceptable adornment for a perfect burger, but because there's so much more you can do with it.

Oregano (Recipe: "poor little eggplants")

Adapted from an archived post, with new photos, links and recipe.

In the 1960s, I was in high school, and I was cool.

I had long hair, bell-bottom pants, love beads. I listened to Phil Ochs, played guitar, marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. I edited the school newspaper, where I published Lawrence Ferlinghetti poems and artsy photos of trees.

On Saturdays, I worked at a "real" job on the city's big-time newspaper, where I learned to write obituaries and a consumer help column ("My clothes dryer exploded and the store where I bought it won't take it back. Can you help?").

And I smoked oregano. Once.

A friend gave it to me as a joke, and we decided to try it. (I admit that I tried the other stuff, too, and yes, I inhaled.)

If I'd been a cook, instead of a trying-to-be-hip high school kid, I would have put that oregano to much better use.