Lucky Rice

November 16, 2015
In 2010, Chang created the Luckyrice Festival in New York City to celebrate and promote the vast menu options of Asian cuisine. Since then, she has organized feasts, dumpling parties, and slurpfests in major cities throughout the U.S., and she brings a healthy sampling of dishes to her first cookbook. It’s a mix of traditional and unorthodox fare from Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia, and beyond. There is kimchi, of course, though it shows up in innovative ways: in a smart variation of scallion pancakes, a seafood stew alongside clams and oysters, and a kimchi Bloody Mary with sriracha that could no doubt raise the dead. There is a fascinating ramen recipe that is “the opposite of instant,” wherein pigs’ feet, chicken backs, and pork leg bones simmer for 12 hours to create a milky broth. Those without access to a good Asian food market may have to pass on dishes like Malaysian okra, which calls for fermented shrimp paste, or stingray served with sambal sauce; but they’ll have less trouble with the choices in a fun chapter of Americanized mash-ups featuring pastrami egg rolls and U.S. Army Stew (made with Spam). Chang includes numerous single-page essays on food culture, as well as a list of 10 festive menus, complete with cocktail pairings, to aid in planning a brunch or soiree.