Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Buttered Blueberry Muffin Top and Cream.

My favorite chicken recipe is the one Paul Qui won the Texas BBQ challenge with on Top Chef and the one Craft kingpin Tom Colicchio himself requested the recipe for: Curry Barbeque Chicken with Fish Caramel Sauce.

Someone open up a chain to sell just this.

Pork belly. I've cooked it so many ways and am still not sick of it. It's got so many layers of different porky goodness. Versatile pork lasagna!

My Wusthof 8 inch chef knife. It is definitely in need of a good sharpening though.

My Wusthof 8 inch chef knife is my favorite but it's also the only one I've really used extensively. I've been wanting to try a Japanese blade for so long and here's my opportunity!

675 comments so far?....
"......So you're telling me there's a chance!"

Black as midnight on a moonless night.

My greatest pork memory is eating at Craigie On Main in Cambridge for my birthday this year.

I always loved eating whole roasted pork for Chinese New Year with my grandfather growing up. It was a sentimental and symbolic tradition right up there with turkey on Thanksgiving. I remember being young and like alot of kids, reluctant to try new animal parts, like the pig face.
After growing up and embracing my culinary curiosity, I thought I was well versed in the porcine geography and recently graduated to include pig face.

And then I had crispy fried pig tail with nuoc cham at Craigie On Main.
It was warm, familiar, family flavors in a head on collision with new school pork anatomy.
I also ordered pork 3 ways for my entree: pork belly, suckling pork confit and spice-crusted rib.
The pork belly and suckling pork confit were delicious, perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked; I almost appreciated the cooking skills more than anything.
However, the spice-crusted rib had me literally laughing because it was so good. The flavors just exploded, it was so unique, and is honestly one of the best things I ever ate!

My grandfather passed away a few years ago and I will always miss eating that whole roasted pork with him during Chinese New Year.
He was always proud of his Chinese heritage and passed that along to me and the rest of my family, especially through food.
I think he would be proud to know that I've really become a much more adventurous and open minded eater as I've gotten older.

He was right all along of course, the pork cheeks are like hidden treasures of the pig,
I understand now what he was trying to share with me.
Embracing snout to tail eating and cooking has changed my life and how I look at "ingredients" and "whole animals."
From when I was young seeing how a whole roasted pig can feed my huge family
to being at a restaurant and discovering new pig tails that even "whole roasted pigs" seemed to always be missing, my favorite pork memory was simply finding what was there all along.

My dream bakery would be downstairs from my apartment, just like how Hubert Keller grew up!

Every morning I would wake up to the smells of browning butter and caramelizing sugar and they would reach out to my nose in long vaporous arms like in old cartoons and pull me straight out of bed all the way down to the kitchen downstairs.

The bakery itself would be a Momofuku Milk Bar ripoff with lower prices, more bacon, and more cereal milk everything.
Drawing from my Southeast Asian and New England culinary roots my signature dishes would be Blueberry Lemongrass Cheesecake, Tamarind Maple Fritters, and Chrysanthemum Tea Ice Cream.
There will be a cookbook library and a cozy lounge to hang out filled with puppies.

I live right near Federal Hill in Providence, the most memorable Italian meal was one I cooked myself with ingredients I bought from a local Italian market.

I bought fresh spaghetti, pancetta, and Parmesan Reggiano and made spaghetti alla carbonara that night! I already had eggs and black pepper on hand, I also made a crispy Parmesan bowl to eat it in!
It was the first true epiphany of how amazing Italian cooking can be when you respect the ingredients and let them speak for themselves.

Spaghetti carbonara I made myself with pancetta, parmesan reggiano, and fresh spaghetti all from Venda Ravioli in Providence, RI the same day.

The eggy and porky richness cut through by the kick of the heavy black pepper really achieved a delicious balance of epic proportions.
I also made a parmesan reggiano bowl too.

It was an epiphany because it was a minimalistic dish and truly Italian in spirit because every ingredient was integral and shined in the recipe!

Fresh haddock wrapped in banana leaf!

I read SeriousEats every day and I click on Kenji's articles 98% of the time. This totally blindsided me and is incredibly heartbreaking.
The photos especially.

My heart goes out to your family! RIP Dumpling, all dogs go to heaven.