Salt, Sugar, MSG Is a Great Cookbook for Making Mixed Meals.
Welcome to Cookbook of the Week . In this series, I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While searching for a specific recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has its own magic.
I love cookbooks that combine comfort food with a smattering of unfamiliar recipes that make me think, “Oh, I wonder what that’s like.” This mixing of completely new dishes with dishes that evoke a little nostalgia is usually a hit with me. This week I chose salt, sugar and MSG for my cookbook of the week. Not only does this book meet the above criteria for this Asian American kid, but it’s also a reliable resource for those dinners when you’re in the mood for a little bit of everything.
About the book
Salt, Sugar, MSG is just out of print—it was published March 18—and created by chef Calvin Eng along with Phoebe Melnick. This may be Eng’s cookbook debut, but if you’ve ever tried his food at Win Son or Bonnie’s, you know he’s not one for easy recipes. It’s been captivating New Yorkers for some time with its interesting and bold flavors—and there are many great examples of just that in Salt, Sugar, MSG .
As the name suggests, this cookbook is MSG-free. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: you’ll find MSG showing up here, there, and in unexpected places—much in the same way that MSG and other glutamates appear naturally in many foods. Eng uses MSG like every other seasoning in this cookbook because that’s exactly what it is: a cheap, easy, and harmless solution for boosting the umami in your dishes like Fuyu Cacio e Pepe Mein and MSG Caramel.
The addition of MSG not only improves the food itself, but I appreciate that he used MSG in the name. It normalizes an ingredient and an entire community that once suffered greatly from the complete toxic myth of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” Chef Eng even teamed up with Ajinomoto to help dispel the myths surrounding MSG . If you’re just spreading your MSG wings, this cookbook offers you plenty of opportunities to start racking up the reps.
A great cookbook for pairing dishes.
Throughout the book, in the chapter headings and introductions, you’ll read anecdotes from Calvin Eng’s childhood and his current shopping habits in Chinatown. His stories about the smell of warm soy milk and shopping for vegetables reminded me of grocery shopping with my mom at our local Asian market in New Jersey. One of my favorite parts of this shopping trip was (and still is) the fresh baked goods section.
That morning, everything in that section of the store was freshly prepared, and we bought a little bit of everything. We had congee, pork buns, soy milk, hot noodle dishes, vegetable stir fry, and armfuls of pork floss buns with scallions. At home, my mom unpacked everything and we all snacked and actually ate at this banquet on the kitchen table. Salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate welcome this mixed eating style.
Many of the dishes in this book are satisfying either as individual appetizers or as part of a larger meal. Somehow they all seem to go well together. If you were to choose three recipes from this book blindfolded, you would likely end up with a well-chosen dish. To test this theory, I did just that and put together a menu: Lemon Coke Chicken Wings, Perfect Pot Steamed Rice, and Shrimp and Pork Wonton Soup. See? Do you need vegetables? Same method as in the vegetable chapter: hot salad (romaine lettuce with sweet-salty soy sauce dressing). Made.
While other cookbooks may give you one recipe that includes meat, vegetables and carbohydrates together, Salt, Sugar, MSG gives you the ability to create the perfect meal to suit your cravings. This style of eating mirrors how you might order dim sum at a restaurant or banquet hall—a plate of greens, a dish of steamed shrimp or roast pork, a steamed custard egg, and some rice. This is actually a great cookbook for both small appetites (just make a few snack plates) and large family dinners.
The dish I cooked this week
This week I made my own version of a mix and match for lunch with Pigs in Blankets Milk Bread with Green Onions and Yun Yung (milk tea and coffee). I don’t really like the average American hot dog on a bun, but heck, if you replace that bun with milk bread and add green onions, it’s a whole different ball game for me.
The milk tea recipe, as simple as it is, was the first thing I decided on. It calls for orange pekoe tea so I got Twinings Ceylon from my Shoprite and put in boiling water, condensed milk and condensed milk. I was a little nervous that it would be too sweet (Thai iced tea sometimes throws me off), but it was perfectly creamy and sweet with a nice bitter edge. I saved the rest for the morning to make the bonus Yuen Yung recipe, which is simply adding black coffee.
The pigs were fantastic. I should have made all 12 as directed in the recipe, but I turned the other half of the dough into a large loaf of milk bread. (I was such a fool.) The milk bread recipe starts with a simple tangzhong (ru), which helps keep the dough soft and doughy. The sugar, egg and butter enrich the dough and give the finished bun the perfect balance of richness along with the salt and umami from the hot dogs. Hot dog buns with green onions and milk tea and coffee are my new favorite lunch.
Where to buy
Salt, Sugar, MSG is available in hardcover or as an e-book at a reasonable price. Since it’s brand new, you’ll definitely see it in big bookstores and probably even local independent bookstores. Even if you don’t see it on their shelves, ask if they can order it to their home.