If at first you don't succeed, try TikTok
The Only Link I Care About This Week
I am having so much fun on TikTok, of all places. It’s silly and interesting and oddly helpful and my brain is full of unexpected inspiration.
If you’d like to follow along, here I am!
The Only Recipe I Care About This Week
A few months ago, I sent out a very long email email to close friends and friends who I wish I was closer with. It outlined a concept that I've been kicking around since the pre-pandemmy years: once a month dinner party wherein I make meals that require a little more time and/or a little more effort. The kind of meal that you would want to ooh and ahh at with a table full of pals instead of alone. The kind of meal where you’d want hype to be built up for weeks beforehand and reminiscent texts detailing delicious moments afterward. Kind of like the ones you get the morning after a really good date (what are those?).
The email also included a spreadsheet for sign-ups through December 2022, a timid, but necessary request for $20 a person to cover grocery costs (I bought a bag of grapes the other day for $5.99. Grapes!), and finally, a (less) passive (more) aggressive request to please not bail last minute. So far, they have been wonderful. Each month, my excitement grows for the next and my hostess panic decreases by just a little bit. This was May's dinner:
A 10lb., 7 hour slow-cooked pork butt. I highly encourage you to make this.
Momofuku's Bo Ssam
By: David Chang
Recipe via NYT Cooking
INGREDIENTS
PORK BUTT:
1 whole bone-in pork butt or picnic ham (8 to 10 pounds)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons brown sugar
GINGER-SCALLION SAUCE: worth it!
2 ½ cups thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts
½ cup peeled, minced fresh ginger
¼ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)(I literally just used
1 ½ teaspoons light soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
SSAM SAUCE: worth it!
2 tablespoons fermented bean-and-chili paste (ssamjang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
1 tablespoon chili paste (kochujang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
½ cup sherry vinegar
½ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
ACCOMPANIMENTS: worth it!
2 cups plain white rice, cooked
3 heads bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried
1 dozen or more fresh oysters (optional)
Kimchi (available in many Asian markets, and online)
INSTRUCTIONS
Place the pork in a large, shallow bowl. Mix the white sugar and 1 cup of the salt together in another bowl, then rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
When you're ready to cook, heat oven to 300. Remove pork from refrigerator, brush any excess sugar mixture off the fat cap and discard any juices. Place the pork in a roasting pan and set in the oven and cook for approximately 6 hours, or until it collapses, yielding easily to the tines of a fork. (After the first hour, baste hourly with pan juices.) At this point, you may remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for up to an hour.
Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce. In a large bowl, combine the scallions with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and taste, adding salt if needed.
Make the ssam sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the chili pastes with the vinegar and oil, and mix well.
Prepare rice, wash lettuce and, if using, shuck the oysters. Put kimchi and sauces into serving bowls.
When your accompaniments are prepared and you are ready to serve the food, turn oven to 500. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining tablespoon of salt with the brown sugar. Rub this mixture all over the cooked pork. Place in oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, or until a dark caramel crust has developed on the meat. Serve hot, with the accompaniments.
Plus a little more…
How does the song go? ‘It’s the same old song, but with a different beat since you’ve been gone’
Or perhaps ‘Long and winding road… I've seen that road before, It always leads me here’
I suspect that both were intended to convey romantic feelings, but at the moment, I find them far more apt in describing the creative process of a pragmatic dreamer (c’est moi!).
Keeping this short, as longtime readers know we’ve been here before— the clamor of my excitement, inspiration and drive towards and given creative project (the timing of which is likely very closely tied to my menstrual cycle or something). I’m not even going to be specific to any one pursuit, but know that the general sparkle of New Project Julia walks among us.
But I’m going to be transparent here and say that the drive is different this time around. Truly! To put it bluntly, I’ve got a head for business and a bod for sin and I want to get that paper (money). Historically, my creative endeavors stem from a place of “I should because I can” + the guilt that follows when a big chunk of your perceived talents are getting a little dusty.
Blame it on the gas prices or the Ilana Kohn Kiki Skort that I lovingly gaze at while sleep scrolling at 6:18am every morning, but this time around, the idea is “Wait, what if I actually did this? Like… for American dollars.” Not for greed or out of millennial entitlement, but because I think I’m finally starting to value my time and creative contributions as worthy of monetary value. Same as any other skill or expertise.
(Is this why she never felt comfortable with the idea of working full time in creative fields, she wonders / realizes as she types this out in real time? …for another day.)
The whisper of the idealistic, 20 year old art student in me still ties financial gain due to creative output with poor taste. How could something capital G Good be widely sellable? And how could someone capital G Good be comfortable with selling?
Well, 30 year old me thinks it’s worth a try.
(Do yourself a favor and click that last link for a perfect color story. Happy Friday.)