Favorite Foods of 2020 - Part One
For most of us, quarantine has been a drag. It’s been endless cooking. And piles of dirty dishes. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me “What’s for dinner?” I could buy myself a six pack of Zhong sauce (which would likely last me six days haha). So what’s the silver lining? Food! These foods, to be exact. From luscious chocolate to fiery chili sauce to briny bivalves, these items have livened up many a dreary day in our household. If you try them, I hope they bring you joy too! Without further ado, here are my favorite food finds of 2020.
Photo credit: Soma Chocolate
Soma Chocolate
Oh Soma Chocolate, how I love thee. Soma is my favorite chocolate maker in the whole world. Their creations are playful, sophisticated, and carefully sourced. The single origin bars sing with flavor. The fruit bars are tart and bright. The truffles are fabulous too, especially the Thai Stick truffle, which won International Chocolate Awards World Silver (many Soma creations have won awards). This Thai-inspired truffle is made of "white chocolate, coconut milk, ginger and the zip of lemongrass, chili and lime.” It’s warm and aromatic, just like “slurping back a big steamy bowl of Thai Coconut soup.” Yum!
And oh my god the cookies are also fabulous. The pecan toffee cubes are so addictively good, my mother once plowed through a whole sleeve in one sitting. This year, I ordered Soma Chocolate for Christmas stocking stuffers, Valentine’s Day, and family birthdays. The Soma Chocolate advent calendars quickly became the highlight of many dreary December days. Every morning my mom and sister leapt out of bed to eat their daily piece of advent calendar chocolate before breakfast. Even the packaging is wonderful. Cyn, one of the founders, hand paints the charming, whimsical designs based on woodland creatures and her own two cats. Treats from this Toronto-based company are fabulous and well worth the international shipping. I have sampled many, many chocolate brands and I even used to work for a chocolate company. And so I feel qualified to say that Soma Chocolate is simply special.
My Soma Chocolate picks:
The single origin bar from Guasare, Venezuela 70%
Pecan Chocolate Toffee cubes
Mango Lassi Bar
The "Thai Stick" truffle
Photo credit: Fly By Jing
Fly By Jing
I’m tired of my own cooking. There. I said it! I have been craving food that doesn’t taste like my usual cooking. Food that reminds me of places far, far away. Places like China! I recently bought The Food of Sichuan by Fuschia Dunlop and it’s a fabulous introduction to Sichuan cuisine. I made beef and daikon stew using fermented fava bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns. Where did I find these special ingredients? Fly By Jing! I heard about Fly By Jing years ago when they started, but I finally tried their offerings this year. I am so glad I did. What was I waiting for?! The traditional chili crisp is fabulous. The deeply toasted oil is infused with a light floral hint that can only come from Sichuan peppercorns. And the Zhong sauce is to die for. A deep umami flavor tempers the sauce’s sweetness. I cooked some lamb dumplings according to the Fly By Jing recipe booklet and slathered them in Zhong sauce. My sister and I love the Zhong sauce so much we blew through a jar in one week. I’ve been hiding the second jar at the back of the fridge (Brenna, I hope you’re not reading this lol). It’s that good. I usually mix several spoonfuls of chili oil into a big bowl of fluffy white rice. Sometimes I’ll add leftover chicken or lamb. But really, I think plain rice is all this sauce needs to shine.
My Fly By Jing picks:
Zhong Sauce
Sichuan Chili Crisp
Or try a sampler if you’re planning to cook Sichuan food
Photo credit: Hama Hama Oysters
Hama Hama Oysters
A family friend sent us a box of Hama Hama oysters and clams as a thank you. It was a fabulous gift because it was (a) a special treat and (b) something my whole family could enjoy. The Manila clams were my personal favorite. I was actually in the middle of prepping lemon pasta when my mom walked through the door with a big box of seafood. So I merged that recipe with aspects of shrimp scampi et voilà! Clam pasta. It was wonderful. That night we ate heaping bowls of clam pasta and then gathered around the cooking pot, twirling forkfuls of bucatini and scooping the salty lemon sauce into our open mouths. Oh my god it was so good. SO GOOD. And I honestly can’t remember how I made it.
The Hama Hama oysters were also wonderful. Although, since I did not have a shucking knife I used garden shears which I do NOT recommend… I almost stabbed myself haha. I served the oysters simply with lemon wedges, hot sauce, and a basic mignonette. Hama Hama sells other things like crab cakes and loaves of ready-to-bake rosemary bread. Next time I think I’ll try the pimento cheese made by Edouardo Jordan, chef at JuneBaby in Seattle.
If you’re at all squeamish about ordering seafood online fear not. These oysters and clams arrive fully alive. Bivalves can actually live in your fridge for a week or so, where they remain absolutely fresh right up until the moment you cook them. Fresher than a piece of tepid grocery store salmon, eh?
My Hama Hama Oyster picks:
Blue Pool oysters
Manila clams
Mussels