I Dream, and Eat, in Pink and Green
Nuggets on collective nostalgia and dessert as religion.
Hi all, it’s a pretty tough time in this country and New York is upset about it too. In keeping things light and gut-healthy, I’m back to report that Grub Street just published a rather timely article on fro-yo. It’s a pretty fabulous one. Rachel Sugar’s piece has lots of nuggets — I particularly like the distinction she makes between ice cream and fro-yo as personal v. collective nostalgia, the latter as a moment and feeling in time:
Unlike ice cream, which evokes childhood, fro-yo evokes eras.
Rachel quotes a woman from 1991 who told The New York Times:
Eating ice cream has a stigma now, like smoking.
So, even though fro-yo isn’t all too much healthier than ice cream, we’re reminded of what fro-yo stands for. Author and poet Melissa Broder articulates this best as quoted in Rachel’s article:
I think my love of frozen yogurt came from a desire to have something abundant and that can be all mine in this world but that won’t hurt me… It’s this longing for the infinite and the eternal, but without consequence — sort of like the desire for God.
In America’s steady decline of Christianity, what remains?
A preview to the shelf: more nuggets from Asian American creators in the fleeting days of AAPI month, East Asian F&B brands in the US, subliminal prompts on trending flavors, Sweetgreen, the Eleven Madison Park alumni group chat I’m visualizing. Masa’s too.
A Visit to The New York Times:
On a Tuesday at the start of the month, I headed uptown to The New York Times for “A Spotlight on Asian American Culture Today,” a culminating event on their Asian American culture series in exploration of the creative output of Asian Americans in pop culture (Priya Krishna’s piece on grocery stores is one of my favorites). I’m sharing some memorable lines from Asian American creators on communication, language, and identity, in the style of
’s great pull quotes:On the joke that changed comedian Aparna Nancherla’s life (in continuation of this article):
[I think a lot about a quote from British psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott who said] ‘Artists are driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and hide.’ It is a joy to be seen, a joy to stay hidden, but a disaster not be found.
On Pig & Khao chef Leah Sarah Cohen’s Filipino-Jewish identity:
I had people calling the restaurant. They were like ‘What is a nice Jewish girl doing opening up a restaurant called Pig & Khao?’ And I was like, ‘Well I eat pork and I’m Jewish.’
On novelist Rebecca Kuang’s “vocal training” each time she starts a new project:
Every time I start a new project I read around that literature as much as I can and adopt the tropes: the sentence structures, the common images that people reach for. Genre as a trope is so useful because it’s an expectation, an invitation. And I can then bridge between the familiar with a foreign twist. I just saw Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and what’s so effective about it is he takes the very conventional vampire story and then plays at the margins of it.
An ode to the Chinese language, beginning with how Rebecca’s multiculturalism and multilingualism affects her style:
The greatest superpower you can have is being multilingual because we experience the world differently in different languages. In English, the future is associated directionally with what’s in front of you, the past behind you. And in Chinese, it’s flipped because you can see the past so it’s in front of you but you can only walk backwards into the future. Then for me, the magic comes when I take that Chinese sensibility, those images, structures, conceptual metaphors for thinking about the world and bring them back into English because it doesn’t sound like anybody else’s. Vladimir Nabokov’s English was so playful and weird and inventive because he was taking Russian thinking and stretching English to accommodate it.
Laufey, in response:
I’ve experienced a very similar thing… my first language was Mandarin and I learned music in Chinese. All of my early music lessons were through these idioms… I learned that vibrato was like wind on the fingers. I’ve definitely taken that into my [song]writing.
Rebecca continues:
Grammatically in classical Chinese a lot of the cadence is four characters by four characters, or I was taught that’s the way you fancy up a single character phrase. So the common Chinese idiomatic structure that involves a lot of allusions to myths and epics — most of those are four character phrases. It’s naturally musical.
Laufey adds:
Not to mention the tones of the language. There’s a reason so many Chinese children grow up with perfect pitch. Their ears are developed to understand the differences in tones from a very young age.
There’s so much from Rebecca and Laufey’s discourse I want to bottle up. Writers are the best source of quotes. The way they think and speak about language is something else.
What’s on the rest of the Shelf?
Somehow, I’m not sure there is such a thing as too much HMart Hype. Eater just reported on Tribeca Citizen’s latest sleuthing on the suspected HMart location in the neighborhood. UES residents are still waiting for their HMart two years after The Real Deal announced the building purchase. And yet, the gossip on the internet makes me think there’s something to people’s fervor. People care.
East Asian F&B operators bet big on the US. While immigration and tariff pressures prevail, huge international brands continue to set sights on establishing American operations. I’d suspect this is a TAM land grab. As a quick recap, a lot happened in April: Japan’s I’m donut ? opened its first US store in Times Square. China’s recently IPO’d tea brand Chagee opened its first US store in Westfield Century City Mall in LA. China’s Luckin Coffee’s first US outpost was spotted under construction in East Village. The narrative isn’t the same for each of these brands — for Chagee it’s a pitch for authentic Asian tea, for Luckin a tech-driven value-based business model. Donuts aren’t native to Japan so don’t think the authenticity thesis holds for I’m donut ?. Although I tend to believe the Japanese do most-things-food better. Case in point:
Forget Princess Cake, have you tried Princess Růlltarta? Contrary to recent news coverage and a recently posted NYT recipe, “Princess Cake” has been around since well, forever. I quite like the idea of this sponge roll in our Health and Wellness days — less cake, more even distribution of cream-to-jam-to-cake-to-icing with each forked bite.
Speaking at HBS with a commemorative pic from Nikole. Double shoutout
. Proud of you, Mama Fig!Sweetgreen’s demise… To me. At this rate. Sweetgreen’s new Korean BBQ bowl in partnership with Michelin restaurant Cote is a reminder that fast casual must choose a lane and stick to it if they want any hopes of remaining relevant to consumers. It’s why Cava for Mediterranean food has done so well. Sweetgreen, one of the original next-gen fast casual brands, has since become one of many in a sea of salad spots. Chopt and JustSalad sell similar quality bowls for half the price. So what makes a $30 salad worth the ticket? Could Korean BBQ do the trick? I get the allure but I’m not so sure it sticks. If I were on the Sweetgreen strategic finance team the concept checks out i.e. this is how we get customers to buy more and feel good about buying more. But I’ve always seen Sweetgreen as a higher-quality, healthier meal of convenience. If I wanted to dine in for some fries I’d go elsewhere.1
Three Thai restaurants joined Infatuation’s Hit List, the most of any other cuisine on the current list: Fish Cheeks, Chada, BKK. This is on top of some other great openings: Tha Phraya in the UES, Hungry Thirsty in Caroll Gardens. Ung-Lo in the UWS has been long awaited (a collaboration between Chalong and Soothr). Publications still talk about the Thai Government’s 2001 culinary diplomacy initiative offering training and subsidies for chefs looking to open restaurants in the US. Do we have the Thai government to thank for our vibrant Thai food scene?
I’ve never fully appreciated why Georgian food is such a thing in New York. It finally hit me: khachapuri looks like a pizza… maybe that’s a criminal take but putting it out there. You can alternatively read
’s piece for more nuance.I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Eleven Madison Park alumni group chat. Hopefully this is a real thing. It’s astonishing how diverse EMP’s alumni portfolio is relative to its peers, and lesser, trendier peers. I’m intrigued by their ability to make fine-dining quality casual. Listed below with some other notable alumni groups:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Eleven Madison Park: Brown Bag Sandwich Co., Ceres (Pizza), Pinkerton’s (Bakery), The Noortwyck (New American), Cocina Consuelo (Mexican).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Masa: Every other Michelin Japanese restaurant out there.
Roberta’s: La Flor (Pizza), Confidant (Pizza), Nura (Indian).
⭐️ Gramercy Tavern: Hearth (New American), Brodo (Soup), Rolo (New American), Hellbender (New American), Hani’s (Bakery), Van Da (Vietnamese) — they actually have their own series called Tavern Takeovers where they bring back alums to cook in the kitchen. Neat.
⭐️ Estela: Cecily (New American), Bridges (New American), Plus de Vin (Wine Bar).
Thai Diner: Kellogg’s Diner, JR & Son (American).
Contra/ Wildair: Corima (Mexican), Demo (Wine Bar).
Balthazar: Frenchette (French, est. 2018) → Plus de Vin (Wine Bar).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Per Se: Olmsted (American).
⭐️ Four Horsemen: Rude Mouth (Wine Bar).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jungsik: Lysee (Korean), Atoboy (Korean).
Momofuku: Kiko (New American), Kabawa (Carribbean).
What I’m not seeing: Carbone alum restaurants…
Bread as luxury. I hope you take these words always with a bit of humor. I recently learned that a bakery order in Copenhagen can cost as much as dinner. Some guesses as to why: higher operational costs given high wages, bread is taxed 25% VAT/ full rate, quality and specialization in craft. Something I never expected to say: TooGoodToGo is particularly relevant for the Danes.
The plight of Pink and Green.2 I once read about how people likened Strawberry Matcha to sipping Spring but this combo is anything but seasonal. To what extent was consumer obsession with Strawberry Matcha a subliminal prompt from the Wicked, Brat, and Barbie fandoms? Now complemented and prolonged by Princess Cake fandom? Some of my favorite Substack writers and recipe-ideators on Strawberry Matcha doing God’s work:
’s Roasted Strawberry Matcha Latte, on the scoop of the summer, ’s cheesecake, ’s icebox cheesecake, ’s gorgeous tart, ’s marble loaf, ’s mini loaves, ’s glorious sago, ’s chia pudding. I’d personally like to see Strawberry Matcha cottage cheese pancakes… or green tea soba noodles with kimchi and strawberries… or an Erewhon Strawberry Matcha smoothie, instead of the toilet paper brand-sponsored smoothies they’re selling (smells like Cote salad-level stress to me).
This is sad for me to write. I love the evolution of Sweetgreen’s brand assets. LOL shares a similar yellow green hue. 🙂
Not to be confused with a watermelon Red-and-Green. This is a whole separate discussion.
Guilty cote x SG consumer right here ✋🏼 perhaps a ploy for the more reluctant salad eater…