Glass Noodle

“Something about this year makes me feel like: Screw it. I want to eat leftover turkey the way I want to,” says Mister Jiu’s chef Brandon Jew.

A punchy fish sauce vinaigrette works as a marinade and as a dressing for glass noodles and handfuls of basil and cucumber.

Putting quinoa in meatballs might sound weird, but trust us, it keeps these meatballs light as air.

The green pear adds crunch and sweet-tart notes to this raw yellowtail preparation. A Granny Smith apple, Asian pear, or pineapple would do the same.

Every culture has a tradition of one-pot meals, and Japan’s donabe happens to be one of the tastiest and most elegant ones on the planet. The word refers both to warming combinations of simmered-together ingredients and to the beautiful earthenware pot they’re traditionally cooked in (we love the gorgeous mushi nabe from Nagatani-en). And while most one-pots are long-cooked, our favorite donabes are kitchen-sink compositions that are ready in minutes. In this particular recipe, chicken, seafood,.…

For the quick pickles, try using other crisp vegetables, such as radishes, celery, or fennel.

Chinese bean thread noodles (also called glass or cellophane noodles) are often used in Moroccan dishes, like this starter. Their use stems from the influence of a small Vietnamese community in North Africa.

Based on a beloved jellyfish salad, this jellyfish-free glass noodle salad showcases crunchy celery and tofu smothered in a sesame-vinegar dressing.

Bean thread noodles absorb the bright, citrusy flavors of the dressing that’s made with lime juice, fish sauce, and Thai chiles in this Thai noodle salad recipe.

Mala dry pot may be hot pot’s soupless cousin, but don’t mistake this lack of soup for lack of flavor. 

This peppery turmeric soup is a meatless version of soto ayam, which is usually made with chicken. 

 A plant-based alternative to this traditionally pork-heavy dish restores the potato to its rightful place as the star of the stew.

A Korean classic of bouncy noodles, julienned vegetables, and a sweet-and-salty sauce—and this version only takes about 20 minutes.

Buddha's Delight is traditionally served on the first day of Chinese New Year, a practice stemming from an old Buddhist custom of spiritual cleansing. In fact, the recipe's Cantonese name is simply jai, meaning "vegetarian food." Some ingredients, such as lily buds and bean thread noodles, may require a special trip to a Chinese market.

A pleasing composition using a minimum of exotic ingredients, this traditional Asian dish becomes somewhat offbeat through the use of fresh tomatoes and basil.

This Asian-style soup is ideal when you’re in a hurry. It can be on the table in about twenty minutes.

Cha gio, which originated in Saigon are among Vietnam’s national dishes. They are often misleadingly translated as spring rolls, because they seem like a riff on the Chinese spring roll, or as imperial rolls, a translation of pâté imperial, their French moniker. But these rolls are not reserved for royalty, nor are they exclusively eaten during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). And their filling, wrapper, and accompaniments are uniquely Vietnamese. Out of culinary pride, I encourage people to call these rolls cha gio, their southern Viet name. The rolls are made in varying sizes. Cooks with great manual dexterity create thumb-sized rolls. Lacking such skill and patience, I make stubby cigar-sized ones and cut them up before serving. Larger ones also involve less labor when frying up enough for a special lunch or dinner. Some Vietnamese American cooks use Filipino lumpia or Chinese spring roll wrappers, which are made of wheat flour and fry up crisp, but an authentic flavor is lost. For the best results, use rice paper made of all rice flour or of rice and tapioca flours.

When it is dungeness crab season (November through May on the West Coast), one of my favorite ways to capture the essence of Cancer magister is to make these golden noodles. Cellophane noodles absorb whatever flavors they are combined with, in this case the sweet brininess of crabmeat and tomalley. This dish is best when it is made with a live crab that you cook yourself. If you are too squeamish to cook crab at home, buy a precooked crab the day it is cooked. But don’t have the crab cracked, as you want all the delicious juices to stay inside. See page 322 for directions on cooking and cleaning the crab and picking the crabmeat.