I got some lovely positive feedback from my 2020 Favorites post, so will try to make this a regular monthly thing. I’m starting out strong by actually getting this post done in a timely manner, but we will see how it goes for the rest of the year!

I spent this past January mostly at home due to the latest lockdown, really leaving the house only for grocery shopping and picking up takeout. I shot Lunar New Year ideas and recipes that I’m excited to share with you guys. I binged watched the latest season of Great British Bake-Off, which I had very mixed feelings about. I had a lot of exciting preliminary talks with potential clients and partners. And I breathed a big sigh of relief on Inauguration Day. We actually got some decent days of rain here in San Francisco, which allowed me to feel productive, since I can shoot more on rainy days. Overall, not a bad month at all, and I continue to be grateful for my uneventful life and my health.

Here are some things that I loved over the course of this past month.

Food and Cooking Favorites

Pink Oyster Mushroom Mini Farm from Far West Fungi

If you’re reading my blog, then you probably already saw in my Instagram stories how obsessed I am with this pink oyster mushroom mini farm from Far West Fungi. It was by far the most exciting thing happening in my January. I picked mine up from their Ferry Building shop for $25 and I was able to grow the prettiest mushrooms I have ever seen in my life in a matter of days. The image directly above shows what the little growing kit looked like after 6 days and the image at the top of this post shows them when I harvested on Day 9 (I harvested them a day later than I should have). Maintenance for these mushroom babies is super simple—just follow the instructions that come with the kit (as simple as cutting slits in the plastic wrapping to make holes for the mushrooms to grow through and cutting air holes in a plastic bag), keep the farm inside the provided plastic bag in indirect sunlight, and gently mist the inside of the bag daily. The farm is expected to grow at least 3 mini crops of mushrooms like this. Considering the amount of happiness and entertainment I got out of it with even the first crop—it made me excited to spring out of bed in the morning to see how much they grew overnight— I think it is totally worth the price, which is less than two movie tickets (back when that was a thing)! They have other mushroom varieties too, but of course I am very happy with the pink one!

Black Garlic

I have already written many loving tributes to black garlic on Instagram because it has been one of my favorite ingredients as of late. I am a big garlic lover in general but black garlic is a different flavor entirely. It is made by caramelizing garlic in a limited temperature range over a very long amount of time until all the sharpness of raw garlic is gone and what remains is a dark, soft, sticky deliciousness that is naturally sweet, similar to very slowly caramelized onions. I get mine from local Korean markets like The K Market and my mind was blown when I first peeled back the papery brown skin to see that the entire bulb was one giant clove! I love mashing it up and then blending it into creamy things like mashed potatoes and cream cheese. So freaking good!

Miso Butter from Churn

I think butter in general is pretty high up there on the list of Lifetime Favorites, but this month I was blown away by this miso flavored butter by Churn. [Full disclosure, I received this as an obligation-free gifted sample from Churn.] When I learned about Churn’s flavored butter products, I thought of course flavored butter would be awesome, but I was skeptical about what would set them apart from making my own compound butter at home. This miso flavor truly stood out as more than the sum of its parts—a moreish spread that is creamy with a rich special umami. I struggle with making miso flavored things myself because there are so many types of miso and they are all so nuanced and I never know which to use or how much. But the ratios and flavor combinations in this miso butter are just perfect. Spreading this butter on some good bread is incredible already but I’ve also melted it into some mushrooms and ramen, and each was made more divine because of it.

Favorite Rejects

These photos won’t be making it into my Instagram feed but I thought they were worth memorializing anyway.

I tried making pink mooncakes using powdered freeze dried raspberries for coloring but they just did not bake up well for a number of reasons: 1) I learned from others afterwards that freeze dried fruit does not retail color well in baking. Someone suggested beetroot powder might be a little better; 2) Alkaline water. A common ingredient in normal mooncakes to produce a signature golden brown exterior, but I temporary omitted from my brain that alkaline + acidic fruit = color change; 3) My overall shoddy eggwash job—this was just a straight up fail on my part.

I made this pretty damn delicious sandwich out of leftover fried chicken from Voodoo Love. Will probably write more about them another time because their Creole Nouveaux menu is amazing. But for now, I shoved some of their giant chicken pieces into cheesy everything buns that I made myself by adapting this recipe by Ariel Lee. Shoved in some little gems lettuce, pickles, pickled red onions, and a spicy-sweet mayo I made with honey and and Sichuan chili oil as well. Snapped this really quick photo with no intentions of it ever going on my feed before shoving this in my face hole.

I saw my friend Hanna make faux crab cakes from lions mane mushrooms and decided to give it a try. I have nothing against real crab cakes but I am a sucker for these weird plant-based hacks anyway, motivated by curiosity more than anything. And they turned out quite good! You basically shred up the lions mane mushrooms into a texture that really does resemble crab meat and just use them as you would in your favorite crab cake recipe.

Local Favorites

XLB and SJB from Dumpling Home

My favorite place for soup dumplings in the city is Dumpling Home. It’s a fairly new place that opened up in the brief time that indoor dining was allowed but I’ve only experienced multiple rounds of takeout. Their xiao long bao have super thin skins and look at all those tiny pleats! I wouldn’t say there is an insane amount of soup in them but there is certainly a substantial amount and I love that they are full of flavor. Their pan fried juicy pork bao (their version of sheng jian bao) are indeed very juicy, so much so that Spouse got bao juices all over his shirt the first time he bit into one. Their other items have been hit or miss, but their XLBs and SJBs are definitely worth a try if you live in the area! I love their numb & spicy pork, beef, and crab & pork XLB options. The numb & spicy pork is my fave, though they are pretty inconsistent in how spicy they are—the first few times I ordered they were not spicy at all, and in my most recent order they really packed a punch! They are always consistently delicious though!

Mr. Pickles Sandwiches

The sandwiches from Mr. Pickles are so good that Spouse and I ordered them twice in one week! There is nothing fancy about them whatsoever, but they just make reliably good, perfectly toasted deli sandwiches that are magically so so tasty and satisfying. I love that they have sourdough rolls that are easy to bite into without slicing open my gums, and how I can somehow taste a faint hint of propane from their toasting process (maybe that last part is not for everyone, but to me it adds to the toasty flavor!). Another thing I love about their bread is that when I bite into it, the sandwich fillings don’t immediately slide out—that means it’s the perfect texture and density! Mr. Pickles shops seem to be all over the Bay Area, but the one that I always pick up from is the one on 20th and Van Ness that is closest to my house; it seems to have its own website separate from the others and its own questionable pickle mascot…so I am not sure if the others ones in the chain will provide the same experience. My go-to order: a custom sandwich on a sourdough roll with pastrami, provolone, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, pesto, pepperoncini, hot & sweet peppers, and oil & vinegar.

other Random Favorites

Favorite Netflix Binge: Carmen SanDiego, Season 4. I love this whole series actually but I binged its final season over the course of a couple nights in January. While that wasn’t its strongest season IMO, I do think it resolved things with the protagonist fairly well. Overall, what made me adore the series was seeing places around the world depicted in its somehow both retro and modern art style; the honestly compelling reimagining of the famous thief as a woke, complex do-gooder returning historical artifacts to their rightful countries; and the all-around badass Latina protagonist.

Favorite YouTube Video: This “One Day More” Les Miz parody by James Corden released the day before Inauguration Day. I have probably watched it 10 times now, and have most of the lyrics memorized.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what were the highlights of your January 2021!