Saturday, September 7, 2024

Bacon-wrapped dates and Mexican hot dogs

These foods remind me of home.
Cooking

September 7, 2024

Kiera Wright-Ruiz's Mexican hot dogs. Tara Donne for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Chris Lanier.

Look Ma, no utensils

By Ali Slagle

Hi everyone, me again.

Thousands of miles from my hometown, Los Angeles, I recently made a friend who grew up a few miles from me and shares big feelings for many of the same restaurants back home. The list of dishes that reminded us of being little runts in a big city got so long, we threw a dinner party to recreate some of them.

We started with bacon-wrapped dates filled with Parmesan, as Suzanne Goin does at her restaurant A.O.C. There were thin slices of the Godmother sandwich, an Italian hero from Bay Cities that isn't an either-or but a more-is-more situation. Salami, mortadella, capocollo, ham and prosciutto. Dill pickles and giardiniera. Lettuce, tomato and onion.

But the real heroes of the meal were Mexican hot dogs (above): bacon-wrapped and decked with charred peppers and onions and zigzags of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. (It was a double bacon-wrapped night, chased with martinis made like the ones at Musso & Frank Grill: stirred, absent vermouth and cold.)

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Mexican Hot Dogs

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On the sidewalk outside many games, shows and late-night spots in Los Angeles, you can hear hot dogs sizzling on portable griddles. The smell of sweet onions and smoky bacon sidetracks your footsteps. You don't need a griddle to make them at home, though; in the oven, the bacon neatly renders and curls around the hot dogs while jalapeños char alongside — it's a sheet-pan meal!

This dinner-ode to two people's particular Los Angeles was jolly because the dishes didn't make much sense together outside our own memories — and most of it was finger food.

When we lose the cutlery, "we feel everything," as Ligaya Mishan wrote in T magazine in February. "The nerve endings in our fingers are triggered; our senses expand. We taste more."

So tonight, feel your food. The flakes of chapati outside a rolex. The airy squish of pull-apart milk bread rolls. The bounce beneath rigid shells of peel-and-eat shrimp. The warmth of a chocolate doughnut muffin.

And because I'm always thinking about how to reduce ingredients, minutes and dishes in recipes for you over at New York Times Cooking, I can't help but also point out: Eating with your hands also means fewer things to wash.

P.S. There are many more finger foods and minimal cleanup recipes over at NYT Cooking. And this month, Cooking subscribers can share as many recipes as they want with friends and family. Happy 10th anniversary to NYT Cooking! Just tap the "Give" icon on any recipe to create a paywall-free link.

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Kate Sears for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

By Ali Slagle

30 minutes

Makes 16 dates

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Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Italian Hero Sandwich

By Ali Slagle

10 minutes

Makes 4 sandwiches

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Kelly Marshall for The New York Times

Rolex (Vegetable Omelet and Chapati Roll)

By Yewande Komolafe

25 minutes 

Makes 2 servings

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Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Milk Bread Pull-Apart Rolls

By Naz Deravian

About 3 hours 10 minutes, plus 1 1/4 hours' cooling

Makes 8 rolls

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Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Peel and Eat Shrimp

By Farideh Sadeghin

40 minutes

Makes 4 to 6 servings

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David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Chocolate Doughnut Muffins

By Yossy Arefi

50 minutes

Makes 12 muffins

Fresh, delicious dinner ideas for busy people, from Emily Weinstein and NYT Cooking.

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