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In Yang Liu’s new cookbook, she takes you on a sustainable tour of street food markets from Shanghai to Bangkok.
This winter, my kitchen was filled with the sputter of zucchini fritters, the scent of sweetened coconut cream in Vietnamese coffee, and the crunch of tanghulu — or fresh fruits coated in a glass-like glaze of almost colorless caramel. I was cooking my way through Vegan Asian Street Food: Over 80 Plant-Based Recipes for Every Occasion, the latest cookbook from Yang Liu, who also jointly runs the popular Instagram account @littlericenoodle with her partner, Katharina Pinczolits. The recipe collection, photographed by Pinczolits, is remarkable for its breadth and for the simple way it swaps typical meat ingredients for effective, lower-carbon stand-ins like mushrooms, tofu, or plant-based ground “beef.”
Globally popular and regionally specific dishes rub shoulders in the cookbook, which has chapters on China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan and which reflects Liu’s lifelong love of sprawling markets and tiny roadside stands all over the continent. Liu spent her early years living in different parts of China, where she remembers the hot breakfasts and cool snacks that fueled her: During summers in Hunan, she and her cousins would wake up early to buy spicy rice noodles for breakfast from a vendor on their street. In Guangzhou, she’d buy pan-fried dumplings filled with garlic chives on the way to school and fortify herself with bubble tea during breaks. After she became vegan as an adult and traveled through other parts of Asia, her love of street food spiraled outward.
By veganizing many of the original recipes — swapping kelp and shiitakes for mackerel in Malaysian asam laksa soup, reinterpreting Korean fried chicken as fried tofu — Liu puts a sustainable spin on meat-heavy dishes. She also points out that Asian street-food cultures come by some sustainability naturally: Vendors commonly source ingredients seasonally and are scrupulous about finding a purpose for every useful part of an ingredient. Indonesian longtong, or rice cakes, for example, are boiled in a casing of banana leaves that impart a distinct flavor; banana leaves also serve as compostable plates for pad thai.
What makes Vegan Asian Street Food such fun to cook from is Liu’s deft scene-setting at the top of each recipe. When I shallow-fried sizzling tofu, my stovetop speckling with tiny droplets of oil, I could almost hear the crackle and pop from the iron plates she describes the vendors using, and see the steam billowing up at a Chinese night market in winter, the scent of cumin and chili offering heat, of a kind, just as they did in my Brooklyn apartment.
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RECIPE: Scallion Pancakes (Cong You Bing)
- Yield: Makes 4
Description
Scallion pancakes are loved for their crispy, flaky layers and savory flavor. Easy to make, they’re the essence of comfort food and are just right for breakfast, lunch, or a late-night snack. The dough is rolled out thinly, brushed with oil, and sprinkled generously with chopped scallions, then folded and rolled again to create multiple layers. Once cooked on a hot griddle, the outside becomes golden and crispy while the inside remains soft and chewy, with the scallions adding extra aroma and taste. They’re an example of how basic ingredients can be transformed into something truly delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 5 oz (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp) water
- 3 1/2 Tbsps canola oil
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp Chinese five-spice, divided
Instructions
- Mix the flour with a pinch of salt and the water, and knead to form a dough. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan over high heat until the oil reaches about 456°F. To check whether the oil is hot enough, hold a wooden chopstick in the oil. If it is immediately surrounded by tiny bubbles, the oil is ready to use. Place the scallions in a small bowl and pour the hot oil over the top to make scallion oil.
- Divide the dough into 4 portions and shape each into a round. Using a rolling pin, roll out one round on a lightly floured surface until very thin. Brush with scallion oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and five-spice.
- Carefully roll up the thin dough round, pull the roll a little longer with your hands, then encircle the roll around one end to form a dough spiral that resembles a cinnamon roll. Flatten the spiral with your palm to make a round pancake. Repeat with the remaining dough portions.
- Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add a pancake, reduce heat to low and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until one side is golden. Flip and repeat to cook the other side. Repeat with remaining pancakes.
RECIPE: Guoba Potato (Guoba Tudou)
- Yield: Serves 2
Description
Guoba potato is a widely loved street food from Sichuan. “Guoba” normally means “rice crust,” but it can also refer to other crusty or crispy foods. In this dish, the potatoes are first boiled, then deep-fried, resulting in chunks that are crisp and golden on the outside, but soft and tender inside. Once you mix the potatoes with the sauce, the dish has many layers of flavor and texture.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 3 Tbsps cornstarch or potato starch
- 2 Tbsps all-purpose flour
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp chili flakes or ground chili
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- ~2 1/2 cups canola oil
- 3 Tbsps soy sauce
- 2 Tbsps You po la zi (Sichuan chili oil; see note)
- 2 scallions, sliced
- Cilantro leaves, to garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Drain, then return the potatoes to the pan, add the cornstarch or potato starch and flour, and mix well to combine.
- Mix the garlic, cumin, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, chili flakes, and sesame seeds in a large bowl.
- Heat the canola oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. To check whether the oil is hot enough for deep-frying, hold a wooden chopstick in the oil. If it is immediately surrounded by tiny bubbles, the oil is ready to use. Keep the oil temperature steady for deep-frying.
- Carefully spoon about 2 tablespoons of the hot oil over the garlic and spice mixture. Add the soy sauce to the mixture.
- Add the potatoes to the remaining hot oil and fry for about 15 minutes until golden and crispy. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon or a sieve and transfer to the bowl with the spices. Add the chili oil, scallions, and cilantro, and mix everything well.
Notes
Chili oil: You po la zi, or Sichuan Chilli oil, can be made using the recipe in Vegan Asian Street Food or this recipe.
