The Full Kitchen

Culinary Adventures in a Tiny California Kitchen

Elusive Spicy Mexican Orange Sauce Adventure

April 07, 2024 by Alyssa D in sides

One of our favorite taco trucks in the South Bay didn’t invent spicy, creamy, addictive orange-colored sauce, but theirs was the first we ever remember wanting to eat again as soon as humanly possible.

While enjoying a leftover loaded quesadilla the next day for a solo lunch, I shotgunned the extra sauce directly from the container. No regrets.

After following the truck to its new location, though, we noticed a sad handwritten note in the window: “No orange sauce today.” The sign stayed up.

Butternut Squash Cornish Pasties Adventure

December 08, 2023 by Alyssa D in baking, main course

My cooking mojo felt off for a while. Then I realized it wasn’t a dearth of inspiration or motivation or interesting ingredients, but stress from major issues with our house. Moving proved wrenching yet necessary.

As we unpacked and relied on takeout from various specialty eateries in the new neighborhood, a return to culinary adventures started to seem realistic. Just in time for the holidays, too.

Green Gazpacho Adventure

August 24, 2023 by Alyssa D in appetizers

We had a mostly mild summer in the Bay Area, to the point where I felt a pang about wearing a cardigan on work calls while other areas grappled with searing heat. Several weeks had a local high of 72°F. Mid-July, we donned puffer jackets for outdoor dining in San Francisco.

Then the sun began beating down and our air conditioner rumbled to life. I craved something green and cool.

Avgolemono Greek Chicken Lemon Soup Adventure

December 22, 2022 by Alyssa D in main course, appetizers

Juan told us to pick as many ripe lemons as we wanted from his tree in the yard. I gently liberated three. This was an extra kindness since we’d just said that the house wasn’t quite right for us.

Moving from Colorado to Northern California has been wrenching at times, but the fresh lemons represented a silver lining. Amid the delightful food mashups — a taco truck that sells boba tea, curryritos, Indian pizza — we’ve discovered several eateries that offer avgolemono soup.

When prepared well, this Greek chicken and lemon soup is like a cozy sweater.

Spiced Potato Veggie Burger Adventure

September 29, 2021 by Alyssa D in main course

The store-bought vegan veggie burgers were a treat during grilling seasons of yore, tasting gloriously like samosa filling. A few years back, we got some after reading rave reviews. Each time we’d visit this particular specialty grocery store chain, a frozen box or two went in the basket.

Then the pandemic rolled in. Curbside pickup wasn’t an option — this store has notoriously small parking lots anyway. Friends in town saw lines stretching around the block during capacity limits.

Not eager to risk all that for a veggie burger, I set out to reverse-engineer it.

Vegan Adobo Tofu Adventure

August 19, 2021 by Alyssa D in main course

The city promised higher-than-usual July 4th fireworks for better visibility from home this year. In a swirl of holiday excitement, I promised our guests tacos. Scalable, flexible, easy-to-prep tacos.

Being seriously rusty on the entertaining front, however, I made a bunch of silly mistakes. The adobo tofu wasn’t one of them.

French-Cambodian Mee Siam Adventure

June 24, 2021 by Alyssa D

Boston was on my mind frequently over the past year. I was a post-grad there on 9/11 trying to eke out a living, carrying around a brick of a cell phone. When uncertainty permeated everything, a local Cambodian-French restaurant provided respite.

This restaurant served an incredible dish called mee Siem. It was unlike anything I’d ever tried at that point: rice noodles in a complex spicy sauce piled with bean sprouts, sweet bell peppers, fresh cilantro, fried tofu strips, crackly pork, and omelet ribbons. They published a cookbook. That recipe wasn’t in it.

An early Google search for the dish produced zero results.

Banh Mi Vietnamese Sandwich Adventure

March 25, 2021 by Alyssa D in main course

March was already awful, and that was before this week in Boulder. Earlier this month I experienced what felt like the worst pandemic burnout yet. To try and find a bit of joy, my mind turned to banh mi sandwiches.

They reminded me of summer, recalling food trucks, fresh air, sunshine, grilling, sharing meals with friends. I’d been wistful about these special Vietnamese sandwiches while weathering spring snowstorms and continued isolation, repeating to myself, “We have to hang on just a bit longer.”

My First Thanksgiving Adventure

November 19, 2020 by Alyssa D in sides

In the Thanksgiving photo from 2005, I’m flanked by friends old and new as I tentatively slice into a gigantic roast turkey. We’re standing at the counter in a tiny New York City studio apartment. I’m sweaty and focused. It’s the moment of truth.

The kind man working at the grocery store in Harlem, where I bought ingredients for the dinner, had given me precise instructions. He said his wife roasted a turkey for church nearly every Sunday. Buoyed by that thought, I wrote down what he said on a piece of paper. Put melted butter over the skin, cover tightly, let it rest, don’t panic...

Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles Adventure

November 12, 2020 by Alyssa D in main course

I put on sunglasses when the large buffet-style pans arrived at the table, not because of the light but the heat. This was my first experience going all-in on Sichuan cuisine. Two of the main courses swam in red oil piled high with vibrant chili peppers.

Protective eyewear was a must.

Our friends Dan and Carol had brought us to a Sichuan restaurant for lunch in the Portland area in the Before Times. Mostly I was excited, but honestly also slightly scared.