Grub Street Diet: Brandon Jew

"We have one last legacy banquet space here. It’s called Far East, and there was a story recently written about it because it was at great risk of closing for good. But they’re going to keep it open. When those legacy institutions go, the identity of our Chinatown becomes less rich."

"Dinner was mapo tofu from my other restaurant, Mamahuhu, also radishes, olive bread from Jane the Bakery, ricotta, and olive oil. I went into that restaurant to test some food. There was an egg drop soup that was causing some issues with the staff that I worked on. So I went to taste it and problem-solve a little bit."

"We had staff meal at the restaurant again, but I had a sandwich from Jane the Bakery. My wife got it for me; it had a couple of cold cuts. There was mortadella. She knows I have a weakness for mortadella. It has been a weakness since I cooked in Bologna for awhile."

"People have talked about chefs moving toward comfort food during the pandemic, and chow fun is one of my most cherished comfort foods. One of my sous-chefs Frankie just knows it’s one of my favorite things to eat. We didn’t really have it on the menu, because I was trying to figure out how to make it feel like a Mister Jiu’s version. I think I’ve realized really that the dish doesn’t need to be gussied up with anything. It’s just good as it is."

"For dinner, we got a lot of takeout from Nopa. We just got home, it was kind of a tiring day. We went big after Thursday’s smoothie night and got fried chicken, chicory salad, broccoli, kale, chocolate-chip cookies, and Garden Creamery pandan coconut ice cream."

"Had lunch, or brunch, at Zuni Café: anchovies, escarole salad, burger, and fried eggs. This was only our second time going to do outdoor dining."

"The first time [we did outdoor dining], we went to the Progress, State Bird’s sister restaurant. That was, I think, in August or September. We haven’t done a lot of actual outdoor dining."

"My grandma also used to make these things called gai loong, and there’s only one place, Wing Lee on Clement Street, that we know of that still makes this dumpling. They’re particular to, I think, Toisan home cooking. It’s a glutinous rice dough that’s fried, and it’s very, very savory. It has dried shrimp, mushroom, and water chestnut. There are no pleats or anything. It’s just kind of a half-moon that’s crimped and then fried."