Shakshuka: A Dip Or A Dish? - No. 6
And Eva's must-visit restaurants in the city.
Hello and welcome back to Vegarie! Yes, I know, it’s been a bit since I’ve posted. If you’re already subscribed, I hope this email is a good sort of surprise. You know, one that makes you hop up and down. Like reaching into your seemingly empty cupboard and finding one last bag of cheese-its, or discovering a $20 at the bottom of your book bag. Because no one wants a weird surprise, like your ex ambushing you at your place of work and ordering copious amounts of whiskey, making a ton of off-handed comments, and leaving a mondo tip.
BUT, if you haven’t already, please subscribe (while it’s still free!) and brighten up your inbox with a plant-based dip recipe, and subtle food-based humor every weekend. As we go along, I will feature interviews with women in food; that’s friends, family, home cooks, line cooks, restauranteurs, and bar owners to find a common thread we all share; our love for food.
In this week's newsletter: our featured guest is the amazing Eva Thompson. Some may know her as the creative mastermind behind @nomsbyeva on Instagram where she posts her delectable home nibbles and I suppress the hungry monster noises that erupt from my belly five minutes later. Whether it be baking, art history, or culture—every time I speak with Eva, I feel like I uncover some new talent that she has just happened to have mastered. Today, I learn about the foods that got her out of her picky eater phase, what it was like growing up with a mom who develops recipes for Kellogg, and to top it off, some hot tips on where to eat in New York City. At the bottom of this post, I’ve also linked you to Eva’s favorite shakshuka recipe that we made together at the end of October (sorry for the delay…), which includes her notes and tweaks. Like which type of tomatoes are best to use (again, sorry, this was at the end of tomato season), why she amps up spices when referencing most recipes, and how to time the perfect dippy egg in this dish. I’m so excited to share some of Eva’s knowledge with the world and I hope you are ready for it.
I first met Eva just a few short months after moving to New York (I think I was in apartment number 3?) and we were both invited to a dumpling making party for Lunar New Year. My first impressions included her focus, confidence, and knowledge in the kitchen. Before taking more than two steps into the room, I was handed one of her salted chocolate chunk brownies that she had just been “trying out,” that week. She had a laundry list explanation for all the things she’d change about them next time around, which tells you just how much she cares—but I stopped listening the moment I saw the giant chunks of dark chocolate. I remember thinking, “yeah, I should hold onto this friend.”
Born in Connecticut and raised in Michigan, Eva’s family was heavily involved in cooking. However, despite the abundance of quality meals—her grandparent’s traditional Italian dishes to her mother, who developed recipes for Kellogg—she grew up as a self proclaimed picky eater. “I made myself a lot of grilled cheeses, and a lot of pasta. Also pretty early on I’d make things like cornbread and coffee cake, things that were nice and sweet.” Holding onto that sweet-tooth, she now prefers to whip up a French dark chocolate mousse with fleur de sel that she promises to make me some day soon. Drool? No that’s just condensation…on my face. It’s the steam heater in my building, I can’t control that...
“My mom is a fantastic cook. It's her job, she’s been developing frozen food for Kellogg's since the 80’s.”
Eva is a naturally technical thinker with a science background—she is a green and sustainable chemist for Estee Lauder, but her interest in high quality ingredients and understanding the why behind her selections for recipes probably comes from watching her mom in the kitchen.
“She works with vendors to find the perfect products for the frozen item she's making and even creates spice blends. I remember vividly for a while she was working on breakfast sandwiches. And she would bring home all the samples of frozen sausages, eggs, cheese slices, and English muffins. My brother and I would create our own sandwiches. It's so funny because my brother would always love what she made. And I'd be like, no, this is disgusting. I hate it. Of course, I was wrong. I realize now.”
Or possibly it comes from her father’s unique experiments with leftovers. “He was so random, he would put things together like potatoes and leftover tomato sauce, things from my mom’s Italian dishes. They weren’t always wins. I think this made me appreciate good food.” She also credits a lot of her knowledge in food science to the book Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, by Samin Nosrat. It’s a unlike any other cookbook I’ve ever read, pick it up if you get the chance.
“The guy that I was seeing at the time was like, oh, that's how you relieve stress. You bake.”
In college, Eva’s cooking game got bougie. Her first love was baking.
“The guy I was seeing at the time was like, oh, that’s how you relieve stress. You bake. He's right. He's completely right. To get through the stress in college—when I wasn't drinking—I was baking pretty much all the time.”
Mainly she began with chemically leavened breads; think banana, zucchini, or pumpkin. A lot of cookies, cakes, and muffins. But her move to Nottingham sparked more elaborate meals. She said this was because, she was “restarting her life. Completely on [her] own, and didn't have too many friends there. Cooking at the end of the day made things fun.” So her baking transformed, trying things like marveilleux, tiramisu, and crème brûlée. To top it off, her neighborhood in Nottingham was predominantly Chinese and her options for ingredients and different dishes exploded like never before. It was here that she experienced her first Asian market, her first dumplings, and—not much of a recipe follower—began whipping up variations on French classics. Think coq au vin, or boeuf bourguignon. Most recently, she’s been excited by her middle eastern riff on a proventil ratatouille.
“At the end of the summer, with all the summer vegetables that I could find at the veg stand in Astoria—like onions, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes—I made an amazing riff on proventil ratatouille. I sauteed everything. Then I baked the eggplant and it turned out nice and crunchy. I added Greek and Middle Eastern spices. A good amount of olive oil on it. And I had some Greek yogurt, too, which thinking back I wish I added garlic to. But I topped it with the yogurt and it ended up being so freaking good. Also really healthy. Yeah. I was very proud of myself.”
Outside of her knowledge of food science and experimental nature, Eva also knows how to freaking eat. She’s my go-to when I need a recommendation in the city, mostly because she likes to have a solid game plan and always suggests spots with impressive entrees.
“I like to go places where I would not otherwise be able to make the food. Places where you can get an entire grilled fish, octopus, or perfectly light soup dumplings, for example. Because if I go somewhere and I could make it at home by a hair, it just feels like…what’s the point?”
Here are some of her favorites that she’s passed along for us all to try. Imma go check ‘em all out like I don’t have the salary of a line cook…but seriously, a lot of her recommendations are affordable. Let me know which you check out!
Queens
Taverna Kyclades - Astoria, Queens. Order: Entire grilled fish, a liter of wine, octopus, and boom, get a free dessert.
Ruta Oaxaca - Astoria, Queens.
Shanghai You Garden - Flushing, Queens. Order: Soup dumplings. All of them.
Manhattan
Tsuta Ramen - Dumbo.
X’iang Famous Foods - Lower Manhattan (Also in Queens). Order: Pork or Lamb Dumplings, their noodles are also delish.
Brooklyn
Pierozek - Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Order: their pierogis, they often have special flavors on the weekends.
“Food is probably my reason of being.”
I like to end each interview on Vegarie with this simple question, why is food special to you? And why do you think food brings so many people together?
“Food is probably my reason of being. I love food more than pretty much anything in the entire world. It makes me so happy. I love discovering new cultures through food. I think I’ve learned so much about friends over a meal, I love connecting with people over food. I also just love the taste of good food.”
Thank you again Eva for taking time out of your busy week, connecting with me over a giant skillet of shakshuka, and for passing along restaurant recs for all the readers! I appreciate you more than you know.
Need a cake for your birthday or special event? Eva is taking orders through her instagram (@nomsbyeva). Just want to see some photos of perfect buttercream petals, golden crème brûlées, and mouthwatering galettes piled high with beautiful fruit? Also follow Eva on instagram, you won’t be disappointed.
Eva’s Notes on Shakshuka
Eva keeps it classic by starting with her favorite NYT recipe by Melissa Clark.
Tweaks that she recommends include boiling fresh heirloom tomatoes instead of using canned and adding additional red peppers (she uses two, whereas the recipe is calling for one). Also, Eva doubles the amount of cumin and paprika. She mentions that she does this with most recipes, as she feels they never call for enough flavor. Finally, she recommends using a large enough cast iron skillet or Dutch oven for the recipe, and keeping it on the stovetop instead of transferring to the oven. Mainly this was because she didn’t want to use the oven—gas prices, am I right?!—but also by using a large enough skillet, you can create wells in the mixture that allow the egg to touch the bottom of the pan and create a lightly crispy edge. Place your lid over the mixture and steam the tops of the egg for about 3-4 minutes. This will keep the center gooey—what I call extra dipping power. Toast up a sourdough bagette, and wa-la! Shakshuka is a dip.
