It all started with a tweet — as most things do these days. It was a rave review of a sauce. I clicked. I read. I retweeted it, adding that I couldn’t wait to make it myself. Enter Mister Sam Sifton. He clicks my tweet. He reads it. He retweets it, adding the necessary context. I then reply, offering to make him a jar. And so here we are.
Sounds simple enough — or maybe I’ve just made a short story long, as my parents have always said is a gift of mine — but here’s the thing. Sam used to be the restaurant critic of the New York Times. Sam hangs out and cooks with Mark Bittman. Sam wrote a book about how to cook Thanksgiving dinner properly.
I had basically volunteered to sew a dress and have it judged on the runway at Prada’s spring fashion show.
So I made two batches, studied Google images of others’ ginger scallion sauce, and even ate at Momofuku in Toronto — twice in one weekend! — to fully grasp the flavor and texture. (It’s pictured over on the right.) In the end I decided to put it in a pretty jar affixed with a handwritten neon label. Cuteness is the best distraction.
But lest me not deter you from making this sauce. There are 3 ingredients — 4 if you opt in on the hot sauce — and it couldn’t be easier to whip up.
