Dear Milk Streeter,
I ain’t gonna mince words. You need to change the way you cook. You need new recipes, more interesting flavor combinations, new techniques and an exciting, innovative approach to cooking.
That is why you need Milk Street Magazine. Each issue brings you recipes from around the world that have been translated for your kitchen: simple, bright, flavorful and exciting. Start your subscription today for just $1 and also get access to our online digital library, plus free shipping from the Milk Street Store.
Let me give you a good example. Almost every culture has a version of chicken soup, and American chicken noodle soup is the worst. Boring texture. One-note flavor. Mushy noodles.
If you are not already pissed off, let me make things worse. Pot roast. (Austrians do a much better version called Tafelspitz.) Beef stew. (Boeuf Bourguignon, of course, but the Italians offer up Tuscan Beef Stew, and in Morocco, they serve meat stew with chickpeas and greens.) Spaghetti and meatballs. (In Italy, they make tiny polpettine and flavor them with Parmesan and breadcrumbs and serve them with homemade pasta, such as lagane.)
Before we go any further, here’s my ask. I want you to spend $1—that’s right, just one dollar—for a subscription to Milk Street Magazine (6x per year) plus digital access to everything Milk Street. And that is the best deal you will ever get anywhere, anytime!
Before you demand that I give up my passport, I will defend many American dishes to the death—pies and cakes (nobody does it better), breakfast (I live for a big American breakfast), barbecue, sandwiches (Italians think that one tiny slice of prosciutto surrounded by focaccia makes a sandwich—forget about it!) and buttermilk fried chicken.
Eight years ago, I had a career meltdown. I was sick and tired of the same old recipes—I wanted new ideas, a new lease on cooking, and I found a fresh culinary life in Chiang Mai, Thailand; in Oaxaca, Mexico; in Altomonte, Calabria; on the streets of Los Angeles and in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I went global.
Let me be clear. I do not worship food just because it’s different. You can find perfectly lousy food in every city in the world (few of us are brave enough to say so). Every culture loves their own food, but that doesn’t mean that you have to love it too.
But whether the food is great or just ordinary, by watching others cook, you start to change your own mind about flavors, about textures and even about how to cook. And to be fair, there is always fabulous food to be had if you seek it out.
I guarantee that you are stuck—you are stuck in your own repertoire just like I was. You’re stuck with what you know and don’t know. You are stuck in what you think cooking is all about.
You need to break your routine. You need a revolution in your own kitchen.
Why do I say this? Why am I being so annoying? Because it happened to me. I let go of my culinary moorings and headed out around the world. I was open to new ideas. I tried stinky tofu (and liked it) and tasted long strips of pork fat cooked all day in Calabria (and didn’t), but I totally changed my cooking.
You might be a good cook, you might be an average cook, you might be a beginner, but I guarantee that you will be a much better cook if you join us here at Milk Street.
We have a ton of new recipes to show you (our team of cooks make sure that every recipe will work in your home kitchen), we have new ideas about combining flavors, we have a fresh take on spices and chilies, on fermented sauces and what makes a great pasta sauce. We can get you to look at cooking in a whole new way.
You are going to renew your love of cooking, you are going to smile when you walk into the kitchen, you are going to be a happy cook like you were when you picked up your first knife and saucepan.
Put another way, you are going to experience the pure joy of cooking.
And, for just a dollar, that’s a pretty good deal.
So accept my personal invitation and join us here at Milk Street. Send me $1, and I will change the way you cook.
And that may turn out to be the offer of a lifetime.
Faithfully yours,
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