Tongues are Wagging

When I was growing up, my mom had one of those cookbooks that revealed “secret” recipes from all of your favorite chain restaurants. I was enthralled—the ginger sauce from Benihana; bloomin’ onion from the Outback; Thai chicken pizza from CPK. It was one of those “a-ha!” moments, in which I realized that restaurants use ingredients just like you and I do to make their food.

Fast forward to 2003, London. I’m a student studying abroad, craving the ethnic food I know from home and pouring over the city guidebooks in search of some grub that isn’t fish and chips. One day—lost—my roommate and I stumbled upon a narrow set of stairs that led down to a basement restaurant called Wagamama. There, we were seated at a long communal table and treated to a feast unlike any I had before. Veggie-laden noodle bowls redolent with pickled ginger, miso marinaded shrimp stir-fries, plump, juicy pot stickers. And the ginger cheesecake. The ginger cheesecake…

The Wagamama Cookbook is like that restaurant cookbook of yore, but better: Wagamama doesn’t have an outpost in the states, so I feel a special sense of satisfaction knowing that I can replicate the flavors that take me back to one of the best times I ever had with the flip of a page and the flick of a spatula.

Many, many thanks to Jade for bringing these flavors back into my life and the memories of London back into my mouth.