Good morning! Today we have for you:
Very close readers of this newsletter will remember that I collect various recipes for my favorite dishes — hainan chicken rice is one; chicken adobo is another. I do this because 1. it’s fun to note regional, family or personal differences between versions, and 2. they’re delicious dishes that I crave and certainly don’t mind making and eating over and over.
Another such recipe is mapo tofu, which, like the adobo, is very pantry-friendly; once you’re set up with tingly Sichuan peppercorns and doubanjiang (fermented chile bean sauce or paste), you can make all sorts of mapo tofus (mapos tofu?). Vegan mapo tofu. Eggy mapo tofu scramble. Mapo tofu nachos! And now, Bowen Yang’s mapo tofu.
Bowen, a comedian and podcaster, shared his mother’s version with his “Las Culturistas” co-host Matt Rogers in the New York Times Cooking studio kitchen. Click here or on the image below for 16 minutes of pure delight:
Bowen’s mom’s mapo tofu opts for pork instead of beef and uses firm rather than silken tofu to add even more body to the slightly drier sauce. It’s not dry-dry, though — you’ll still want to serve it with rice to catch all that savory, spicy, tingly goodness. I don’t know how Emmy voting works, but I’d like to think this excellent recipe (and video) can only improve Bowen’s chances.
And now, a selection of recipes inspired by Bowen and Matt
Peruvian roasted chicken with spicy cilantro sauce: Bowen kicks off the video by introducing NYT Cooking as “the house that Melissa Clark built,” and he’s not wrong. Here’s an absolute classic dish of hers, a gorgeous bronzed bird with five stars and over 7,000 ratings.
Buffalo sauce: “If I could guilt-free eat one thing for the rest of my life,” Matt says, “it would be Buffalo chicken tenders drenched in Buffalo sauce. I will eat anything if you put Buffalo on it.” I’ll leave Eric Kim’s Buffalo sauce recipe right here.
Steak au poivre: At the 2026 “Las Culturistas” Culture Awards, steak au poivre was a nominee for best dinner. (Other nominees included “One with a proposal two tables over … so wonderful — reminds me of how we used to be” and “Whatever it is, you cooked it and you beat Bobby Flay.”) I think steak au poivre, specifically this perfect version for two from Alexa Weibel, should have won, but I respect the judges.
