*From Loosha's Fridge, With 💜* A Vietnamese style sauce

great for pork, tofu, and probably a myriad of other things!

I am forever humbled and thrilled to see so many new readers around here! Feels like a good a time as any to reintroduce myself. My name is Zoë. I have big curly hair and stick out my tongue to help me concentrate (true story!) I'm a chef with over 15 years of industry experience, from professional kitchens to pop-ups. Though the title “chef” has always bugged me out so I prefer food curator or culinary camp counselor…and this newsletter is one of my greatest loves because community (cheeseball, i know) is at the core of everything I do. These days, my kitchen companion is my 3-year-old, Loosha, who is both my muse and brutally honest food critic.

"From Loosha’s Fridge, with Love," is the part of the newsletter where I share the recipes she’s currently obsessed with. Will all kids eat like her? Nope. Does she always eat like this? Definitely not, but that doesn’t stop me. She's a badass girl with strong opinions, but my goal is to make her as brave an eater as she is at jumping off the jungle gym (she jumps from so high it makes my heart skip a beat). On with the recipe du jour...

bone-in pork chops with Thai basil. chef’s kiss

If you want a sauce that you will devour with abandon, then this sweet/salty/sticky/umami punch to the face will be your new best friend. I love it because it highlights how ridiculously amazing black pepper can really makes a dish sing. Do yourself a favor and invest in some high-quality black peppercorns, and please, for the love of all things delicious, grind it fresh. The pepper we use is fruity, floral, and hits with a little heat on the tongue.

We use this liquid-gold-of-a-sauce as a marinade for pork chops, but I bet it would be fantastic on chicken. It’s also become a crowd favorite poured over some crispy tofu or sautéed mushrooms. The kind of sauce you’ll want to lick off your fingers or soak up with spoonfuls of rice.

crispy tofu smothered in this sauce is divine

Now, if you’re a parent, you might be shaking your head at me. I know, Loosha’s palate has been curated by my style of cooking, and I’m a food professional. You might be thinking that there is no way in hell your kid would ever eat such a flavor-packed (fish sauce-laden) sauce. But let me remind you, kids all over the globe learn to eat by consuming whatever food their family and local communities are eating. That means kids in Vietnam likely grow up eating fish sauce, kids in Japan are sucking down miso, kids in Cambodia chow down on shrimp paste, children in the West Indies savor jerk, kiddos in Mexico are loving on chili and lime, and kids in Ethiopia enjoy foods seasoned with berbere. And the list goes on. Kids can handle bold flavors. I promise.

But, lest we forget, I am in fact a white girl from suburban NJ. I myself was raised on chicken nuggets and Velveeta cheese. Yet, I am so confident that kids can eat whatever their adults are eating that I would bet my life on this sauce being gobbled up at nearly any dinner table. Consider it a gateway drug…for kids! (why isn’t anyone talking about gateway drugs for kids? 🧐hmm, oh well!)

Vietnamese Style Sauce

Loosha helps me mix this sauce in a bowl and tastes it as many times as she wants to until it’s just right. This can be a contributing factor to her eating more of it once dinner hits the table. She is invested in the outcome, she has adjusted the flavors herself, she is hungry for more.