Lucky Peach Magazine, Issue 5: Chinatown

It was a fun-filled weekend and I acquired a LOT of new material to work with. You hang out with a bunch of guys and you're bound to get "inspired." With that being said, the usual comic slated for today will be arriving tomorrow instead.

BUT, I do have an amazing find to share with you all -- Lucky Peach magazine!

I tell you that it was fate that brought this magazine to me. Thanks to the Yume Wo Katare ramen line, Mr. Lee and I were given the chance to noodle around Porter Square Books, an indie bookshop I'd never visited before (what?!). I spotted the Chinatown cover and started leafing through the sucker. So, basically...

Lucky Peach is a quarterly journal of food and writing. Each issue focuses on a single theme, and explores that theme through essays, art, photography, and recipes.

This particular issue was all about Chinese food.

It's got some seriously awesome articles and isn't your typical food periodical -- it's fun and isn't overly focused on recipes, entertaining, gadget reviews and/or how-to do something food-related. It's more about the places, back-stories, and people behind the food. Those are the parts that interest me the most. Plus, I already know that I'm a shiyat cook -- I generally just roast vegetables, make scrambled eggs, and re-heat things. That is my repertoire. 

My favorite articles so far from the issue?

• photo compilation of how chow mein looks around the world. Like, Mozambique serves chow mein? Really? Really. I love stuff like this. When Mr. Lee and I were in the Bahamas a few years back, we wanted to see what Bahamian Chinese fast food was like. FYI it sucked.
• behind-the-scenes look into the Asian produce world -- from the farmers to how it gets into the supermarkets and then sold.
• a rant on walnut prawns -- which, by the way, I <3 eating as filthy and as disgusting it may be prepared.

I can't wait to read about other food in upcoming issues. At $12 a pop, it is a bit steep, but considering that I don't subscribe to anything else, I'll afford meself this small luxury.

Check it out if you can -- it's published by McSweeney’s, a publishing company based in San Francisco, CA.

PS. Does anyone else hate themselves after eating at Yume Wo Katare? I like my pork fat but jeezus kriste.