Sama Sama: Comfort Food from My Mixed Malaysian Kitchen

Malaysian Scottish restaurateur Lin explores “authentically in-between” food in these creative recipes. Original fusion offerings like bucatini stir-fried with chili crisp, steak au poivre with Sichuan peppercorns, and fried chicken brined in black tea appear alongside Malaysian classics, like her mother’s char kuay teow, or “big fat noodles.” Chapters are organized around such themes as dinner parties and using up leftovers. In the latter, sour cream is churned into butter for a ginger-soy brown butter sauce over fish. Even simple dishes are tweaked, as when corn on the cob is rubbed with XO sauce–infused butter. Desserts include sticky toffee pudding with palm sugar and pandan panna cotta. Lin proves a chatty guide, sharing personal stories and the results of falling down “internet wormholes” about, for example, the history of a chile oil brand’s mascot, in lengthy recipe headers that often run for a full page. Occasionally, this loquaciousness distracts, but the profusion of details also translates into helpfully specific recipes. For example, the instructions for vegan potstickers indicate exactly how small to chop mushrooms for the filling, while readers are informed that shrimp in their shells with a tamarind sauce are strictly to be eaten by hand. Lin’s is an exciting new voice, and if it’s sometimes a long-winded one, that’s a small price to pay for a collection that’s so full of good ideas. (May)