Meet The Kitchn Team: Anjali Prasertong

Blogger: Anjali Prasertong
Started at The Kitchn: Fall 2010

Anjali joined The Kitchn this past fall, and it has been such a treat to have this Los Angeles-based writer on the team. Anjali’s primary beat is food news and media — spotlighting ingredients, covering interesting trends, and recapping episodes of Top Chef and other popular cooking shows. She finds the most interesting things, but she doesn’t simply present the news; she always has a bit of funny or insightful editorial commentary to go along with it. And she’s a terrifically good cook, too; how about those gingerbread cookie icebox cupcakes? Yum! Read on for a bit more on Anjali, including her favorite (and unusual) kitchen tool, and favorite quote on food and cooking.

A FEW QUESTIONS FOR ANJALI

1. What’s your favorite kitchen tool?
   My nakiri-bocho, a traditional Japanese vegetable knife I bought at a knife and sword festival in Seki, Japan. It’s the first good knife I ever owned and it totally changed how I cooked; chopping ingredients actually became fun! Every time I use it I am also reminded of the two incredible years I spent living in central Japan, where a knife and sword festival featuring twenty-fifth generation sword smiths demonstrating their craft is no big thing.


2. What’s your secret indulgence in the kitchen?
   Homemade raw sauerkraut. I have a weakness for pickled cabbage in every form and since learning how to make my own sauerkraut, I keep my fridge stocked with jars and jars of it. I pile it onto bowls of jook, use it as a topping for crostini and eat it by the forkful. I also drink the juice — it’s really good for you! — but not in front of my fiance, who finds the habit completely gross.


3. What’s your favorite quote on food, cooking, or eating?
   “I should like to begin my chapter with the assurance that it is a thrill to possess shelves well stocked with home-canned food. In fact, you will find their inspection (often surreptitious), and the pleasure of serving the fruits of your labors, comparable only to a clear conscience or a very becoming hat.”
   — Irma S. Rombauer, 1943 edition of The Joy of Cooking

A FEW POSTS BY ANJALI
• Last-Minute Appetizer: Prosciutto-Wrapped Arugula
• Eating on $31 a Week: The Hunger Action Month Challenge
• Ingredient Spotlight: Kinako
• Strange Symbiosis: The Fig and the Wasp
• Use Your Bean: The Origins of Food Idioms

MORE POSTS BY ANJALI
• See all of Anjali’s posts at The Kitchn

(Images: as credited in above links)