Ligaya Mishan

New York

Co-Chief Restaurant Critic at The New York Times

rhymes with papaya丨writer, @nytimes + @tmagazine丨rep @aragiauthors

Articles

This Filipino chicken soup heals and restores

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

You could call tinola a chicken soup, but that is just a literal description for a dish that, in the Philippines, is more like a form of medicine. The writer Jill Damatac remembers her lola (grandmother) putting a whole chicken in the pot; in her own version, she bronzes thighs and drumsticks then submerges them in chicken stock and sets to a simmer. The broth’s depth comes from ginger, peppery malunggay (moringa) leaves and patis (fish sauce), standing in for salt.
Chawanmushi Uses Eggs in the Most Luxurious Way

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

Chawanmushi, a Japanese half-custard half-flan,treats the humble staples as the lavish ingredients they've always been. Who was it who first found pleasure in rolling an egg - so fragile, so ready to shatter - down a hill? The pastime appears in " The Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports," alongside deer stalking and falconry, and goes back centuries.
Why Japan Counts 72 Microseasons

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan |Rinko Kawauchi

T's Culture IssuePeriods including "fish emerge from the ice" in mid-February and "rainbows hide" in late November offer a framework for eating, gathering and celebrating. A budding plum blossom, photographed on Feb. 15 in Futtsu, in Chiba Prefecture, during one of the 72 microseasons that mark the traditional Japanese calendar: this period, between Feb. 14 and 18, is called "fish emerge from the ice." Credit...
This Quick Vegetarian Rag├╣ Is a Shortcut to Glory

Feb 26, 2025 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

Image Credit... Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Heather Greene. Only around 100 people live in Acone, a village high on a mountain in Tuscany first settled in the sixth century and mentioned in passing in Dante's "Divine Comedy," as the poet wanders through heaven. Ixta Belfrage thinks of that mountain as home, though she spent just a few years there as a child.
Brunch Is Best With Some Surprises. Try This Edamame and Yuzu Dip.

Jan 29, 2025 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

Image Credit... Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Prop Stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas When Ravinder Bhogal was growing up in Kenya, as "Daughter No. 4" (as she wryly puts it) in a family with Punjabi roots, the avocados in her backyard were the size of coconuts. She'd crush sugar right into the flesh and spoon it out. No such luck in England, where she moved with her family at age 7 on a day of icy rain, to a dark, damp flat without central heating.
This Four-Ingredient Recipe, Passed Down for Generations, Will Change the Game

Dec 31, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

If I were to make a list, in the manner of the medieval Japanese writer Sei Shonagon, of "Things That Make One's Heart Beat Faster" - like a hint of cloud inside a mirror or raindrops chiming against the shutters - cabbage would not be top of mind. Yet here it is, this hardy vegetable that I have largely ignored my whole life, gently torn and given a simple anointing of sesame oil, garlic, black pepper and a fingerprint's worth of salt.
French Toast Gets a Polynesian Pick Me Up

Nov 26, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

Ipo, Tahitian coconut bread, takes the place of toasty French bread, merging long histories. Image Credit... Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas. In Fiji, when breadfruit trees bear more fruit than usual, it is at once a gift and a warning sign: Hurricane season will be dire. As a child, Robert Oliver watched people bury the fruit in pits lined with banana leaves.
How to get ahead for Thanksgiving with Dan Souza

Nov 18, 2024 | thedinnerplan.substack.com | Angela Dimayuga |Ligaya Mishan |Maggie Hoffman

“Thanksgiving day, you shouldn’t be doing a lot of cooking,” says this week’s podcast guest, Dan Souza. Instead, he says, “clear off your Tuesday and your Wednesday and get to work.”Dan’s worked at America’s Test Kitchen for 16 years—including as the editor in chief of Cook’s Illustrated. He currently holds the title of chief content officer, working across ATK’s books, magazines, TV, and podcasts, and he also appears on the Youtube series What’s Eating Dan?
The New Era of West African Fine Dining - The New York Times

Nov 11, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan |Delali Ayivi

Across the diaspora, chefs are sharing knowledge about long-overlooked cuisines — and creating some of the most exciting dishes you’ll find in Europe and America today.
A Rich, Gingery Tea Cake With Restorative Powers

Aug 27, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ligaya Mishan

Image Credit... Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas. It is a quirk of the English language that to do something gingerly is to be dainty, delicate, circumspect, when ginger itself is none of these things. (In fact, the two words have no etymological kinship.) Ginger is a smack: Wake up. It has the capacity to burn, not frankly like chile but low and steady, evoking not a wanton blaze but a scouring, as focused as a laser.