Cooking
Golden Diner’s tuna melt is a study in texture, in contrasting flavors, in griddled perfection.
Good morning. What’s better than the Sunday of a three-day weekend? If you’re lucky, you’ve already been off work for a day. And if you’re going to be off tomorrow, too? That can feel like a gift, a room in your house you didn’t know you had. Luxuriate in it if you can. There may be back-to-schoolish responsibilities looming. But today’s just for you.
For dinner, I’m thinking you could make a version of the incredible tuna melt sandwich (above) that the chef Sam Yoo makes at his Golden Diner in Manhattan’s Chinatown. It’s a study in texture, in contrasting flavors, in griddled perfection: Rye bread and melted cheese and tuna salad run through with mayonnaise, mustard, minced bread-and-butter pickles, celery and red onion, with hits of smoked paprika, garlic and onion powders and a zip of hot sauce, with a handful of salt-and-vinegar potato chips nestled into the mix for crunch and zing.
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Golden Diner’s Tuna Melt
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It’s cool to eat that sandwich at the restaurant. But it’s even more exciting to eat it at home, whether in a too-small apartment, a soaring suburban colonial or anywhere in between. It is a professional-grade tuna melt. It’ll leave you feeling like a professional-grade cook, eating restaurant food wherever you stay.
As for the rest of the week. …
Monday
Celebrate the American labor movement and the contribution of its members to this country’s development and achievement the way the Knights of Labor intended: with a cookout built around a centerpiece of smash burgers. Just put a cast-iron pan or a flat griddle on your grill and go to, with maybe some brats and macaroni salad to follow.
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