September 27, 2026

A few weeks ago, I bought a 700-gram jar of Turkish pepper paste.

I needed it for a recipe I wanted to try, but 700 grams is nearly a pound and a half of an ingredient I’d never used before. I could already imagine the jar six months from now, shoved toward the back of the refrigerator with all the other ingredients bought for one particular dish and optimistically assumed to have a future.

That jar is now half empty.

It began with YouTube, which I cruise regularly for international food inspiration. I’m not necessarily looking for recipes. Mostly I’m looking for cooks whose food makes me stop searching.

Every now and then, I find one.