cover image Ride or Fry

Ride or Fry

David Gonzales. Sterling Epicure, $19.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-4027-9429-2

Even though Gonzales's hipster notoriety has been built upon the fast and furious%E2%80%94a celebrated L.A. food truck, pop-up restaurants, and underground dinner parties%E2%80%94he devotes this book to what he calls "slow skool" cooking, a no-rush style that utilizes numerous ingredients and methodical techniques picked up from his grandmother. Fried chicken is at the heart of his franchise, and he offers eight variations such as "peach-n-pecan" wings, which, between the rub and the sauce, involve two dozen flavorings including paprika, brown sugar, and whiskey. He then extends to a variety of main dishes, baked goods, sides, and desserts that follow his rules of "transatlantic African cuisine." This culinary mashup of Africa, Europe, and indigenous America results in intensely seasoned offerings like andouille corn dogs, drunk-n-fruity pulled pork, and spicy strawberry baby backs. Gonzales's coauthor and sous chef, Terence Teh, is from London, which perhaps explains the appearance of several U.K. mainstays that, once bland, have now been transformed into streetwise novelties. Fish-n-chips take on a spicy pumpkin beer batter. Steak pie is flavored not with Guinness but with chocolate-laced wine and an orange-flavored crust. Ginger finds its way into nearly every recipe or, if not ginger, then coconut, as in the brilliant and simple new-school elote, which is grilled corn on the cob coated in mayo, honey, cheese, spices, and toasted coconut. (Nov.)