Mariquita Farms Mystery Box!

I just picked up my first Mystery Box--$25 for all this, which I slung over my shoulder and lugged home from Incanto, a few blocks down the street from home... thank you, Julia and Andy! What should I make for dinner?? Feeling like a giant, herbed-vinaigrette salad with roasted garlic bread crumbs, but pasta with wilted chicory could do the trick, too...

The Last Pieces of June

Cherries, glorious, in all their red, white and sour forms! A much healthier cook-time snack than my usual bread groaning under the weight of cheese.

And then... Fresh duck breast! I have not seen this lovely vendor at the Union Square Farmers Market until just last week. It was 6:00--closing time--and produce was a little tired and discounted. I wanted to use my wok again and had scored bok choy, mint, scallions and snow peas when I saw the sign: "10% Off All Duck!"

Abawhaaat!? Giddy, I stepped right up and nabbed a big, fatty, fresh not frozen(!) Moulard breast--almost a whole pound for $7 from the Hudson Valley Duck Farm.

At home, I rubbed five spice and Sriracha onto the breast, browned it up nicely in the wok and then, ghetto-like, finished it in the toaster oven. To keep the heat in the kitchen down, I stir-fried all the green things with a bit of ginger for just about 15 hot seconds, then I put some orange juice, a tiny bit of hoisin sauce and soy sauce, a spoonful of honey and a squirt of Sriracha into the hot wok (these things sort of sounded like they should go together, no?), let it reduce and then poured it all over my duck before mixing everything together.

Final answer: really pretty, really easy, fairly good flavor... and I decided I don't like bok choy. Poor bok choy.

Virgin Wok Burns

Fried my arms up right alongside these tomatoes and eggs. Thanks, Saveur for helping me make sure the wok was so hot that my eggs spattered scalding grease on my poor forearms. I am like a real Chinese person now, or what?

But it was really delicious, after all that. Plus, due to the extraordinary heat emanating from my extraordinarily large gas burner, this meal took exactly forty-eight seconds to cook.

Huge, huge thank yous to Frank Baldivino for my sick new giant wok.