What’s the Dish I Cannot Turn Down?

Since my first taste of bread pudding, I have been hooked. The dish must blend its egg with its bread oh so delicately. The bread should be absolutely scrumptious. The dish must have just the right quantity of cinnamon, ideally the Vietnamese variety. That Far Eastern variety of cinnamon comes from the bark of their wonderful cinnamon trees (Cinnamomum verum).

In one piece of non-fiction, The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by the late Julie Yip-Williams an old man, on a boat of Vietnamese refugees, is described who is asked to ditch his bundle of cinnamon tree bark overboard. That was so the dangerously heavy boat with its refugees could actually get to Hong Kong. He did so quite reticently since he believed that would be his first ticket to revenue in that bustling, international community. Of course, he had to get there first.

The best versions of the dish, I think, can be found at the finer restaurants in New Orleans, or, perhaps, Charleston. Do yourself a big favor and indulge in this true comfort food soon.