Andrew Zimmern's Favorite Midnight Snack Is Unconventional
It may be true that nothing good happens after 2 a.m., but food-wise, plenty of good stuff can occur around midnight. Unlike conventional meals like lunch and dinner, there are really no rules about what a midnight snack can look like -- so essentially, anything goes here. When you're hungry in the middle of the night, you're going to reach for ingredients that will satisfy your cravings, even if they look a little unusual to the outside eye.
James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern's go-to midnight snack is exactly that: A little odd-sounding at first, but completely crave-worthy in reality. As he told Eden Eats, he loves to chow down on grilled toast with butter and anchovies. Between the crunchy bread, creamy butter, and salty anchovies, this snack is packed with texture and umami flavor. Plus, it's simple to whip up, which is crucial when you're half-asleep.
Zimmern's other favorite -- cold, leftover Chinese food -- is a bit more conventional. We've heard of people who add eggs to the previous night's Chinese food and eat it for breakfast.
Read more: 25 Most Popular Snacks In America Ranked Worst To Best
Zimmern Eats Anything From Lamb To Sorbet Late At Night
It turns out that Zimmern is somewhat of a midnight snack aficionado. While the two aforementioned dishes are his favorites, he also recommends crispy pork belly. Although midnight snacks are more likely to involve sneaking the remains of dinner from the fridge than cooking from scratch at the midnight hour, when you prepare pork belly, use aluminum foil balls to evenly cook your meat and create perfect crunchy skin. Zimmern also enjoys Häagen-Dazs lemon sorbet with mint jelly from Stonewall Kitchen while watching movies, which, as he told his Facebook followers, creates a mojito-flavored treat. If you try this at home, feel free to swap out the lemon sorbet for lime, or add in a dash of rum for a boozy dessert.
Following the theme of his beloved cold Chinese food, Zimmern revealed on Instagram that he also enjoys toothpick-speared lamb chunks with chilies and cumin as a treat in later hours of the night. The specific dish came from the Chinese restaurant Zimmern co-owned, Lucky Cricket, which closed in 2020. If you're looking for a fairly easy recipe with lamb, however, try something like our spiced honey mint lamb skewers or lamb burgers. But if you can't be bothered, feel free to take a page out of Zimmern's book and stick to an umami-packed anchovy toast dish or a hearty helping of cold leftovers.
Read the original article on Tasting Table
