On Guyana’s plantation at Skeldon, most families usually ate homemade breads and cakes, but sometimes the baker’s boy from the neighbouring village would deliver breads such as this simple, but delicious aniseed braid.
The trick to this bold Sichuan dish-street food-style noodles that took this country by storm in the 1980s and became an all-American favorite-is not to let the noodles sit in the sauce for very long. Toss them together a few seconds before serving. You can find recipes that are more authentic than this one (we've stuck to supermarket ingredients), but we doubt they'll be better. If you want to dress up the noodles for a party, spread them on a roomy platter and garnish them with all sorts of interesting things.
This is a sort of hybrid basic-buttercream/cream cheese frosting, combining the best of both worlds. It's salty, it's rich, it goes with everything, and if I'm forced to choose between this and chocolate, it's this every time. No questions asked. Great for any cake in this book, even the ice cream cakes-the texture is perfection even when frozen. What more could you ask for?
