(Image: CHS)
By Kimberly Kinchen
Bookkeeping is an occasional series touring some favorite places from Capitol Hill and the nearby via bookshelves, covers, and spines
We stopped in at Nasir Zubair’s 12th Ave Karachi Cowboy’s, one of the Hill’s newer eateries, where food is bound up in Zubair’s family traditions but unbound by the rules of restaurant trade.
How does a book make it onto this shelf? This is all just stuff that’s inspiring me right now. If we ever have a downtime and we want some inspiration for what to add to our menu next, we have all this to choose from. And everyone’s welcome to take a look if they want to. We’re not very structured here. It’s pretty chill.
What are the magazines up there? I don’t even remember how I found Milk Street. I think it might have popped up in my suggested ads. I started finding America’s Test Kitchen in Goodwill years and years ago. And then I learned about who Chris Kimball was. All the 2020 Bon Appetits are up there. Bon Appetit always has something fun going on. It’s not necessarily something I’m going to make, but I’ll always take a peek at what people are pairing with other things or techniques and like ‘Oh, cool. We can use that’ or ‘So that’s what all this stuff is.’ It’s all inspiration, it’s not a guide or anything. It’s when I’m feeling stuck with a certain dish or bored with the taste, there’s all this stuff to look at and get something from.
When you pick up a cookbook, what is the first thing you do? I just thumb through it, kind of fan through it. Then I’ll look at the index and see how they set it up. If it looks like it works with my brain, I’m like, ‘Oh, cool. I’ll buy this one.’ For instance, Chaat I just bought a couple of weeks ago from World Spice [in Pike Place Market]. World Spice has amazing cookbooks, by the way. This caught my eye [referencing recycled packaging] Because I like how in India they use a lot of recycled packaging. They’ll make their own to-go boxes and serving dishes. They do a cool job of recycling — it’s not like ‘Send it to the recycling center.’ It’s like, ‘I’m gonna make plates out of boxes.’
What’s a book that should be here, but is not? I don’t really know. I just go to the store and see what piques my interest and grab that. I’m sure there’s a million at Book Larder, I’d probably spend a day in there if I was able to.
If you had to pick just one favorite, which would it be? Probably The Indian Cooking Course. I’ve been a hobby cook forever. When I decided I wanted to get better at cooking my family’s food, I found that book. And it was so clear and concise, it’s such a good blueprint. And it’s already falling apart. It’s not even bound anymore. When you pull it off the shelf you have to grab the pages because they separated from the spine.
The Joy of Pickling is another good one because I love making pickles and fermented things. I left the Noma Guide to Fermentation at home because that one is so in-depth and technical. We don’t have time to mess around like that. It’s like a scientific guide. You need a lab for that book.
Is there any book here that you’ve cooked every recipe from? No, I don’t think there’s any book in here that I’ve cooked everything from. But I’ll read them sometimes. The Roy Choi cookbook, L.A. Son, that’s almost like a memoir. He’ll tell a story from his childhood and tie it in with the recipe for the dish he talks about. He talks about his mom and dad being gem dealers, and his mom would be like, ‘Hold this’ and she’d give him an envelope full of diamonds, and they’d go and eat spaghetti. And then he’ll give the recipe for the spaghetti. That’s a super cool, unusual format for a cookbook. It’s just a fun read. [Thumbing through, he finds an Elliot Bay Bookstore bookmark] It’s also from Elliot Bay — put that in there, too. Buy local.
It’s not only Korean food, either. He was the one who was famous for making food trucks, he did Korean-style tacos. He grew up in L.A., so he grew up around a lot of Latino food and he was like, ‘Let me mix these things together.’ That really inspired me — you don’t have to do what everybody else is doing and you don’t have to follow any rules.
He also is just super casual. Like, look at this, “Cultural Shit” — ‘Eat all your rice.’ ‘Don’t point your chopsticks.’ I think that kind of stuff resonates because Pakistani culture is similar. For instance, if I were to show up at my house with [Karachi Cowboys cook] Connor, my dad would just start pulling food out and be like, ‘Oh, are you hungry?’ It’s not really a question. He’s saying you’re hungry. And then you have to eat. There’s no choice.
You can find Karachi Cowboys at 1517 12th Ave. Learn more at karachicowboys.com.
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