Store-bought is fine. This is better

There s the famous Ina Garten line of class store-bought is fine But I d like to propose a summer remix restaurant-bought is divine Especially when it s degrees and the very thought of stovetop steam feels like betrayal Treating your local restaurants like your personal sous chefs isn t just a smart dinner strategy It s a win-win You get to keep your kitchen cool and your meals joyful while supporting the places you love in a low-effort high-impact way A tub of cilantro sauce from the Venezuelan place grilled corn from the taco stand or a side of mapo tofu from the Szechuan spot That s not laziness That s home cooking with local flair Here are the sauces sides proteins and leftovers that make us feel like a genius home cook without indeed cooking much at all Related American cheese has consistently been enough The sauce is the star I in recent weeks walked into my favorite neighborhood arepas spot and questioned on a whim and a hope if they d sell me a deli tub of their house cilantro sauce the tangy creamy avocado-green one I usually hoard in tiny ramekins after takeout They did I paid less than ten bucks and walked home with a pint of what can only be described as summer dinner insurance Since then I ve drizzled it over grilled tofu spooned it onto fried eggs and swiped it across toasted bread before layering up a sandwich I dipped snap peas into it I considered drinking it I did not quite drink it This is the power of a good sauce It doesn t just dress a meal it is the meal or at least the part that makes you feel like you ve done something clever and chic without turning on the stove A hunk of bread and a blob of labneh becomes dinner with the right olive oil Leftover rice plus a jammy egg and your favorite chili crisp You re in business When sourcing my coworkers favorite tips for treating local restaurants like sous chefs Lexie Clinton Salon s executive producer dropped this flavorful little nugget A few Desi places sell the chicken tikka masala sauce as a side dish and that s like buying gold She s not wrong That rich tomatoey spice-laced gravy is pure alchemy for turning whatever s in your fridge leftover veg freezer naan string cheese in a pinch into something that tastes intentional So if a local joint s sauce haunts you ask if you can buy it by the tub Think salsas pasta sauces chimichurri housemade condiments and dips Particular places will say yes and certain will look at you like you ve just whispered a secret code Either way it s worth a shot Go forth and flirt with your neighborhood counter staff We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in the modern day to help Salon s progressive journalism Sides steal the show Every summer I convince myself I m going to grill more I ll march a little tote of pre-marinated tofu or good all-beef hot dogs to the park commune with nature and return home sun-kissed and full of smoky triumph But if you ve ever stood in your apartment in July thinking I could grill or I could just not I have an easier move Buy the grilled corn from your favorite Mexican spot and act like you did it yourself This is another trick Lexie Clinton swears by She builds weeknight dinners out of a scant strategic side pick-ups from the Mexican place across the street building her kids cheaper tacos at home using the organic meat she wants them to have but buying the delicious fresh guac good salsa and free chips to make it a little fancier for the adults Sometimes we just get the grilled corn from there because apartment no grill and add that to whatever meat we are cooking at home she stated My own go-to is a cold sesame noodle appetizer from the Szechuan place on my block It s technically a starter but the portion is laughably generous easily enough to stretch into three or four meals when dressed up with specific sliced cucumbers snap peas or bits of rotisserie chicken No heat required Just open the fridge and assemble no heating up the kitchen required The secret here is recognizing that what the menu calls a side might be your dinner in disguise Deli affair pasta salads Saut ed greens from your favorite Thai spot Szechuan green beans A inadequate slices of focaccia One or two stars and a couple of pantry backups and boom meal Proteins that pay dividends There are people who maintain a Costco membership exclusively for the rotisserie chicken And truthfully they re onto something At just the bird is tender generously portioned and cooked according to surprisingly rigorous in-house standards yes there are internal rotisserie timing protocols as Salon s senior tradition critic Melanie McFarland of late informed me Melanie is a loyal devotee using one chicken to anchor several nights of easy low-cook meals sandwiches salads grain bowls quesadillas It s reliable adaptable and importantly already done But if Costco isn t in your weekly orbit you re not out of luck Local rotisserie joints often have similar offerings and Peruvian chicken spots in particular tend to come with the added bonus of aj verde a spicy herbal green sauce that s practically a second meal on its own Barbecue restaurants too will sometimes sell smoked meats by the pound brisket pulled pork chicken that need little more than a good bun or a scoop of rice to become dinner Another smart approach comes from executive editor Hanh Nguyen who frequently orders proteins and sides la carte from Chinese or Thai restaurants think Szechuan green beans mapo tofu fish with black bean sauce and supplements them with pantry staples I make my own rice add shiitakes invariably on hand dried or other frozen vegetables to boost she says It s a kind of modular meal prep that favors improvisation and flavor over rigidity And definitively Lexie Clinton has perfected the pasta night shortcut a order of housemade meatballs from her local pizza place dropped into a pot of spaghetti with jarred sauce and maybe a handful of fresh herbs It s restaurant flavor with home comfort and almost no cleanup Leftovers remix club This is the part where your fridge starts acting like a co-writer A scoop of rice here a inadequate ounces of sauce there half a piece of naan folded and forgotten behind the eggs and somehow it all comes together Leftovers are often framed as second-tier but the truth is they re often the best meals of the week They ve had time to settle soak infuse They lend themselves beautifully to reinvention Take the aforementioned leftover chicken tikka masala for example Lexie Clinton turns it into what she calls desi pizza spooning the leftover sauce onto naan adding a little cheese and fresh arugula and crisping it all in the oven until it becomes something entirely new Melanie McFarland keeps leftover rice from Chinese or Indian takeout and uses it to make gallo pinto a Costa Rican dish of spiced rice and beans that s deeply comforting and endlessly customizable If you re short on time or ingredients a quick kimchi fried rice hits a similar note Fried chicken finds its second act in her household too reheated and paired with waffles for a kind of back-pocket brunch Restaurant sides can also shine the next morning Chief content officer Erin Keane s local Mexican spot El Nopal serves such generous portions that she s often left with rice beans and fixings Scramble that up in the morning with several eggs and you have a great breakfast she noted Or heat it up with certain cheese in a burrito for lunch It s the kind of no-brainer upgrade that tastes like more effort than it took And then there s the wildcard Too Good To Go the surplus food app that lets you scoop up end-of-day restaurant leftovers for a minimal dollars Hanh Nguyen regularly grabs mixed sides and stretches them across multiple meals with the help of a good topping Typically something cheesy or something crunchy and as remix philosophies go that one s hard to beat This story originally appeared in The Bite my weekly food newsletter for Salon If you enjoyed it and would like more essays recipes technique explainers and interviews sent straight to your inbox subscribe here Read more essays from The Bite A chef s best-kept secret is already in your freezer The heat is on but the stove is off Panzanella but make it Southern and add bacon The post Store-bought is fine This is better appeared first on Salon com