Kitchen & Bar

On this phone

How to get around

The bar under the name is the map. Swipe it sideways if a destination sits off-screen. On Tonight, the button pinned to the bottom cooks the lead dish.

  1. Tonight — What you can cook first, plus drinks that fit the same shelf.

  2. This week — Five dinners from the shelf, urgent things cooked first.

  3. Shelf — Edit what you actually own.

  4. Written methods — Every dish and drink with a method somebody wrote out.

  5. The pantry — Start from one ingredient: what it does, and everything built on it.

  6. Out of it — What to use instead, judged by the job the missing thing was doing.

  7. Photo review — Review a demo shelf photo and confirm every item before adding it.

  8. Flavor Lab — Pairings with a track record: classic matches and the mixology behind them.

  9. Wild cards — Combinations with no tradition behind them, only shared aroma notes.

  10. Send to Occasion OS — Prepare confirmed shelf availability for Occasion OS.

  11. The field — The gap this layer owns.

Keep it on the home screen

  1. iPhone — tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
  2. Android — open the browser menu, then Install app or Add to Home screen.

After that it opens as Kitchen & Bar, not a browser tab. Inventory stays on this device.

Substitutions · 14 dishes here use it

Out of rice noodles

They keep cooking in whatever they sit in, so they come out of the water early and go into the sauce underdone. Soak rather than boil where you can, and never rinse away all the starch if the dish needs to cling.

Everything below is judged against that job. A swap that covers it is a swap; one that only looks similar is not.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

any wheat noodle — ramen, udon, spaghetti

by weight

What it gets you
A noodle in the bowl, cooked in the same window.
What it costs you
The slipperiness, and it is not gluten free. Wheat noodles also release starch, which clouds a clear broth.

Instead · 2

glass or sweet potato noodles

by weight

What it gets you
The same translucent, slippery, gluten-free behavior, with more chew.
What it costs you
They soak up sauce far more aggressively, so a dish left standing goes dry.

Instead · 3

zucchini or cucumber, spiralized

one for one by volume

What it gets you
Cold strands in a salad-style bowl with the same dressing.
What it costs you
Everything hot, and everything filling. This is a different dinner.

Where the swap will be tasted · 1

These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer, which makes rice noodles a quarter of what is in the pan. Make the swap a decision rather than a repair.

Check what else is in the pan

The company rice noodles keeps in this library, counted off required ingredients. A swap that argues with the top two is the wrong swap, whatever a chart says.

What to make with rice noodlesRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions