When I have overindulged in creamy, starchy foods, nothing makes me feel balanced like a meal-in-a bowl with lots of crunchy veggies and a little protein. There is no guilt associated with my heavier food phase, but rather an uncomfortable fullness and a food fatigue that calls for lighter fare.
Long before I received any formal culinary training, I purchased some fish sauce at a market near my apartment in “Little Hanoi”, in what is now cosmopolitan Clarendon, Northern Virginia. I am embarrassed to admit that after taking one whiff, it was returned to the shop where a kindly proprietor urged me to reconsider, telling me “fish sauce smells bad, but tastes good”.