The American small-plate sensation: deep-fried sprouts tossed in a fish-sauce, lime, and chilli vinaigrette
Origin: New York City, United States
From the journey of Brussels Sprout.
If one dish made the Brussels sprout fashionable, it was the crispy fried sprout in fish-sauce vinaigrette, a small plate that swept American restaurants in the late 2000s and 2010s. The idea, associated above all with the New York kitchens of the modern Asian-American movement and David Chang's Momofuku, was to deep-fry the sprouts until the leaves shattered and crisped and the cut faces caramelised, then to toss them, still hot, in a punchy dressing of fish sauce, lime, sugar, garlic, and chilli, the bold South-East-Asian flavours of a Vietnamese nuoc cham balancing the sweetness and bitterness of the sprout. It was a revelation: the most reviled vegetable of the American twentieth century turned into a craveable, addictive bar snack, salty, sour, sweet, hot, and crisp all at once. The dish spread from New York across the country and the world, and it stands as the emblem of the sprout's twenty-first-century renaissance, the moment the vegetable shed its grey, boiled reputation for good. Deep-frying gives the most dramatic crunch, but the same dressing transforms oven-roasted or air-fried sprouts almost as well. Either way, the lesson is the same one the whole modern sprout repertoire teaches: high heat and bold seasoning are the making of the vegetable.
For a lighter method, roast or air-fry the sprouts at high heat until crisp, then toss with the same vinaigrette. Crushed roasted peanuts make a good extra garnish. Dress only what you will eat at once; the sprouts soften quickly once sauced.
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