Italian and Thai plates with a sage saltimboka, chilli basil beef and two cold breakfast bowls

This dish is street food before it is anything else, and thai basil beef is supposed to be aggressive: fish sauce, chilli, garlic, and the basil thrown in late enough that it wilts rather than cooks. I leave the chilli in rings instead of chopping it through, so anyone who wants it milder can lift them out. The beef browns in a dry pan first and the sauce goes in afterwards, which keeps it from stewing. Nothing else on this menu comes close to it for heat.

Corn is the best thing at the market right now, charred dry in a pan and stirred through pearled couscous with feta, lemon and a great deal of scallion. Both of those dishes are built on produce that will not be this good in a month. The couscous is better cold than warm, which is worth knowing before anyone puts it in a microwave.

Two breakfasts, and both are assembled cold. The hummus bowls hold whole wheat pita, roasted bell peppers, smoked salmon, feta and halved eggs, each kept to its own corner so the pita stays dry. For the rest: saltimboka wants 8 minutes at 350°F uncovered so the prosciutto tightens again, the chicken tenders 6 minutes in an air fryer, and the mozzarella asparagus 10 minutes at 375°F.