How did Lent affect my cooking this year? It's too soon to point out any permanent changes, of course, but I have noticed a couple things.

Aside from giving me the chance to practice working with Indian and Korean ingredients, I think the main thing is that falafel has remained in my regular rotation. It should really be a staple for everyone who's comfortable with deep-frying, as much as fried chicken and French fries are.

Dan dan noodles, too - although they're usually made with a small amount of meat, because I practiced making them during my meatless Lent and had them for lunch so many times, I now think of them as - and are satisfied by them as - a meatless dish. Again, a new staple - I just made a fresh batch of black sesame sauce.

And on top of that, it seems noteworthy that when I did a quick "essentials only" trip at the supermarket this morning, I walked out with two packages of tofu and no beef.

(Mind you, one of those packages of tofu is for mapo tofu, with ground pork.)