Sustainable food! What do you think of when you hear that term? No pesticides, and only organic fertilizers, right? Maybe even expensive restaurant meals because of all the extra effort that goes into sustainable harvests.

Cookbook author Tu David Phu has a different idea, through his book “The Memory of Taste” (4 Color Books, 231 pp, $32.50 hardcover). It’s all based on the food preparation habits of his refugee parents. These were things he didn’t understand as a youth because his parents rarely talked about their war experiences in Vietnam. He thought that to become a good chef, he was required to incorporate Western sensibilities, especially from the many-starred restaurants of Europe.

After all his experience and training, he prepared a perfectly sautéed fish fillet for his mother. She was not impressed. “Where’s the rest of it?” she asked, eyeing the trimmings in the sink. No, he hadn’t used the head, skin, tail or anything else. What a waste of a perfectly good fish!

That’s when it dawned on him that sustainability isn’t just buying beautiful vegetables grown without pesticides in certified organic soil. It’s all about not wasting whatever food you have!

He pointed out that in 1960, our nation sent 12.2 million tons of food to landfills. By 2019, we increased that to a whopping 66.2 million tons! All of it is producing methane, which is a key component of climate change. Meanwhile, people are still going hungry right here in the U.S.

Today, he and co-author Soleil Ho promote not only sustainable growing and harvesting, but also the complete use of all our foods.

Use it all!

In his quest to prove that almost everything can become part of a delicious dish, Phu has a chapter on how to cut apart a whole fish and use nearly all its parts. Yup, the head, too. For beef pho, he uses not only the beef, but also the tendons and tripe. He also uses “broken rice” — the imperfect grains that often get filtered out from the perfect ones. Why throw them away when you can cook them, too?

Phu is big on fish sauce, a Vietnamese staple for its umami flavor. A limited variety is available at stores, so he includes recipes for several fish sauces — coconut, pineapple, tamarind and more. He also includes lemongrass paste, tamarind paste and other condiments.The book is liberally sprinkled with family photos and stories, impressions of his visits to Vietnam, recollections of how his parents dried fish on the rooftop of their building, how every scrap of food was precious during wartime and even recommendations for the best Vietnamese restaurants in Oakland, where he grew up.

His bottom line is that food should be honored and used completely. Grow your own, if you can. Cook with all of it. Learn to appreciate it. And above all, do your best to avoid throwing away any of it.

But there’s more …

Our church, Resurrection in Aptos, held an interfaith summit on climate change recently. It included participants from Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish communities, all gathered to discuss the ways we can help save our Earth.

One fact we learned is that a meat-based diet has a profound effect on the amount of food available for people. For example, cows consume 25 pounds of feed crops to produce a single pound of beef! This means that a 100-calorie beef patty requires 2,500 calories of food crops. That’s equal to the calories an adult needs in a day. Even chickens consume 50% more food than they produce.

It’s a good argument for using more plant-based foods and less meat and dairy. I’m not about to give up all my cheese and ice cream, but increasing my consumption of plants and high-protein grains (such as quinoa) has helped me lose a few pounds and (in the long term) likely improve my health.

I’ll never be as dedicated as my vegan daughter. I tried it for several months, and it was rather difficult — especially because so many prepared foods and sauces contain at least some animal protein, such as butter or milk. Reading labels was an endless challenge. But I still could cut back on animal protein even if I couldn’t give it up completely.

If you want to learn more, order the free food guide at www.climatefoodguide.org.

Tip of the Week

What to do when you want fresh cookies but don’t want the temptation of a whole batch? Do what my mom taught us kids. Make the dough from your favorite recipe. Roll it into a log up to two inches thick. Wrap in waxed paper or foil, and freeze. When ready to bake, slice the number you’d like, bake in the oven or air fryer and return the rest of the dough to the freezer.

Recipe of the Week

You’ve had plain pork chops with the usual apple sauce. Blah. Try these Vietnamese-style chops from “The Memory of Taste” cookbook. You won’t go back to the old kind. Most ingredients are available at the supermarket or at Asian markets.

Caramelized Pan Fried Pork Chops

Serves four

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced shallot

1 teaspoon minced lemongrass

1/4 cup sliced green onions, green and white parts

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 tablespoons orange marmalade or honey

1 teaspoon sesame oil

4 bone-in pork chops, 1/2-inch thick

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Start preparation about 8 hours before you plan to cook. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except the pork chops and vegetable oil. Blend thoroughly.

2. Add the pork chops to the marinade, and give them a nice 5-minute massage, as if the pig’s been working really hard. Place the bowl, covered, in the refrigerator to chill for 8 hours or overnight. A half hour before you start cooking, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it rest.

3. When ready to cook the chops, set a large, heavy frying pan over medium heat. Give it about 3 minutes to heat through, then add in the vegetable oil. When the oil shimmers, tilt the pan away from you and gently lay the chops in the pan. Start closest to you, and end farthest away to prevent splashes of hot oil. Cook in two batches if your pan doesn’t hold all four chops at once.

4. Fry the chops 5 minutes on each side, or until they register an internal temperature of 145F on a probe thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the pork chops to a cooling rack or cutting board. Set the pan and juices aside. Rest the chops a few minutes before serving.

5. NOTE: If you wish, preserve the cooking juices in the pan and add a little more of the marinade. Cook 8 ounces of dried elbow macaroni in salted water for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse and let sit 5 minutes. Warm the pan drippings over medium heat for 3 minutes. Cook and stir the macaroni in the pan along with 2 tablespoons unsalted butter and 1/2 cup water. When all the water is absorbed, serve with the chops.