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Credit...Sang An for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

By Joumana Khatib

Dear readers,

At this point in the year, I’m not dreaming of the bounty waiting for me in the months to come.

It’s not winter doldrums that get to me, but sobering, practical realities. The Christmas bills come due. The body labors under the wreckage of a monthlong caloric assault. So this is when I’m at my thriftiest, hunting (metaphorically) for bowls of thin broth that can sustain me as if I’d eaten laksa cooked down from the bones of a yak.

Relatedly — somehow, I swear — I think often of the French chef André Soltner and his concept, by way of his mother, of the 13th egg: Whenever she cooked with them, she made sure to scrape out the remaining white that clung to the interior of the shell. Voilà! This is how she got 13 eggs from a dozen.

The novels I recommend here are of that magic omelet variety: They let nothing go to waste. Bon appétit!

—Joumana

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