Next to its older siblings in blazing red, orange and yellow, the green bell pepper has never had the best reputation. But, if you’re trying to capture the edge of bitterness, where savory and sweet intermingle, then the green pepper might be your ideal implement. Perhaps the one dish where the diner must confront the unripe pepper head-on is pepper steak. For many Americans, what comes to mind is the saucy beef stir-fry seen on takeout menus and strewn with crunchy panels of Christmassy red and green bell peppers. The Chinese American pepper steak, she said, “feels like a culmination of all of those influences.” The Leungs — Sarah, Kaitlin, Bill and Judy — published their first proper pepper steak recipe only recently, in April, using oyster sauce, chicken stock and red bell peppers in addition to the green.

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Persons: Sarah Leung, “, Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy — Locations: Louisiana, Sichuan, Fujian