Wild Fermentation

February 12, 2007

My friend Anita Lozinska made these pickles last summer in Poland, where they know a thing or two about pickle making. These are perfect pickles.

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me if I believed in the theory that we should eat foods according to our blood and body types, according to our ethnicity. I laughed it off and changed the subject, trying to avoid one of those discussions where ethnicity and culture get all jumbled up and folks start saying the strangest things that set my ears on fire.

But on my bike ride home, buffeted by the cold and the rain, I could think of only one thing: a comforting bowl of sauerkraut and an ice cold glass of high fat kefir. In the cold and dreary 7, I mean 8 months of the year that is winter in the Polar Circle, I rode out of my way, in to the wind, to get some fermented food. Unpacking my bags at home, I had the most romantic soft focus vision of sinking into a massive pillow, bowl of sauerkraut in one hand and a glass of kefir at my side. Turns out that I had left the bag of sauerkraut at the checkout and I nearly broke into tears.

Yes, I drink pickle brine. Got a problem with that? In some cultures they use it as a base for soups.

For some people that would have been a chocolate moment, but for me that was a fermented food moment. Gawd how I love the fermented food.

And what made the moment all the more tragic was that Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz had just arrived in the post, and reading this book on the couch with the sauerkraut and the kefir was part of a snuggly feel-good scenario in which I was going to be the star. Pity the check out space out had to ruin it all. But the glass half full in me told me that this was a lesson: start fermenting my own (dang) food (oops).

If you like fermented foods, you will love this book.

I’ll write more about Katz’ book in the next days, but here are some images of some of the pickling I’ve been doing.

Making pickled carrots

Raw root vegetables and certain cruciferous vegetables are simply better tasting when they’ve been fermented. I would never have eaten this many raw carrots if they hadn’t been pickled and peppered first.

Pickled carrots and beets, ready for the fridge

Same with the beets. Raw I said.

Red cabbage sauerkraut next to a new batch weighed down with a jar of homemade kimchi

Why red cabbage sauerkraut isn’t sold and eaten all over the world, I shall never know. In the past weeks I am responsible for the consumption of 3 heads of cabbage. I would never EVER have eaten that much red cabbage raw. Sometimes I feel cheated by the pinched Calvinism of the raw food movement.

• Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz is everything you wanted to know about fermenting foods, but more importantly, about the culture and health benefits of fermenting foods
• The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz is all about food subcultures
• The Blood Type Diet according to Wikipedia
• The Hunza Diet according to Wikipedia
• The Warrior Diet according to Wikipedia

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Is this Foodology?

Image © Toyoko Shimada

Now if I can just decide which ‘ology’ to go to tonight dot dot dot. Here’s the press release of Toyoko Shimada’s Foodology exhibition that opens tonight at Platform 21. My other ‘ology’ doesn’t have a press release:
What do a Chinese dress decorated with macaroni, a linked necklace of peanuts, and a Chinese blouse covered in flattened cola cans have in common? And what can they tell us about the people who wear them and the cultures they live in? Are you really what you wear and eat?

Shimada creates surprising garments, multimedia projections and new rituals around food. These works are based on her investigations into what art, fashion and food can tell us about individual and national identity in our globalised, high-tech age. Shimada always makes her works in collaboration with others and often accompanies them with a short presentation or fashion show.

Image © Toyoko Shimada

FOODOLOGY by TOYOKO SHIMADA
14 February – 4 March 2007

Opening Wednesday 14 February, 19:00
Closing party Saturday 3 March , 17:00 – 20:00
Exhibition open Wednesday through Sunday,
12:00 – 18:00

debra at 15:01 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

Chirashi sushi
chaotic and unbound

February 10, 2007

Chirashi sushi as served at Martin Butler’s the Girlfriend Experience

Chirashi sushi is ‘casually mixed’ sushi, unbound, informal, slightly chaotic. For Martin Butler’s Second Life-emulating, audience driven Girlfriend Experience at Mediamatic, I’m calling it DIY sushi. Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司, lit. scattered sushi) is the sort of sushi that you make at home everyday, not fancy, the sort of dish that your mother would make for you if you were an otaku kid, and she thought you needed some nourishment after spending too much time in Second Life. Traditionally chirashi sushi is eaten annually as a part of the Doll Festival, celebrated in March in Japan. It’s almost March, we can’t wait for March, Martin’s show runs until March.

Chirashi sushi as served chez Solomon with pumpkin and homemade kimchi

Chirashi Sushi Solomonova

• round grain brown rice / long grain black ‘wild’ rice
• yaki nori / yaki nori in packages (sweet)
• kim chi
• fermented black beans
• sprout selection (tauge, sango, chinese prei, knoflook)
• homemade cucumber pickle
• homemade carrot pickle
• wasabi peanuts
• sesame seeds (white and black)
• ume boshi (pickled salt plums)
• gari (pickled ginger)
• steamed pumpkin or other steamed veg like broccoli shoots
• zee kraal
• served with
• marinated tofu OR kasseler rib OR smoked (dried) herring

Chirashi links:

• Martin Butler’s the Girlfriend Experience at Mediamatic
  January 26 – March 9, 2007
• Second Life
• Soy story: food subculture club visits an exhibiton of Romanian otaku culture
  (soybeans are inherently linked to otaku culture)

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