leff brand kimchi

Ever since I was 10, and my sisters came to us from Korea, we had kimchi in the house. I've never gotten to the point where I eat it with every meal, although I certainly see the appeal of that aspect of Korean life. In short, yay kimchi!

raw kimchi

Also, yay home food! Up with home pickling! Obviously, I snagged a copy of Wild Fermentation the first chance I got. And naturally the first recipe I tried was kimchi. It was incredibly easy, and surprisingly successful for a first attempt.

It goes like this. Chop up your asian style cabbage and a daikon radish. Brine it for a bit. Drain it. Mix in the hots and spice paste, push down until it's covered by it's own juices. Wait a week or so, and voila, kimchi. I'm not going to copy out the whole thing because if you're in to home pickle you're getting the book anyway.

Pre funk

I had fear that it wouldn't work. I had western peppers like habaneros and junk. But the spices did the trick. I was amazed. It tasted like kimchi almost immediately. After a week of sitting out, it tastes even better. Obvs, I recommend the book if you're into the idea at all. It's got all kinds a stuff in there.

bubble bubble toil and trouble

Note about the container. I've tried sauerkraut in the wrong shaped deal. It failed. If you're gonna try it, get a nice strait walled bucket thing. You'll be much happier.

the dominos challenge

Yes yes, by now you've all heard about the "new dominos" turnaround with the real people and the endearing honesty. It's all very exciting. There's the pizza configurator*, the progress bar, and oh yeah, they changed the formula. So is this new coke, nacho cheesier doritos, or a toasted subway sub?

The big question is, should we compare New D to Old D, or new D to Other Pizza? New Dominos v Old Dominos is a pretty easy challenge. It's like shooting pizzas in a barrel. And, not surprisingly, New D wins. Compared to Pizza Hut or mall pizza it does pretty well. But we're still in the range of pizza I'd never eat.

On the other hand, New D v Any Other Pizza You Might Actually Enjoy Eating is not such a cert. In fact, it's an obvious failure. Still crap. I don't even know why I spent so many words on this build up. It's sommat like 6 bucks for a large pizza. How can that every be good?

*Is this just a Lucent term, or do people know this?

Finally made it to Retro Dogz

Despite the Z in the name, I've been wanting to try Retro Dogz ever since the Bremeloger mentioned it way back in september. And despite walking right by it every day on my way home it's taken me a full three months to manage a visit. I had to take time off (I know, boo-freakin-hoo, right).

Rakka has been making chicago dogs for me ever since I've known her, but we can't get the proper ingredients. So when I walked in the first thing I notice is the honking great chicago dogs sign by the counter I got very excited.

Chicago Dog (veggie)

I'm sorry to say, that this was much better than Rakka's chicago dogs. It's not that she does anything wrong, but honestly when was the last time you saw nuclear relish in a Seattle area grocery store? Never, that's when. Retro Dogz get's it from somewhere and it's worth it. Combined with a bunch of other subtly more appropriate ingredients they achieve a balance that's both quite pleasing and impossible to match at home. It's not quite perfect a chicago dog (no grilled onions, no sesame seeds on the bun, not enough cucumber) says Rakka, but still good.

Everything being equal, I wish they were open more. I'd like to go back. Oh, hey, they have other stuff too. Check out the menu.

menu

[where: 701 Pacific Ave, Bremerton, WA 98337]

imma sharpen my own damn knives

Author's Note: Normally I keep it pretty clean here, despite the fact that I'm a serious vulgarian. But it's been a long week. So watch out.

Ok, the background. We made turkey for thanksgiving, and it came out really well. It was really easy, and it fed us 3 meals a day for four days. Oh, and it was twelve dollars. Such tasty value for money is hard for us to pass up. So we're going to do it all the time. And this brings me to knives. Carving all these turkeys will require sharp knives.

a whetstone, you know
for sharpening shit

Watching cooking tv for years has given me a weird perspective on knife sharpening. The message comes through loud and clear: "oooooh, this is soooo hard and you are soooo dumb. you're gonna fuck it up so don't even try." I actually thought today that I should buy a $150 automatic knife sharpener so I could cut up my $11 turkey with my $20 knife. You know what? Fuck that.

America's Test Kitchen can keep their fucking $150 gadget that'll break down in a year. Alton Brown can show off his professionally sharpened knives all the fuck he wants. This is the same mentality that insists on $100 underpants before you can take a goddamn walk in the woods. I'm mad as hell at this gearhead mentality and I'm not going to take it anymore!



You know what, my grandfather sharpened his knives himself, and they were sharp as razors all the time. If he could learn it, I can learn it. And I fucking will. I don't care if I wear my knife down to a nub before I get it right. And the whetstone won't wear out after one goddamn year either.

food drops

drop candy!
Originally uploaded by Rakka

Rakka got a whole pile of food drops in the mail (from Chotda). I took part in the great food drop taste test. I'll summarize, but you should follow that link for the in depth review.

Right. So, food drops are sugar candies that come in flavors of regional Japanese foods. We're talking beer, octopus balls, udon... you get the idea. We tried 8 kinds. How was it? The short answer is: most of these foods were not meant to be sweet; not, at, all.

Bento Kudasai

I haven't been to Japan, so I can't speak to the authenticity of Bento Kudasai. But authenticity doesn't matter when lunch is on the line; it's on value for money that we judge places on around here. 'Course, perceived authenticity is a factor in the formula, so maybe it does matter. Well, either way, Bento Kudasai has it. So lets get to it.

nigirizushi bento

The most important question is, is it good? Yes it is. They say they make pretty much everything themselves, including the kimchi (which, omg, kimchi! you know i'm going back again and again). It shows; the quality is really high. Though, to be honest, the vegetarian boxes have tasted better to me than the fishy ones. The vegetable boxes are full of subtle flavors and textures. I think the fish is pretty low on the sashimi quality scale though.

zOMG! Kimchi!

But then it would be, he segued, because the price is right. Lunch for under $10, come on down. Well, unless you're me and fail to resist the mini box full of kimchi. But I usually manage to get away for $11. A box and kimchi is a pretty ideal portion for me. I did a full box and udon once; man, was I stuffed.

case full of bentos

Other notes: CG seriously digs the gyōza; I think whenever he suggests Bento K, he's got the gyōza on his mind. It's pretty small, just a bench with about 4 stools. The lady that runs the front is really friendly.

In conclusion, get on down the street and get you some bento.

[where: 95 Marion St, Seattle, WA 98104]

damson gin

As I mentioned over on casa rakkaleff, we have this damson plum tree in our back yard. The plums aren't really hand fruit, but they're good for canning and stuff. As soon as we figured it out, I ordered a bunch of canning stuff (which I wanted anyway). Everything got here quick, with the minor exception of the actual feckin' jars. So the jam is on hold.

The le parfait jars did make it here, and so did a couple of fifths of gin. And that's all we need for damson gin. Rakka found this recipe on cottage smallholder. It's super simple, and we both love gin, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Damson Gin

We don't have a kitchen scale (yet), so I had to estimate how many plums in a pound. I thought about rigging up a stick with a can of beans on one end and a bowl of plums on the other and yadda yadda yadda. Sounded like work though. And really, we're talking about gin that will be more or less plummy depending, right? Should be fine.

'Course, we won't know if I screwed it up for three months. Assuming I didn't, it's important that you get your name on the casa rakkaleff new years party guest list. The gin should be about ready then, and seats are limited. natch.