In these sultry times near the equinox, a girl’s thoughts naturally turn to…beer and snacks. The heat is bringing back memories of the last extended stint of writing-induced hermitude I had, a hot hot summer in Kyoto in 2005. I lived next to a Korean neighborhood, so I got used to the evening ritual of shuffling out to the beer machine in my slippers (yes, outdoor slippers), dropping in a couple of coins, and having a very refreshing long swig of beer before, or during, the time it took to look and see if any haphazardly parked bikes got cleared out by the cops that day, and get sweaty enough to want to take a shower again. So, the very onset of such heat reminds me of Korean food, and beer, and vinegar, just because it is always tasty to eat vinegar in hot weather.
Fortunately, though I won’t be doing any world tours this summer, I can still do the world tour of the grocery stores of Los Angeles. And the east side is hopping with them. My current fave is the sleeperly-named Super King, an Armenian mega-market on San Fernando. Not for the faint of heart. Good produce and Turkish/Greek/Russian selection of hard liquor, very ecumenical; a lesson for us all. Closer to home, and bike-able, is the HK Market, my Korean market friend (HK for Hankook, no English links, sorry). Not only do they, like in Asia, mark down all the prepared food with about 2 hours to go before closing, but they have all sorts of yummy vegetables, many suitable for pickling.
All these excursions are all just a way of working up to the task at hand, the development of pickling skills during idle moments when I’m not working (as I actually am a lot, with various school mentoring things that, technically, senior faculty other people should be doing). The above illustration shows what “egoma” or “perilla” or “shiso” leaves look like when you treat them all kimchi-like for a day or so, by adding onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, red pepper. And enjoying, on a bed of rice, or with a nice cold beer–yum.
If I am cooped up much longer, I will probably run out of Korean produce, and start in on the tofu innovations. If you see me residing out on the lawn in a homemade organic tofu igloo come the dog days of late August, do not be surprised.
