shutitdown: livin' for the anecdote

shutitdown: taking one for the anecdote

January 2008 Archives

"I think kimchi is on the verge of becoming the next salsa," predicted Jim Poris, senior editor of Food Arts magazine, at a recent conference at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena. "It's great on hot dogs."

So same day I decide to post about my momentous decision to make kimchi, I find that that bastion of well-written news, the SF Chronicle, has beaten me to the punch and written an article about the stuff.

Cooking in Common: Korea's kimchi addiction catches on in the West

Also, in a bid to avoid too much active employment, I spend the day watching Korean cooking videos on YouTube. Through this endevor, I found my new favorite website, ever.

Cooking Korean Food with Maangchi

Just found a good article on Irish food on Epicurious. I guess if I'm going to stay here, I'm going to have to learn how to make bacon and cabbage soup someday. I haven't really been able to talk anyone else into living on my hot pepper paste-based diet yet. When my parents were here for Thanksgiving, I insisted that we have scalloped potatoes because I was worried that without some potato dish, the Irish might go into shock.

Eating in Ireland: Hearty traditions and contemporary innovations

I'm not sure why I've finally decided to make kimchi, because I've found a brand available here in Ireland that's really good, finally. But my dad sent me a recipe that was for a reasonable amount--most recipes are to make about 80 gallons at once, and no matter how much I love fermented cabbage, I'm just not going to go there. So I made this recipe once and it ended up being so salty that I almost tore my face off. So in the face of defeat, I made it again. It was the perfect amount for me, 1 ball jar, a pint, I think? And without the extra two cups of salt, it's pretty good.

1/2 large Chinese or Napa cabbage
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup Korean chili powder
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
2 tablespoons sugar
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin

Dissolve the 1/4 cup salt in water (in a bowl). Throw in the cabbage and let sit overnight. The next day, squeeze the cabbage and get the water out. Slice into kimchi sized pieces. In mixing bowl add salt (don't overdo it kids), pepper, pepper powder, garlic and ginger. Stir it around. Add the green onions and pack it all into a jar of some kind. Leave it at room temperature for a day, then refrigerate.

More about kimchi and pics and stuff here.

Call me darkwave, call me new romantic, or call me a fat goth slut, I don't care. But check out my compilation. I'm trying to replace the satisfaction I once got from making mixtapes for awkward teenage boys in high school.

That Indefinable Nothing.zip

Tracklist:
1. Sensoria - Cabaret Voltaire
2. Russian Radio - Red Flag
3. Compulsion - Martin L. Gore
4. Lucretia My Reflection - Sisters of Mercy
5. Nightporter - Japan
6. She's in Parties - Bauhaus
7. Darkness - Human League
8. Under the Milky Way - The Church
9. Touch - Secession
10. Peek-a-Boo - Siouxsie & the Banshees
11. Dreams Never End - New Order
12. So Alive - Love and Rockets
13. The Cutter - Echo & the Bunnymen
14. Dancing With Tears in My Eyes - Ultravox
15. The Great Commandment - Camouflage
16. Revenge (You Did It Again) - Ministry
17. Warm Leatherette - The Normal
18. Cicely - The Cocteau Twins
19. Charlotte Sometimes - The Cure
20. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish - The Smiths

Korean food is one of my favorite things. Strangely enough, there's not a whole lot of it around Ireland. I saw a ton of Korean places in Rotterdam when I was there over New Year's, though. But that's neither here nor there. Tonight I made a soybean paste soup (dubu doenjang jigae) and it was pretty good. What's nice about these sort of soups is that you can basically put anything in, or change the amounts to fit whatever you have, and it generally works out.

I used:
1 t sesame oil
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 zuchinni
1/3 Chinese cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced daikon (radish)
2 green onions
1 cup diced tofu
2-3 T doenjang (fermented soybean paste)
1 T gochujang (red chili paste)
1 t red pepper powder
1 t dashida (Korean beef stock) for that nice msg flav
1 t soy sauce, because despite said msg, I still wanted more salt

I cooked the onions and garlic and then threw the rest into the pot with about 4-5 cups of water. Walked away for about 20 minutes and when I came back, dinner was ready. Serve with rice. Because I'm a beast and am constantly concerned that I don't consume enough calories, I like to throw a raw egg into many of my Korean soups and mix it around in the final minute of cooking. Completely unnecessary.

Here's another recipe from my favorite Korean cooking site for this type of soup: dubu-doenjangjjigae

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." -Ernest Hemingway

For a large part of my life, the majority, actually, I've been operating under the assumption that were I just to destroy the correct section of my brain, I might be a happier person. Normal, even. This was my justification for going to the dentist that gives nitrous for every procedure, including cleanings. I had appointments for six Saturdays in a row, happy to spend the weekends together with my dentist and his tank of laughing gas. "That stuff will put holes in your brain," people say. "That's the idea," I reply. I'm not sure what, exactly, he was doing to my teeth, but I judiciously took a pregnancy test at the close of my series of dental appointments, just in case.

And now, the fruits of my labor--or maybe it's just old age--seem to be paying off. My brain seems to be slowing. Witticisms fly by me, not even stopping to say hello. Worse still, I'm not able to come up with the instantaneous and cutting remarks that I used to. Don't get me wrong, I'm still mean, it's just not as fast or funny. I took an IQ test online recently as a way to bolster my self-esteem and make my day go by more quickly. Imagine my surprise when I found that I had dropped 20 points since my last run-in with one of these things. Surprise turned to shock turned to a smile. Maybe I am a little bit happier, after all.

I decided I couldn't update until I re-did the page. Those weird shrimp things were starting to creep me out big time.

When I got my black, bug-eyed goldfish named Spanky, I knew that I had wanted a black bug-eyed goldfish named Spanky for a long time, but I didn't really realize for quite how long until I reviewed the shutitdown logs today. Five years ago I posted about how badly I wanted to get a black bug-eyed goldfish named Spanky. And now I have one. So I guess that's progress, right?

So I just finished the first draft of my novel. I do not feel nearly as fulfilled as I was promised I would, but I am glad that I've done it. I like saying things like "my novel" and "look at me." I was talking to my mother tonight in order to rub this in her face, and we were discussing what I wanted to do with my future. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm starting to get wrinkles already.

Things I would like to do:

--Write one more mediocre YA novel and then write a memoir combining all of the best bits of Girl Interrupted, Wasted, Prozac Nation, The Basketball Diaries and Sellevision. Luckily, I have most disorders and ailments on lockdown and a career in advertising. If only I came across a vicious dog, I could work in a little Autobiography of a Face as well

--Somehow make a career out of writing pseudo-legal documents, and/or wiki entries (see Dustin Diamond)

--Do yoga and not be embarrassed about it

--Write a book like David Sedaris where I wrote a dozen witty anecdotes that gently poke fun at myself, and makes my family look foolish

--Go somewhere, South America or Southeast Asia and loaf. Like Larry Darrell

--Write a sex and dating column for someone. Anyone

--Get a dachshund named Weenie

--Have a mock court or debate team with my friends where we argue important points about issues such as the economies of facial stubble and ringpiece transplant surgery

--Learn how to digital DJ. Take the nu-disco movement by storm

--Be a better person

Frances: the first time i heard 'hella' was out of your mouth, i believe
Lina: you're welcome

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