8

十六日九月

食べ物

SHOPPING CART

• ginger
• banana
• mysterious purple fruit, an iridescent purple kind of like a plum, shape is like a football, slightly more rounded
• rice
• mirin – rice wine used for cooking
• lemongrass
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• mysterious vegetable whose name I forget, I asked someone next to me in the supermarket if it’s like an onion, and she says no What’s it used for? I ask, and she tells me you use it in Miso. The reason I asked if it were like an onion is because it was roughly the shape and size of a shallot, but with only fresh, deep-green purple stubby leaves growing out of it in a pattern similar to that of an artichoke. I thought perhaps it was related to leeks (and in turn onions), but then again I don’t think leeks and artichokes are related.

RAW SALAD

• grated carrot
• diced daikon radish
• shredded cabbage
• sliced green pepper (I’m unclear on what type, it is long and skinny, like a chili in shape but more bitter than spicy.)
• grated lemon (pulp and rind)

DRESSING

• 3 pitted umeboshi plums, chopped so as to form a paste
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• Perhaps equal parts of oil and mirin (mirin is the sweet element)
• half teaspoon of new Thai curry paste I bought yesterday – it is chunky, spicy, and bitter
• juice of half a lemon

I found the dressing rather unbalanced and ending up adding salt in addition to that already included in the plums and curry paste. I also add black pepper and the “zest” from the freaky-deaky vegetable I thought was jicama. It adds some viscosity (when rubbed the vegetable dissolves into this slimy white juice, not unsimilar in texture to reproductive juices). I think I dressed the salad too early or otherwise should have eaten sooner. I think I remember Matt telling me – was it him? someone – that acid can actually cook ingredients like raw ground beef. In any case my veggies lost their crispness and the overall sensation was too frontal. It was all sting and no fragrance.

I served the salad with leftover Korean cuttlefish I bought at the market yesterday. It was julienned and glazed ina bright orange sauce. The meat is curly but not too long, significantly chewy. The sauce is a sweet-spicy, instant gratification kind of thing. I eat too much and feel sick afterwards. It may not have soy sauce, but I’m pretty sure it’s not gluten-free. Dessert is sliced kiwi, washed, with skin on – for the fiver, as Adam Simmons taught me at his Appleseeds cooking demonstration years ago.