Go for it!

If you ever have questions about cooking Asian food, let me know–feel free to post them. If I don’t know the answer, I can usually find it out, or find someone who knows. I like it when I get asked things I don’t know, because it gives me an excuse to research something I might not have thought of researching before.

Which is pretty cool.

Persimmon–I am fearful of what your grandmother would have thought if she smelled raclette. Talk about stinky feet cheese! I was talked into teaching a raclette class at Sur La Table, so I had to figure out how it worked and all of that (you melt cheese and put it on potatoes and grilled sausages–for this there needs to be a class? Aiya!) so I bought some in downtown Columbus and drove home with it, with my daughter in the back seat with it. She was complaining about the smell, even with the windows down as the autumn air slowly warmed the cheese to room, I mean, car-temperature. It was pretty strong. Oddly, most of the smell was in the waxed rind, which you cut off. After we trimmed it before the class, it smelled fine and it tasted quite pleasant.

Rose–I really liked the spongey texture of the fermented tofu, too! I thought it felt neat and really, the more I ate it, the better it tasted. But I like thousand year old eggs, too–which makes Zak shudder when he watches me eat them. But they are good! I keep telling him, and he keeps shaking his head.

He at least believes me when I tell him that chicken feet are good.

But he still won’t taste them. Silly man.

I was determined to actually try it my last time there this summer. I asked my teachers, my aunt, my uncle, friend’s relatives where I should go and every single person had their “stinky tofu” street vendor (it is certainly a street food) to recommend.

I actually really liked it–the texture was great, it was a thick sponge like taste. I didn’t mind the stink after a few minutes either.

Umami foods, being often of animal, fermentative or fungal origin, inspire some very impressive reactions, and this is why I grew up knowing to hide the green carton of spaghetti cheese when my grandmother came over. “Aiya! Chuuuuu! Stinky-feet cheese!”

Somehow, though, I managed to develop a demented passion for fermented black beans, and add them to some dishes which I imagine would raise a few eyebrows. For example, I like them a lot in kasha, and with barley and mushrooms.

I have been buying the ones in the cartons, as I didn’t know the others were better. I will try them next time.