Sichuan Pickled CabbageRe: [Sca-cooks] A Question

[Mark.S Harris]

Adamantius said:
> Stefan li Rous wrote:
> > Oooh. They are doing catapults and trebuchets at Pennsic now. I wonder
> > if this could be used instead of those wimpy tennis balls? :-)
>
> Funny, I heard they'd been experimenting with wieners... are all the
> rumors that Stefan is from Vienna untrue? ;  )

Recently they've openned a Chicago hot dog place here in Austin
called Lucky Dog for those who like the Chicago style hotdogs.
I find the Vienna dog on them good, although not that different
from the other hot dogs I can get in the store. For those thinking
of opening their own food establishment some day, the story behind
this place is illuminating. He moved to Austin when his wife got
transferred down here from Chicago. After two years he was missing
the Chicago hotdogs he rememebered. Bought a defunct Chicken outlet,
borrowed from friends and relatives, opened the place without even
testing the equipment and had a line out the door within hours. He
did no market research. Simply figured enough ex-Chicagoans would
agree with him. About sixty percent of his business is ex-Chicago
people. My boss, an ex-chicagoan eats there about once a week and
probably would eat there more if it was closer. He has plans to
open four more in the Austin area.

> Seriously, though, I'm not sure what the source is for this
> xenobrassicaophobia.

> Is it the burial aspect alleged in kim chee production, but never
> actually mentioned in any recipe I've seen? (Commonly buried foods
> include apples, potatoes, onions, and anything else stored in a root
> cellar,

You don't ferment the apples, potatoes and onions stored in a root
cellar, at least not intentionally.

> gravlax -- the name translates roughly as "buried salmon", but
> people still love a good gloat over those wacky Koreans burying their
> kim chee. H**l, some people bury barbecue!) Is it the garlic,
> conspicuously absent from the Szechuan cabbage recipe? It surely can't
> be the chilies, coming from a Texan.
>
> The best I can figure is that you are referring to the smell, which can
> be powerful, but no more so than sauerkraut,

Pretty much that's it. I've never noticed much smell to saurkraut, at
least the stuff I've been able to buy in the store.

> What's the deal, Stefan?

Okay, I'll stop poking fun at the Kim-chee. However, I *like* Spam
and a few other things some of you seem to find beneath you to
eat. So I guess we each have our own likes and dislikes.

My main exposure to kim-chee comes from several years of Christmas
parties where one of our technicians would always bring a large
jar of kim-chee. And then open it in an all-too-small unventilated
conferance room. At least he did until some folks (not including
me) told him if he did it again, he and the crock of kim-chee
were going out the window.

It wasn't just that it was very strong smelling; it also smelled
very, very rotten.

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net