i went to ming's market. some old ladies were blocking the entrance with their shopping carts as they inspected their receipts. everyone was patiently waiting but i ended up yelling at them to clear the entrance. little did i know, the entire store was crowded with seniors. normally when i'm at ming's market there's maybe a dozen customers maximum. but today there must've been at least 100 easily. not sure if there was a special occasion, or maybe a bunch of asian senior centers decided to dump all their care at the same super market. it was crazy, the kind of crowds you'd only see right before some chinese holiday (like new year). i grabbed what i needed to get (taiwanese cabbage, carrots, bokchoi) and then waited in line to checkout.
from there it was a quick 9 minute bike ride through downtown crossing and post office square to get to haymarket. the last time i was in post office square, i lost the ability to brake on my bike and had to stop using my feet (i didn't come to a complete stop until several blocks later). i arrived at haymarket by about 10:35am.
my haul included 25 gold nugget oranges ($5), a bag of ohai pixie tangerines ($2), 2 bunches of scallions ($1), 1 lbs. of long horn peppers ($2), 1 bunch of cilantro ($1), and 3 large tomatoes ($1).
i left around 11am, first stopping at the house to drop off a few things, before continuing to the cafe, arriving by 11:35am. my mother was angry that i bought more oranges even though she told me not to. we did a taste comparison between the gold nugget and the ohai pixie. these gold nuggets were a little dry, but they weren't as flavorful and juicy, but still good oranges. the ohai pixies - even though they were tiny oranges and tiny oranges usually are tart - were super sweet to the point of being candy, though not a lot of orange flavor.
i worked at the cafe until 3:30pm. my mother made some ham broth noodles for lunch. my father brought his drill, which i took back to the house.
soon after getting back, i went out again, first to whole foods to return an unused box of tub repair epoxy, then to market basket to grab a few more things. because of shrinkflation, the box of tricolor rotini i got was 12 oz. instead of a full pound, so i ended up getting another box. i also got some cilantro after giving my haymarket cilantro to my mother. plus i bumped into my 2nd uncle. i asked him how he was doing since my 2nd aunt won't be back until another month (hanging out in flushing with my big aunt). he said good, and told me to follow jesus.
i paid a quick visit to little india to get some beers for matthew. i got a case of the cisco brewers (nantucket) celebrate summer variety pack (12) ($20). four flavors: summer rays (golden ale), gripah (grapefruit IPA), sharker tracker (light lager), and peached whale (peach session IPA).
after dropping everything off at the house, i walked down to the community garden to do some watering. i ended up chatting with franz, then later carey and neil, followed by renee, like a cameo of neighbors. i didn't get to the garden until 5pm. i did some quick watering before walking back home.
| taiwanese paocai (台灣泡菜) (3x qt. jars) | |
|
4 lbs. taiwanese cabbage 1 lbs. carrots, julienned 4 tbsp kosher salt |
2 cups white vinegar 2 cups sugar 1 tsp sichuan peppercorn 6 thai chili, chopped |
| halve and core cabbage, shredded into large square pieces by hand. peel carrots and julienne. add salt and mix, reduce until cabbage turns translucent, mixing a few more times. squeeze reduced vegetables then rinse with water several times. squeeze vegetables to remove excess water. in separate bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, peppercorn, and chili pepper. add vegetables and mix. scoop into containers. | |
i didn't start making my taiwanese kimchi until 8pm. i had about 4 lbs. of taiwanese cabbage and nearly 1 lbs. of carrots. i looked up several taiwanese kimchi recipes but couldn't find the proper salt portion to use, so i went with my usual fermentation ratio of 1/2 tbsp of salt per pound of vegetable. i didn't count the carrots, so i used 2 tbsp of salt to reduce the vegetables. after halving and coring the cabbage, i ripped it apart using my hands, breaking them into large squarish pieces. carrots i decided to use the mandolin. it was a real piece, and the carrots were much too fine, until i realized i was using the wrong blade size. by the time i found out there, i was nearly done reducing the carrots to thin shreds. i added the salt and mixed the vegetables with gloved hands, coming back into the kitchen every once in a while to hand-toss the vegetables some more.
close to the end i added 2 more tbsp of salt, after finding a taiwanese kimchi recipe that made sense. the chef used just half a head of cabbage, but used 2 tbsp of salt. if i was using a whole head of cabbage, shouldn't i be using double that amount? more salt made the reduction go faster. excess salt isn't a problem in this recipe, since the vegetables will be rinsed several times to wash off the salt. the salt is for reduction only, not for flavor.
with the reduction done (the vegetables looking translucent), i squeezed handfuls of shriveled vegetables with my gloved hands before putting them in another large bowl. once fully squeezed and transferred, i soaked the vegetables with water, before pouring the whole thing into a large sieve, largest enough to hold all the vegetables. i then rinsed everything under water again, before squeezing and transferring back to the original bowl.
with the vegetables squeezed and rinsed, it was time to make the sugar vinegar solution. from the youtube video, the chef mixed a cup of white vinegar with a cup of basic sugar. his secret ingredient seemed to be a handful of suanmei (酸梅), which i think is more for show than actually imparting any noticeable flavors. he didn't boil the mixture like in some other recipes, but added the vegetables directly into the solution after mixing. since i was using double the amount of vegetables, i decided to double the sugar and vinegar, adding 2 cups of sugar with 2 cups of vinegar. the sugar formed into a dense clump, but after mixing with a spoon it became more liquidy though still slightly viscous. into this mixture i added a teaspoon of sichuan peppercorn and chopped 6 thai chili peppers. i then added the vegetables into the bowl and mixed thoroughly.
i scooped the pickled vegetables into 3 wide-mouth quart jars. i made sure they had an equal amount of vegetables before pouring in the remaining sugar vinegar liquid. i tried a small piece, it definitely tasted like the paocai you'd have with stinky tofu. can't wait to introduce it at sunday's barbecue.
instead of having ramen again for dinner (i'm all ramened out), i heated up a jamaican patty in the microwave for a quick meal. there was no basketball tonight which meant i wouldn't be stressed out, but there was also nothing good to watch.