Death and decay

Everything I want to eat is some form of decay. I am on a diet of controlled rot. There are so many delicious things available that are being eaten for me by mold or bacteria or yeast.

Beer, you are not my favorite, but I like you when you taste like hearty bread with a heavy yeast. Or a cask beer that the bartender has to hand pump because it doesn't have enough carbonation, and the taste evolves over the week or so that the keg is tapped at the bar.

Cheese, you are my favorite dairy rot. You can do so may things. So much variety with so many possible textures, flavors, and smells. Sometimes I only want a grilled cheddar sandwich with salt and dijon. Other times Stilton on a crisp. Or the gooeyness of a soft cheese with a moldy rind for texture, and I can watch you continue to evolve in the fridge (if you last that long).

Sorry yogurt, I still like you, just not anything on most store shelves. After the joys of a thick greek yogurt and the Indian cookbook author whose mother smuggled the family culture to NYC from home, Dannon has a lot to live up to.

Wine. I came to you late in life. There is so much to learn. I am enjoying this class, so I will sign up again for next semester. Do you have some extra-curricular internships?

Vinegar. And all of your delicious incarnations. A simple vinaigrette is great on a salad. I don't need any fancy balsamic, just a simple white wine or raw cider vinegar. And vinegar makes pickles. And pickles can be anything. I like the pickle plate at Kampuchea. Spicy, sweet, fiery, soft and delicate, all together on a plate. Cucumber, watermelon, cabbage, carrots, string beans, beets, cauliflower, the list goes on and on. Pickles can be anything.

Kimchee, you delicious korean fermented cabbage. I could live on a diet of you. Not too spicy, rather tart, with some residual crunch. I'm sad J. won't eat you.

Sauerkraut, kimchee's european cousin. What would a central park hot dog be without you?

In my refrigerator I have a pet living. It is a sourdough culture that I started. I feed it and it feeds me. This is a two-for, as it is both yeast and bacteria. I've made a plain bread, monkey bread with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon in the bundt pan, and waffles.

I am brewing a simple ginger beer, from this recipe. I'll tell you how it comes out.

None of these items are meat-based. I love a cured ham, prosciutto, a slice of coppa, a dry aged steak, all broken down by their own enzymes. But these are pricey and occur infrequently in my life. Then there are the rotten meat products, but as I'm not Icelandic or Inuit, they aren't for me. And I've never tried Surströmming, but I've also never been to northern Sweden. So my decaying diet remains vegetarian.