CULINARY THRILL SEEKING — Dare to try a kimchee bowl for a fermented breakfast

Published 8:51 am Monday, July 24, 2023

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What if you took a shopping list of foods that make many people wary and served them up for breakfast?

Kale, onion, garlic, rolled oats, eggs and avocado are in the Small Town Cultures Kimchi breakfast bowl.

My eyes got big when I saw the photo, and now my supply of this lovely yellow jar is getting low as I work up the nerve to try it. Recipes for fermented Small Town Cultures products can go in everything from burgers and faux burgers to drinks such as Jalapeno Paloma to gut-friendly nachos and smoothies.

A  jar of raw-fermented pro-biotic sliced red onions looks like a pink jewel. Red onion, water, salt, sumac berry and white tea make these a side dish to anything.

I’m almost on empty because I’m eating it all up for a healthy diet. Get into the smalltowncultures.com world for flavor and health. Meet you there for breakfast.

“The Horror Movie Night Cookbook” is not for everyone. The food is for me and the movies are from someone whose tastes I tolerate.

You get gourmet and fun stuff and may I mention, adult beverages in this book from Richards S. Sargent, who plans some “killer” parties.

Drink up for product placement, knife wipes and more while watching these spooky tales.

The subtitle is “60 Deliciously Deadly Recipes Inspired by Iconic Slashers, Zombie Films, Psychological Thrillers, sci-Fi Spooks, & More.”

Anticipate:

  • “Contagion” from 2011 seems on target with The Pandemic,  a banana liqueur, Scotch and Sherry concoction.
  • “Shaun of the Dead” – There’s  an I in Meat Pie featuring elbow macaroni and The Winchester, an apple Schnapps named after the pub the gang holed up in.
  • “28 Days Later” offers A Feast, Jones of omelet muffins and homemade apple sauce with The Monkey Brains shot. With a dropper, drizzle Irish cream liqueur on the bottom of a shot glass full of vodka and lemon juice and add grenadine “blood” and what you end up with looks enough like brains as to be creepy.
  • For dining pleasure while viewing “Night of the Living Dead,” the 1968 classic, try Burial Plot, a dessert of pudding, whipped cream and crushed Oreo dirt, and sip The Farmhouse, a drink named for an iconic break-in scene.

The Farmhouse

1 ounce mezcal

1 ounce apple grandy

2 ounces amaretto liquer

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 dash of angostura bitters

– Add all the ingredients to a shaker over ice an shake well.

– Pour the contents into a rocks glass over ice and serve

“The Cousins are Coming!” – This title encapsulates all the excitement and planning of classic cousin love. Dallas educator Kay Jones describes planning of shows with costumes and characters, laughing at styles in vintage family photos and popcorn movie night.

When they’re pooped from a full day and piled into a sleepy heap, they even blame the cat for a naturally occurring “mystery” common to most kid sleepovers. Peter Trimarco’s cover illustration shows the host family kids literally climbing a tree to look out for the approaching car full of cousins.

The part that resonated to this foodie is that simple mac and cheese is the dinner of choice with a passel of kids needs feeding.

“Hillary Flies to the Moon” – Even ladybugs dream big. In this book, a real cutie bug hears about a full red moon while in class and falls asleep dreaming big. From the moon there’s a black hole and a mission.

This Jongleur Books paperback is from a team of 6 and good to read aloud to children. I figure we are close enough to NASA to merit interest in Hillary’s tale.

Darragh Doiron is a Southeast Texas foodie who is pro probiotic. Share with her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com.