Eating Beaver

I went to a fascinating lecture titled "Strange Meat" this week hosted by the always enlightening Brooklyn Brainery.

Here's what I learned. There's a world of strange meat out there. But 'strange' is relative. Case in point: when Charles Dickens made his first visit to the US in 1842, he was a minor superstar and heart throb. The grand City Hotel in NYC threw a lavish dinner in his honor. The third course of the sumptuous menu included roast bear. Bear was a common meat in the 1800s. Who would think of eating bear now?

For that matter, who would eat fermented, rancid shark meat? Or feast on moose muffle, the bit between the nose and overhanging upper lip? Or drink snake wine (with a cobra in the bottle, not a measly worm)? What famous French president wanted his final meal to be a fragile songbird, a delicacy now outlawed?

It's all relative.

During the event, we naturally got to sample Strange Meat. My friend Yasmin took the above photo, prompting me to ask on Facebook if people could name the meat. The responses were impressive: moose face, Rocky Mountain oysters, horse, Soylent Green (clever), groundhog, wild boar, elk, squirrel, sloth, porcupine and hyena. It was actually beaver.

It had been slow cooked and the meat was the consistency of pulled pork. But it tasted tinny, like canned beef. So there. I've now tasted beaver.

The next Masters of Social Gastronomy Series lecture will be on candy. Let's see what disturbing facts we'll uncover there.

Kimchi Making 101

Anyone can make kimchi

Few activities could lure me out of my toasty East Village apartment on the coldest day of the year. Kimchi making class at the Brooklyn Brainery happens to be one of them.

Ever since I first tried kimchi a few years ago, I am obsessed with coming up with new combos of eating it. Hummus + kimchi sandwiches, and grilled cheese + kimchi sandwiches are two of my favorites.

And in the dead of winter, when I'm told kimchi is a powerful food to ward off colds, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The secret is in the right blending of seasonings

Clearly I wasn't the only one. The Brainery was packed when I arrived. So packed I could barely open the front door. Kimchi lovers unite! Single file we snaked our way around the assembly line of ingredients as Brainery co-founder Jonathan Soma talked us through the finer points of the fermentation process, which creates a good bacteria, making it one of the world's healthiest foods.

Following a basic recipe projected on a large screen, and armed with a big metal prep bowl, we "students" made our way around the ingredient stations: shredded Korean radish and carrots, sliced scallions, fish sauce, ginger and garlic pastes, sweet rice porridge, Korean pepper flakes, and salted cabbage. Mix well, very well. Place in a glass container. Take home. Leave on the counter for 2 days of so until the salt releases the liquids. And place in the fridge to eat.

Look but don't touch for two days

I am no kimchi expert. I just know I haven't met a version of Koreans' national side dish I didn't like. It even made international headlines last October as skyrocketing Napa cabbage prices in South Korea caused a serious national kimchi shortage.

While in line at class today, I overheard a guy musing about how nice it would be if kimchi became as common as hummus in US grocery stores. Couldn't agree more.

Kimchi Recipe Courtesy of Brooklyn Brainery:

This is just a sample guide.

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp ginger

¼ cup shredded radish

2 tbl shredded carrot

3 tbl green onion

4 tbl sweet rice porridge

1 tbl onion paste

1 tbl fish sauce

1-3 tbl Korean red pepper flakes

1 ½ cups cabbage

Kimchi Technique:  With any kimchi recipe, there are three steps.

1: Brining

After you cut up your cabbage, you need to salt it to draw out the water and do some magic on the texture and flavor.

Method 1: Mix 1 cup of salt into the cut-up cabbage for every 10 pounds of cabbage. Let sit for 1 ½ hours, mixing every half hour.

Method 2: Mix 2 cups water with ½ cup salt for every pound of cabbage. Cut the cabbages into quarte­rs, sprinkle salt on the stems, and submerge them in the salty water for 4-5 hours.

2: Mixing

Mix together everything except your cabbage.

Tip: The more finely you mince your garlic and ginger, the better the end product will be. If you can get it paste-like with the help of a food processor you’re in good shape! Now mix it up with your cabbage.

3: Fermenting

While you can eat your kimchi right away, it doesn’t get awesome until it’s started to ferment. Fermentation happens when little friendly bacteria work their way through the sugars, turning them into acids and CO_2.. This is what makes kimchi taste sour.

How do you ferment? Just leave your kimchi alone and they’ll get started without you. It happens a lot more quickly on the countertop than in the fridge – I like to set my kimchi on a table in the kitchen for a couple days before I move it into the fridge. Don’t worry about it spoiling – the good bacteria have all sorts of methods they use to keep everything clean. If you notice a little white scum on top, scoop it off before you put it in the fridge. Once it’s been around for 3-4 weeks, it’s probably gotten to the point where it’s pretty sour and a good candidate for kimchi stew!