Saturday, April 17, 2010

A Post-Structural Critique Of Cultural Hegemony

I was out of town for a few days, visiting Providence and Boston. Most interesting culinarily was a trip to a Burmese restaurant in Brighton (or Allston, maybe) right near where the greatest Vietnamese restaurant in Boston used to be back in the 80's. Viet Huong (in Allston) had about 4 tables, seated 8-9 people at very most, and had a lovely old couple who did everything: she cooked, he served. It was freaking genius. I miss it; it was easily my first food-geek experience. I'll write a bit more about the Burmese food in a bit after I try something here at home.

The other night we had a mutated version of the chicken thigh escabeche I made a few posts ago, so tonight I cooked those bones with carrot, onion, garlic, ginger, a dried shiitake, and a scallion to make a fragrant stock. I pressure-cooked mung beans in the stock with a piece of bacon skin, removing it and puréeing the cooked beans with more stock when soft. I whisked in some miso, and let it sit while I crisped up little lardons of the latest batch of miso bacon. The result was very much what I had hoped for: an Asian-flavored take on split pea soup that was dense, creamy, earthy, and with smoky pork to set it all off. I sprinkled the top with scallions and togarashi.

On the side, we had king oyster mushrooms sautéed with garlic and deglazed with soy, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. I wilted some kale in the mushroom pan and deglazed again with a bit of the stock. Each made for a compelling and savory companion to the soup, and the combination made for good rainy spring evening fare.


6 comments:

Ant Kendall said...

Nice sounding dish. >I've done similar with red split lentils and indian spices and it really works. Rock on with the fusion vibe!

michelle @ thursday night smackdown said...

miso bacon, you say?

i don't know why i don't hang around here more. i'll start.

peter said...

Ant: Lentils go with anything. Mung beans are trickier, but only a little.

Michelle: Holy shit- you commented?!? We would be delighted to have you.

cookiecrumb said...

Time.
Please pass forward your blue books.

We Are Never Full said...

absolutely awesome. i swear, you should write a "japanese and japanese-esque food that non-japanese people really CAN make" book. i swear to the lord, i would buy it.

peter said...

CC: Go clean the erasers.

Amy: That's a catchy title, in any case.