Home (+ hometown
swap):
San Francisco, SF
Swappers
Profession:
By day I'm a
production manager in digital publishing. By night, a fermentation enthusiast.
And starting this month, I'll be spending my weekends helping CUESA produce
market demos, classes, and farm tours.
How did you first get involved in food swapping? How long ago?
It was mid-2015
when I started using Instagram as a medium to document my grocery habit
(@grocery_choe). Soon enough, I learned that others around the world that were
documenting similar things as well (#groceryhaul is a thing?). I think it was
the DC swappers group that got wondering if SF had one too...and we did! And
here we are.
What did you make
for the last food swap and what inspired your choice?
The same day of
the last swap, my husband was scheduled be flying out to New York. There's
nothing sadder than airplane food when you're confined for 5-hours straight, so
I wanted to make something he could take with him. Veggie lox (or
"mox" as Leo cleverly calls it) is savory, completely vegan, and
travels well. I doubled the batch, sending him off with a jar and sleeve of
crackers (an apple and a banana too, naturally...). The rest came with me to
the swap.
Recipe
discovered—while trying to find a use for carrot juice pulp—from a vegan blog.
What’s your
favorite thing about swapping?
For me, it's hard
to ignore the fact that human interaction is increasingly being commodified in
our society. You see it in examples like babysitting, staying with friends
while travelling, getting a ride to the airport, sharing a homemade meal with a
friend, borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor....We rarely reach out to
our social circles for any of our needs anymore, because why burden our loved
ones, when, "there's an app for that?"
But what happens to the bonds with our loved ones, when we completely stop needing their support anymore? How do we make and strengthen new connections when money is slid-in between every interaction?
Rad events like food swapping help to remind us that there is this other way.
I always leave these events with a sense of connection, mutual respect and gratitude for the folks that participated.
The delicious haul is a beautiful physical representation of that.
Who or what most
influences your cooking?
From my mother, I
picked up late night cooking habits, a tendency to cook in large quantities,
and her Korean recipes. The other day I found myself making 10 pounds of kimchi at 3 AM...when it dawned on me that our fridge doesn't have room for the gallon jar it ripens in!
What’s your
favorite kitchen tool?
Your current flavor or ingredient obsession?
Rose! Since
discovering food grade rose petals in the bulk section at Rainbow and I've been
flavoring my milk kefir with it.
I thought I knew
rose, but no, not in this way... Its fragrance is pure, and simply heavenly.
Rose shortbread, rose whipped cream, rose ice cream...
OH—I would be remiss to not give a shout out to homemade kefir-cultured butter. MY GOD I've never eaten so much butter in my life, but it is SO GOOD, and everyone must start making this.
Biggest food
surprise?
My mind was blown when I learned that you can make
almond milk in a hurry by blending 2 Tb almond butter to 12 oz water! Great for smoothies and chia
pudding.
If the Rapture
came tomorrow, what would your last meal on earth be?
Oh boy...
First course
--Dozen
beausoleil oysters, lemon, dill pickle brine mignonette, with a glass of an
exceptional white burgundy
Second Course
--A pile of warm,
fresh tortillas from Nopalito or Gracias Madre, a generous side of cultured
butter
--Fermented uni,
with a glass of Japanese beer
--A bite of kobe
beef filet mignon (or similar) that Leo determines is "worth it" for
a vegetarian to cheat with
--Taco salad from
Nick's Crispy Tacos, with both red and green house salsa bottles--full and within
reach
Dessert
An arrangement of
fruit, in this way:
--Huge bowl of
the plumpest, sweetest local strawberries, blueberries, blackberries
--Medium size
bowl of the plumpest sweetest cherries (stems intact, please)
--1 perfectly
ripe, good-sized cherimoya
--And on the
side, 2-3 coffee cherries, a scoop of cocoa bean fruit, and a fistful of
actively fermenting cocoa beans
When I'm not in
the kitchen I'm...
exploring the
aisles at a local grocery store, or talking to vendors and shoppers at the farmers
market.
I spend a lot of
time thinking about the space between food and eater. What I mean by that is:
Everybody eats...and it's the what, the how, the where,
the when, and the why that I find really quite
fascinating. There's so much anthropology to be gleaned from our eating
habits...One day I'd love to author a historical guide to San Francisco's
grocery stores.
Favorite local
food experience:
I had first read
about Berkeley's Cultured Pickle Shop in Sandor Katz's The Art of Fermentation. In it, he swoons over their innovative flavors of Kombucha—Buddha’s
hand/mint/bee pollen, turnip, beet. Wait—TURNIP? For real? Ever since that
day, I had been obsessed with the idea of turnip flavored kombucha. Months and
months went by...as you see, this kombucha is only available at the Berkeley
Farmers Market, or at their shop, which is open M-F, 9-5. As a city girl, with
a 9-5, without a car... satiating this thirst was not going to be easy.
My blind attempts at trying to flavor MY homemade booch with turnip were complete failures. Despite my strange obsession, my fiancé still married me. Our wedding celebrations were getting costly, so we decided to simply have a staycation honeymoon. And I bet you can guess our first stop on that honeymoon...
Yes! The first
stop on our honeymoon was the Cultured Pickle Shop! Unbeknownst, but lucky for
us, the weekday that we went turned out to be a quiet catch-up day for the
shop. Stepping into this promised land, I was as awestruck as I'd ever been,
yet Alex was very gracious, offering us glasses of fennel kombucha (FENNEL!)
while she created a pickle plate for us... Long dream short--we bought a ton of
stuff, I got a tour of their shop, and even a photo with Alex in front of the
large glass barrels of the beverage that had seduced me so long ago...
Anyway, this
isn't even the experience, guys.
My most memorable local food experience was...wait for it...
STAGING at
Cultured Pickle Shop for a day.
For those that do
not speak restaurant industry French (which, included me), a stage is an
opportunity for a cook to work unpaid at another chef's kitchen to learn and be
exposed to new techniques.
My incredibly
thoughtful husband had set this experience up for me as a Christmas gift. Isn't
that the sweetest thing?
Recipe by Jen:
BANH MI CARROTS
I always have a
jar of banh-mi carrots in the fridge. A heaping of the quick pickles instantly
add dimension to breakfasts, farm bowls, taco nights, or yes, sandwiches of the
Vietnamese persuasion.
My favorite type
of recipes are easy to make, requires few ingredients, and makes a lasting
impact. Banh-mi carrots fulfill these criteria, and I'm happy to share with you
here!
Ingredients (organic
when possible):
--1 lb
carrots
--1 large daikon
(apx. 2/3 lb)
--1.5 cups
distilled white vinegar
--1/4 cup
sugar
--1 heaping
teaspoon salt
Wash and peel the
carrots and daikon, reserving the peels for stock*.
Fine julienne all vegetables and toss in a large mixing bowl. (If you plan on making this regularly, a julienne peeler will become the best $10 you've ever spent.)
Add vinegar, sugar and salt to a quart size mason jar, twist on the lid tightly, and shake until solids have dissolved.
Pour vinegar mixture over carrot/daikon. With clean hands, toss and turn to ensure that the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout. Pick out miscut vegetable pieces at this time.
Let stand at room temperature for a minimum of 30 minutes, turning the mix occasionally. Transfer into 2 quart size jars and refrigerate. Let pickle in the fridge for 12 hours before serving.
