In Which We End Up in Asia Supermarket

 

We said goodbye to dearest Lulu on Tuesday morning. Her people, Leitrim Sister and Dmitri returned from Lisbon on Monday evening and we spent a pleasant evening watching Happy Valley, eating Pastel de Nata and drinking wine. Whilst in Cullybackey, Dmitri was as mild-mannered as one could wish but apparently spent the following evening fighting Fascism on the streets of Sligo and got his big Glaswegian dish all over Twitter the morning after. We were all very proud of him.

Wednesday was Evie's Year 7 Revue in which she played a stroppy pre-teen. Obviously, she excelled in the role. I was lucky enough to be given a precious ticket and enjoyed it very much.

On Thursday Bert was invited to go to the Sunflower in Belfast by Les, who was playing there. He declined.  I'm afraid that Bert is becoming reclusive and have decided I must encourage him to venture further afield. I know it won't be easy. Whilst not at the Sunflower, we had a visit from Young Rooney whose current take on the political situation in the North was agreeable to me - not so much his firmly-held belief in the flatness of the earth. 

So today, in a spirit of adventure, we went to Belfast via Doagh (scenic route) and ended up in Asia Supermarket on the Ormeau Embankment. I knew Bert would like it there. What I didn't realise was just how much. I don't believe there was a single item that he didn't study intently. I thought I'd never get him out. We bought roti and kimchi, mangoes and salted sunflower seeds, pickles and tapioca, prawns and mackerel, halva and six kinds of tea. And a lot more besides. We did not buy butter even though it was 25 pence cheaper than Tesco's best price. 

And tonight Bert was invited by Rodders to go to the Brian Jonestown Massacre gig in the Limelight, with a lift from door to door. He declined. Said it would be 'too much' and that he'd already been to Belfast today. There is much work still to be done if I am to get that man out from under my feet.

Lovely Day and Kimchi Recipe

I have had such a lovely day today. It started early. Out to my local supermarket to make a start on the Christmas food and drink shop. Ran in to my youngest, the incredibly hard working Hannah, who had been on the shop floor since 4am. People, think of all those folk who work crazy hours to make your holidays a big success. I know I do.

Then I cleaned house and racked wine. The birch sap and one of the elderflowers have turned out well. Swisser appeared for the wine tasting session and loved Elderflower 2 so much that I have reserved her a bottle. Elderflower 1 tastes slightly of cat pee but sure, you can't win them all.

Quite a few friends round tonight. Makes me feel all Christmassy. Even the dogs have had visitors, Ziggy and Rex. The house was quite mad for a while. Ziggy is staying the night as Hannah's current hours don't suit him. She is going to bed at 7pm, waking at 3am. Dogs don't understand that shit.

Now I know this post is a little bit woozy but when you rack 6 flagons of wine and sample a little bit of each of them (which you have to) it leads to wooziness, a dirty old job but somebody has to do it.

By the way, Swisser tried the kimchi and said she loved it.

Here is the recipe,




Quick Kimchi

Makes enough to fill a 1 litre jar. Preparation time 10 minutes. Fermenting time 24 hours to two weeks.

1 Chinese cabbage washed and dried

bunch of spring onions trimmed

3 cloves garlic, grated

5cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped finely

8 anchovies in olive oil, finely chopped

85 g chilli paste

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce




Remove outer leaves of cabbage, slice lengthways into 4 then crossways into 5 chunks.

Slice spring onions down the middle, then into 3 or 4 pieces.

Throw the rest of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl with 1 tbsp of sugar and salt*. Ad the cabbage and spring onions and stir to coat everything. 

Place in an airtight container, such as a Kilner jar and leave in the fridge.

You can use this after 24 hours, but the flavours really start to develop after about one week.



*I used much less salt and found the kimchi still quite salty.