Month: March 2025

Fermentation Sampler at Kome

Sashimi and a few other items on a black stone plate. Description in the post.

Kome is my favorite sushi restaurant in Austin, and I love that they have specials so that I can continue to support them while also trying something new. In March, they offered a fermentation special. On the left is hama-toro (yellowtail belly) topped with a soy koji. Imagine a very fresh and rich dollop of miso on top of an equally unctuous fish. To the right are two wedges of miso-marinated cream cheese. The waiter and I agreed that this cheese was incredible—salty and soft with layers of flavor you don’t normally find in cream cheese. I have long wanted to make a similar miso-marinated tofu, and this might actually spur me to it. After those two, we have two lighter items. Tomato and cucumber are topped with a simple shio koji, showing a different side of the condiment than we saw with the thicker soy koji on the fish. The cucumber was sliced in a manner I had never seen before. At first glance it looked like normal half moons, but it’s actually sliced extremely thinly into fans, increasing the lightness of this bite. Last, as a palate cleanser, was a bit of crispy mountain yam. I have only ever had yamaimo as a gooey binder, so I learned something new about the humble yam.

Spring Cleaning

I have a slight knee injury, so I can’t ride my bike, which means I can’t go anywhere. Stuck at home, I decided to deep clean my kitchen in preparation for CSA season. My friend Heidi single-handedly farms at The Farm at Caracara and her vegetables are deserving of a beautiful, clean kitchen. The most disgusting thing I found while cleaning so far was actually in the living room. We have an area rug under the coffee table, and under the area rug is an anti-slip mat that has small perforation. Dust accumulates in those cracks so even if you lifted up an edge and vacuumed under the rug, you wouldn’t necessarily full get out all of the debris tucked inside the mat.

Bowl of sliced red onions

While I was at it, I fried some red onions to make an onion paste. I don’t think there’s any other meal prep that’s worth doing today. I already have quite a number of ingredients in my fridge that are ready to go. Here’s my current “bowl supplies” list. My partner works from home and makes his own tacos or salads for lunch every day. I keep a running list of things we have in the fridge that he might consider using.

The cat thinks I am never home, so she’s been happy to have me puttering around the house today.

Tuxedo cat eating cat grass
Tuxedo cat rolling around on the floor and looking at the camera.
Tuxedo cat rolling around on the floor and looking at the camera.

Here’s a beautiful dead moth that blew across my doorstep. It was about 4 inches across.

Moth on concrete

I think the last thing I need to do is use some lemon peel to make a scented-spray so that the room smells fresh instead of like caramelized onion.

Fishwife + Fly By Jing cookbook event

A swinging sign that says “Welcome Fishwife & Fly By Jing 5-8.”

This weekend, First Light bookstore hosted a release party for the new Fishwife cookbook. Steph Steele of neighboring Tiny Grocer interviewed Fishwife founder Becca Millstein and Fly By Jing founder Jing Gao. Guests who RSVPed and bought a cookbook were also treated to snacks made with their products and delicious NA cocktails. I have never seen the inside of First Light so packed, although trivia night is so popular that quizzers will be sitting on the ground outside. Getting food required a litany of “I’m sorry!”s and even throwing away your trash meant elbowing perfectly innocent cafe customers waiting in line for wine. I’ve never been to a cookbook event at the bookstore before so I don’t know if they are all like this or if this one was particularly large because of SXSW. I showed up two minutes before the start time and I felt like I was the last to arrive. Luckily, I was still able to grab one of the swag bags available to early RSVPs.

Laid out on a table, the Fishwife Cookbook, a bottle of Fly by Jing, a cute tote back, stickers, and notepad shaped like a pink fish.
Bread and green beans peeping out of stripped fish cans. A paper sign says “Savory Chengdu Crunch Panzanella. Boiled egg, Albacore tuna, sourdough, cherry tomato, green bean, basil, and a lime, fish sauce and Chengdu Crunch dressing.”
Plastic glasses of martini with an olive on a cocktail stick. A paper sign says “NA Dirty Martini.”

The snacks were a panzanella and two different onigiri stuffed with Fishwife salmon or trout. The salad was my favorite though and I was eating it with my fingers. Fishwife is all about paying a premium for amazing illustrations that convince you that you want to eat tinned fish. Before Fishwife, I had grown up eating canned tuna but otherwise associated canned fish with Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats eating out of cans at the city dump. Eating this classy panzanella out of a fish can combined the two worlds of gourmet products and feeling like a cat having a snack on the street. The NA martini was sweeter than a normal martini and I hope that they add it to their normal cafe menu.

In a bookstore, a crowd watches as a panel of three women talk into a mic.

The founders discussed their origins, cultural connections, and challenges. I learned a lot about the logistics of packaging and shipping a small product! The entire audience gasped when Gao mentioned glass jars being shipped out in manila envelopes, but then she added, “wait, that’s not even the horror story I wanted to tell you about.” While Fishwife had to overcome the American aversion to tinned fish, Gao had to grapple with the “low-key and high-key racism” that Chinese food faces in the market. She was asked, “how can Chinese food be premium?” I am glad that they both persevered because the variety and quality of foods we have access to in our homes now is the best part of the 21st century.