for those of you who have just joined us
welcome to phuuds 2.0 — a place for my taste buds to wander and stumble upon some fun food ideas that may possibly turn into a “product.” or not. subscribe to find out (what a cliffhanger!).
lara, where have u been
i know i’m two weeks late for my post. you’ve probably been wondering, what happened to that kelp lady? is cereal a breakfast broth? what should i eat? don’t worry, we’ll get to all of your questions.
anyway. i’m in alaska! sitka, specifically.
tomorrow, i get on a commercial fishing boat for a week to learn how to be a deckhand.
a couple of food reflections and takeaways so far:
global supply chains are sometimes inconvenient (actually ironic). i wanted to eat some *local* fish before i start working on the boat because who knows if i’ll have the stomach for it after that. much to my surprise, fresh fish is very difficult to find as a tourist. we asked someone where we should go and were told, “oh, go to the docks and befriend a fisherman. we found sitka sound seafoods eventually, which only took 48 hours and 4 phone calls to get a pound of salmon. but it was delicious.
berries abound. salmon berries, blueberries, raspberries just grow along the highway (generous term for the main road here) and you can eat them right off the bush.
eskimo ice cream or akutaq is not what you think it is. it’s pilot bread (a round, thick saltine with no salt) plus whipped seal fat plus berries.
this is a great place for kelp enthusiasts. it’s a pretty regular ingredient in salads around the cafes i’ve frequented. and my host’s neighbor has a magnificent garden and has a very cute blog about it. she loves seaweed (alaria the most) so i hope to chat with her before i leave!
everyone’s got food skills here. makes me think i should learn how to butcher, grow my own food, and forage. i talked to paul and agatha last week about their solar punk vision (subscribe!) and food education seems pretty integral to a thriving circular economy. i’ve also been watching alone season 7 so that’s probably making me more attuned to survival skills.
update on kelp & broths
don’t worry i’m still at it with these. here’s a little collage of things i’ve been cooking and spotting. heavy duty thanks to recipes from ottolenghi and bon appetit. next up, i’m going to try fermentation and heat treatment on kelp when i get home.
what else have u been thinking about
we take a break from our regularly scheduled programming of experiments to look at some bad photoshopping i’ve done to explore some ideas (many of them drummed up on a hike with lea as per usual).
tall broth bowls
getting back to the broth uncanny valley — what if we leaned in and made a tall bowl that’s not quite a mug, but not quite a bowl either. perfect for sipping, fun to hold, and classy as all hell. i imagine selling them at my broth cafe for folks who forgot to BYOBowl. perhaps even a sippy cup top that has the aesthetics of this precocious scandinavian baby brand but the bevel and angle of the starbucks plastic lids (go get one if you haven’t tried yet).
tinned seaweed
in case you haven’t heard, tinned fish is a hot girl food now. so what if we did tinned seaweed — it’s cabin-chic, norm-core, and recyclable all at once. the one packaging improvement i’d like to make is to experiment with the sharp lip of the pull-back mechanism. lea suggested a top that pulls back the edge but inside — see the fellow carter travel mugs for inspo.
ramune salad containers
okay lastly, ramune bottles but make them salad containers. so when you pop the ball into the container it releases salad dressing. could even combo this with the tinned seaweed idea.
what’s next
filipinx snax.
i’ve been thinking more about how to integrate my cultural background in my food experiments ever since i read this piece about chicago-based Ăn Vặt Cô Béo. natalie vu initially started the snack import business for vietnamese immigrants but the demand quickly grew beyond nail salons.
“I want to promote my brand to American people,” she says. “I want them to try how Vietnamese people eat snacks,” she says. “So when you talk about Vietnam, it’s not just about pho.”
another asian immigrant story that inspires me is about LA-based baroo*, “a free-style experimental kitchen, known for fermentation and a free spirit.” it’s basically phuuds 2.0 in real life. anyone know of a cheap commercial space i can turn into a food lab?
*baroo is the korean word for the bowls buddhist monks use for their meals until their last breath.
shout outs
@chris for mailing me seabeans from washington
@maxine for always sending me relevant intel
@luke for sending me this hot man who knows how to cook and those ottolenghi recipes
@my housemates for letting me put seaweed in all our dinners
asks
i know it seems scary to post publicly but it helps me aggregate all your responses if you respond in the comments section! do it. i made it easy with this button :)
what do you know about filipino food? got any favorites?
what have you been snacking on this week?
meme time
this one is from mert, who kindly nudged me to post this week by sending this to me
Filipino food: only one I know is Lumpia (yum!). I associate Filipino food with two feelings: hospitality / welcome and volume (related ideas). The times where I've had it, it has been generously heaped on a plate as part of a community gathering (school fair / fall festival type event).
what is a ramune???? i love the tall tapered bowl cup!!!! wanna sipp outta that bad boy 💯