oh hey there
if you’re new — 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!).
also if you want to contact me, email me at lara@🥚.kz.
remember all that kelp business?
way back when, i set out to do a little food product brainstorm and iteration process with our favorite woman in STEM, Lea.
we never quite got over kelp and seaweed. and after a little deep dive into packaging, we decided to send it and make a little prototype.
presenting, three seaweed salads (clockwise from the top):
A: sea beans, oranges, sweet potatoes, oranges, sesame oil
B: wakame, cucumbers, tahini ponzu miso “ranch”
C: hijiki, pluots, sesame oil, tamari
Someone unfortunately, we had an inverse relationship with taste and looks. And more unfortunately, the shelf life of rehydrated wakame, sea beans, and hijiki is not great.
A little bit of back to the drawing board, but inspiration continues!
what’s next
a good friend in boston asked if i’d be interested in noodling on a restaurant biz. most people say this and they’re <0.5% serious, which is fine because i love to entertain any food fantasies. but he’s s e r i o u s which is very cool. i don’t believe in stealth mode and i do believe in “building in public” (as paul always told me when i sent him a shady DM on slack and he told me to put it in a public channel). anyway no spoilers, but here’s a lil moodboard teaser:
shout outs
@lea for persevering through my hectic hotgirlsummerTM schedule and prototyping with me.
@zhenya for introducing me to the vocabulary of commercial food production (“flavor migration”).
@maxine for hiring me to do the most nuts job ever. i’m designing custom trail mixes of the month for nuts.com and it’s super fun. first one debuted today!
@gort for requesting a boodle fight for his bday meal and letting me say no to menu ideas that i didn’t feel were *authentic*! super fun to dive into the ultimate filipino feast. pics to come <3
asks
what are your favorite weekday lunch spots for:
on the go, gotta eat while i shovel nutrients into my mouth
meeting with a coworker
sneaking out to get food with a friend
doesn’t matter who it is but you want a little credit for finding such a cool spot
what do you get there?
feel free to specify pre or post covid!
meme time
[sorry, lea]