I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ROCKWELL KNUCKLES-“Silly Human” (2011).

This song was NPR’s song of the day on July 7th.  I’d never heard of Rockwell Knuckles before.  He’s a rapper from St. Louis and has at least one other album out as far as I can tell.  I was rather fond of this song for, as the NPR page says, he often prefers to be absurd.

This song has fast, manic music–jittery and confusing and the rap over the top of that music, especially the chorus, is equally frenetic and hard to fathom on one listen.  But the chorus has a interesting twisty melody and the lyrics (the ones that I can follow) are bizarre and thoughtful and not typical “street life” lyrics.

I listened to this sevral times in a row, and will defitely check out his full length (which you can stream here, and the songs I listened to are equally weird and catchy).

[READ: July 6, 2011] Lucky Peach Issue 1

McSweeney’s has yet another new periodical to occupy my ever diminishing reading time.  This one is a food magazine which, as the cover states is “the new food quarterly from Momofuku’s David Chang.”  I don’t especially like food magazines (Sarah subscribes to several, but I just can’t get into them–reading recipes to me is the equivalent of looking at XHTML code for most people).  I mean, I like to cook sometimes, but I don’t look for new recipes or anything like that.  So, I am probably the least likely recipient of this magazine.  Not to mention I’ve never heard of David Chang and only know about Momofuku because of the Elvis Costello album.

And then geez, the first issue is about Ramen?  Who gives a fuck about Ramen?  It’s that crappy stuff you buy 10 for $1 at the supermarket.  And you’re really going to devote 174 ad-free (except, obviously lots of mentions of Momofuku) pages to ramen?

Well, yes they are.  And holy shit if it wasn’t amazing.  David Chang is a really funny guy and co-editor Peter Meehan is a great foul-mouthed humorist.  [I have never seen so many “fucking”s in a cooking magazine before–in fact I suspect I’ve never seen any in a cooking magazine before].  The articles were funny and a little low brow (I doubt most cooking magazines mention people throwing up either), but they were engaging and interesting too.PETER MEEHAN and DAVID CHANG-Things Were Eaten
The guys go to Japan for several days and do nothing but eat ramen.  They go to dozens of restaurants and really explain the culture of ramen and the different styles and flavors and preparations of the noodle.  They describe the ramen there in such amazing detail–with so much love, and so many “fucking”s that it was impossible to stop reading.  It was a fascinating look into a culture that has so influenced Chang (even though it is not his culture–he’s Korean).

ANTHONY BOURDAIN-Chang
This is a biographical sketch of David Chang.  Again, this magazine is by and more or less about him–kind of like O, so it’s not surprising that there is so much about him *but I assume there won;t be anymore portraits of th eman in future issues–indeed, Bourdain will do a sketch of a different chef in each issue apparently).  I’m not sure if they will keep up this level of Chang-love in future issues, but this was interesting (because I didn’t know anything about him and because he’s a pretty casual and unpretentious-seeming guy).

PETER MEEHAN (with awesome illustrations by MIKE HOUSTON)-Tokyo Ramrn Gods
This is an illustrated article of brief bios of the more famous ramen chefs of the world (the illustrations are like skateboard designs–super bad ass).

DAVID CHANG & IVAN ORKIN-Ivan Ramen
Orkin is a Jewish American who had the temerity to open a ramen shop in Japan–and to have it be fucking awesome.  Orkin is a fascinating individual and his ramen store (which seems to seat about 15 people at a time) seems like a major destination if you ever go to Japan.  He makes rye noodles, for a little bit of his culture exported to Japan.

NATE SHOCKEY-A Specifist’s Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan
This is a map of Japan and detail the 20 (TWENTY!) different styles of ramen that are specialties across the country.  Clearly the pot noodles the we have here are not what we’re talking about there, where ramen is a major part of the culture.  Also, did you know that ramen was introduced to Japan by the Chinese?

JOHN T. EDGE-Seventh Ward Ramen
Edge takes us to New Orlenas for a look at the way ramen noodles are prepared in the bayou (and they certainly are).  And how describing authentic ramen is like describing authentic gumbo (ie. it cant be done).

DAVE CHANG, ANTHONY BORDAIN, WYLIE DUFRESNE-Mediocrity: A Conversation
This is an amusing (and curse-strewn) conversation between Chang, Bourdain and Wylie Dufresne.  When you get these three cocky chefs together, spouting all about various theories of food prep (and the hated word “mediocrity”) tempers flair, assholiness rises and the conversation is very very funny.  I would hate to meet (or eat with) any of these guys, but I really enjoyed them talking about food.

KAREN LEIBOWITZ-Mankind is Noodlekind
Finally we learn about Momofuku.  Not the restaurant, but the man.  Momofuku Ando is the inventor of the cheap noodles that we all know so well.  His biographical sketch is detailed and we learn how he stumbled upon the wonder that is packaged ramen. (Evidently the packeaged ramen in Japan is much beter than ours).  There’s also a detailed hsotroy of the development of ramen noodles over the years.

RUTH REICHL-Instant Ramen Showdown
Reichl (who again, is apparently famous but who I’ve never heard of) then gives her opinion about the best packaged noodles (she’s from California).  Her first piece of advice is to throw out the package of flavoring regardless of the brand you buy because it universally sucks.  She makes her own broth and then put in all of the different noodles she could find.  The winner: Myojo Chukazanmai Japanese Style Noodles.

Then we get recipes.

These recipes all come from David Chang himself.  And there is something about the way he writes the introductions and the recipes themeslevs that makes me actually want to try them.  Maybe it’s because the recipes are so weird.  Like making Italian dishes with instant ramen noodles!    Or (heresy) making Gnocchi with instant  ramen noodles!  I was so intrigued and really wanted to taste them.

MARK IBOLD-Potato Chips with Oriental Dip
A brief intermission from Mark Ibold (yes, the guy from Pavement and Sonic Youth).  He gives his recipe for Potato Chips and Oriental Dip–which is basically taking the seasoning that Reichl told you to throw out and adding it to sour cream.  But the key is THE BEST POTATO CHIPS IN THE WORLD: Kay & Ray’s Regular.

TODD KLIMAN-The Problem of Authenticity
Kliman writes a lenghty article about “authenticity” in cooking.  How certain restaurants (and patrons) only want “authentic” food–that Tex Mex is a bastardization or Italian-American-red-sauce food is only good ironically.  But he argues that authenticity does not mean only coming from a place of origin, that fusion is not only inevitable but welcomed.

HAROLD MCGEE-Outre Space
This is a crazy look at making noodles that are highly alkaline (which meant nothing to me, but by the end of the article I was like–yes!  Alkaline noodles kick ass!).  You make them by (get this) baking baking soda.  Bake baking soda at 250 degrees for about an hour and you convert it from sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate!  Cool.  You basically use this instead of eggs in your pasta making for a very different style of noodle.  McGee also comes to the defense of the much-maligned MSG.  He argues that the dreaded “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” which people claim comes from MSG was never actually proven and indeed has been disproven several times.  He argues that MSG is a pretty important component of the mysterious flavor umami and that we are removing it at the risk of our tastebuds.

MORE RECIPES!
Including several with alkaline noodles, which I really want to try to make.  Chang also reveal several recipes from Momfuku (which is pretty cool): various broths and dashis (including a carrot dashi for vegetarian friends).  I was especially amused by the Corn with Miso Butter and Bacon recipe which was rendered in the form of a haiku.

MATTHEW VOLZ-Bigger Than You
This is an illustrated story of Ryuji Tsukazaki the world’s biggest man.  All he wants is a (really big) bowl of ramen.

And now after 134 pages of ramen-love, Chang switches gears to discuss eggs.  He devotes several pages to Slow-Poached eggs.  This was completely fascinating if not utterly impratcial.  The suggestion is boiling the eggs at precisely 62.5 degrees Celcius (144 degrees F) for, get this, FIFTY minutes.  But I like the chart on the next page which shows what eggs will look like at various temperatures.

The next few pages include several different egg based recipes (including one which is served in a shell and has as its base, maple syrup and whipped cream (which he calls the arpège egg).

Sarah has a particular distaste for any eggs that are not scrambled or omeletted.  So these recipes which are primarily poaching or soft boiling are going to freak her out, but none so much as the Salt Cod Omelet in which “the top will still be a little bit runny”

The neatest recipe is for Arzak Eggs in which you wrap them up in plastic wrap.

The final piece in the issue is by JUN’ICHIRŌ TANIZAKI.  It is a Short story called “The Gourmet Club.”  It’s twenty pages and I’ll review it on its own when I finish it.

And it’s all tied together by:
DAVID REES-Chopstick Humor

I can’t get over how much I enjoyed this magazine.  If they can make me this interested in Ramen I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

I haven’t even mentioned the quality of the magazine iteself.  As with most McSweeney’s stuff, it’s really solid quality–a hard binding (no staples) very thick paper (like in The Believer), and it opens nicely, so you can read both pages at the same time.

And as for the writing itself: I enjoyed little real-people touches like “(Boil the curried cavatelli, drain, and add to the pan with the meat sauce.  (Or if we’re being real about space here, drain the pasta, return it to the pot you boiled it in, then add the sauce to it)” or “the mass in the pan is dark and dense and pastelike but not yet paste”  Or even something like “Oh and this chili-sauce recipe makes more than you need for a few servings, but it lasts almost forever, so no reason to go making it by  the thimbleful”  Plus, of course, there’s all that cursing!