Sauerkraut, Olives and Marinated Eggs

As Andrew gets older and develops his food habits I have come to realize that Judy and I were inspired when we named him. We had never heard of Andrew Zimmern, of Bizzare Foods, back then, but there must be a connection. It is said that the name Andrew comes from the Greek name, Andreas, and means "man, warrior." However, I think it really means something like "food adventurer." I drove Andrew back to Westwood following New Years and had an opportunity to taste some of his food creations. He is in the process of making sauerkraut. He started with one red cabbage and a bunch of regular cabbages and he has the shredded cabbage fermenting on the top of his refrigerator in some sort of concoction I don't recall. It is all compacted in the bottom of a bucket, pushed down by a large water jug.

Beneath the water jug is a plate about the size of the bucket.

Underneath the plate is the fermenting cabbage. The red coloring is from the one red cabbage that he used.

He scooped up a bowlful that we ate. It still is not completely finished, but it is very, very good. The cabbage is still pretty crunchy and it is starting to develop the sour taste, but is not there yet. The orange bits are carrots.

The last time I was there I was "treated" to thousand year eggs. This time he had eggs sitting on top of the refrigerator in a canning jar mixed with mustard, sugar, peppers, vinegar and some other ingredients. He had hardboiled the eggs and put them in the mixture. They had been sitting there about a week and a half or so.

The eggs looked pretty ordinary.

He cut one in half and I had half and he had the other. The egg white was pretty rubbery. I could taste the ingredients: a slightly sweet taste, a little vinegary and mustardy. Very fun to try.

Finally, we tasted some olives he's been curing. They are olives from Lexi's tree in Berkeley. They are not quite finished curing and still have a slightly bitter taste, but the one I had was very good. I was a little hesitant when he told me he had to scrape a little mold off the top of the liquid, but he assured me that mold is normal and okay.

I'm learning a lot from my son who raised his own chicken, named Plum (after the sauce he planned to eat it with), in order to eat it (see the Omnivore's Dilemma) and who once hated mushrooms and now adores them. I'm looking forward to the final version of the sauerkraut. Andrew indicated he wants to have a whole lamb for a graduation party, which he participates in killing and preparing. Sounds like another food adventure.