Eggplant is Thirsty. Let It Drink!
Welcome to [Untitled Food Magazine], an independently owned digital food magazine. Our Thursday editions are where we feature a great new recipe. Tuesday is for features.
IN THIS ISSUE: The plums are in the tincture, the instant ramen is ice-cold, and Cale is drinking coffee on a plane at this very moment.
Appetizers
This Is Just To Say: Update
A hearty thanks to all the FroUFM (Friends of [Untitled Food Magazine]) who have written in with thoughts, tips, and words of encouragement regarding the plum tincture recipe I came across on a bottle of Polmos brand SPIRYTUS REKTYFIKOWANY. I will respond to you all, and hope to publish some of your comments soon, but I’ve been a bit busy lately—you can look forward to at least monthly updates on this front. In the meantime, know this: the plums, they be tincturing. —Amiel
High Tech-noodle-gy
Hot tip about a cold noodle via [Untitled Friend] Helen Rosner: Nissin Foods, the makers of Top Ramen and Cup Noodles, have patented a new dried instant noodle that is rehydrated with cold water—“well-chilled water straight from the refrigerator,” according to one review. Japanese cold noodles, like the elegantly simple zaru soba and the maximalist hiyashi chuka with its toppings of slivered omelette, ham, and tomato, are a real pleasure to eat in the heat. The two flavors of Hiyashi Cup Noodles—spicy kimchi and chicken salt lemon—sound pretty good, too. Released during a record-setting heat wave in Japan, fans seem to be enjoying this stunning advance in noodle-softening technology. One commentator, translated in Japan Up Magazine, put it plainly:
They released this hot-water-banned cold Cup Noodle thing, so I bought it as a joke. This is absolutely going to be inedible, I thought. Then I ate it, and it is way more edible than I expected. If someone working an outdoor job in midsummer ate this, they might find it exquisite. It is an amazing invention.
Sadly, it is only available in Japan at the moment. The innovations coming out of Nissin Foods in the U.S. are limited to American trends like protein-enhanced Cup Noodles and flavors like Spicy Birria Beef. I wasn’t able to find Hiyashi Cup Noodles online without paying more for shipping than the cost of of a cooling bowl of non-instant hiyashi chuka at my local ramen spot—please write in if you spot it at your local Japanese market. —Nozlee
Tasmanian Breville
Greetings from the Vegemite skies. As I write this I am entering hour fifteen of my seventeen-hour voyage to New Zealand on the Australian airline Qantas. So far so good. But at breakfast, when the flight attendant offered me coffee, a strange sight appeared to my bleary eyes. In place of the usual carafes filled from a giant metal urn that allegedly teems with bacteria and years-old residue, I saw atop the cart…a giant French press! Those Ozzie devils have a well-known penchant for hot hot bean water, but I was still surprised at their commitment at 30,000 feet. The in-flight French press holds at least a liter of coffee (though I could not discern the brand, and was too scared to ask the flight attendant its size while I surreptitiously snapped a photo). I am now halfway through the cup, and can report that the coffee does taste better than the usual airplane dregs. One caveat: that’s not saying much. —Cale
Eggplant is Thirsty. Let It Drink!
A new way to cook eggplant
It’s August, and it’s time for eggplant. Which means, per most of the recipes out there, that it’s time to process that eggplant before cooking: big salted planks left to bead liquid onto paper towels, colanders full of cut cubes curing, and more esoteric treatments like soaking batons in salt water.