Wednesday, April 8, 2009

THE REST OF THE KIMCHI STORY; ODE TO STINKY


On September 28, 2005, I made my first & only batch of Kimchi and posted an accounting here.  Please allow me to update you.  In due time, I bottled up most of the Kimchi & stashed it in the fridge.  MOST.  I ran out of jars so the last bit of it remained in the bottom of the crock.  The crock resided for a couple of years in the bedroom, just sort of lurking over by the closet, snuggled up to miscelaneous piles of STUFF. 
 
Then I acquired a sidekick; Cully.   He has a more discerning nose than I and routed out the crock eventually.  This beautiful big Harsch pickling crock, oozing of extremely fermented garlic & then some, was relegated to the kitchen.  Where it sat for another couple of years.  Yup.  I beg to note that at one point I opened up the water sealed top & tasted the contents.  It was still food, extreme food but food nonetheless. 
 
A few weeks ago eldest daughter Anoush & hubby Yoda were visiting.  We are in "waiting for new grandbaby mode", anticipating a home water birth in our dining room area.  Their arrival was in response to youngest daughter Mollea's contractions, which eventually petered out.  Mollea eventually went home, Anoush & Yoda spent the weekend helping us prepare the house for the big event.  You can never be too ready.
 
We, Anoush & I, detected an icky odor between the fridge & the freezer... the recycling zone.  By Saturday morning it was smelling like a dead mouse.  The little kitty, Qmii, likes to catch mice or play with them to death, and then leave little piles of "mouse parts" arranged to her liking as gifts, or perhaps offerings to the Gods, or just showing off.  So I sucked it up while everyone else was doing the coffee & pastry thing in the living room & pulled the recycling bins out into the open, isolating & sniffing each one.  Nope.  There was a dread-filled anticipation as I cleared the space, not knowing what I would find. 
 
Hah.  A smelly towel lay balled up on the floor, used to wipe up milk or something & then forgotten... stank.  I tossed it out the back door.  Anoush sniffed around & said that wasn't the whole stink, just part of it, so I resumed the search.  Ooh, there on the other side of the fridge, my pickling crock.  I created a batch of Kimchi four and a half years ago, & never completely emptied the crock.  It must have gotten jostled enough to let some air in & oozed a bit of odor.  Rank STENCH, coulda been used as biological warfare.  Anoush dumped it way out back, could maybe have sold it on Craig's List as the perfect weapon of revenge, maybe bait for something... vultures or flies I guess.  ha ha ha
 
As a result that entire area got mopped & the house is breathing a sigh of relief.  I managed to manufacture poop without benefit of an intestine!  Looked like poop, smelled worse.  If the dogs decide to go roll in it, they are never coming back into this house.  Such excitement!