Spicy Family Secret

I love vinegar. I love intense spice. Therefore, I love a good pickle. I'm not saying that I don't like sweet pickled items, like oshinko, but when it comes to cukes they've gotta have bite.

The culinary visionary in my family, if there ever was one, was my late Aunt Ellen. Until she passed away, her house was where every family holiday took place and she usually made 80-100% of the food I remember her making pigs in a blanket for appetizers and making sure that I ate some right out of the oven because that's when they were the best. Even on non-holidays when we went there to swim in their pool, I looked forward to investigating the snack drawer to repeatedly find an un-ending supply of Goldfish crackers. And she always had Total cereal in the cupboard; I was always amazed at how one bowl gave you 100% of every mineral and vitamin. Basically, I associated her house with food, and I really love eating.

In my opinion though, her crowning achievement were her home-made garlic pickles. They are probably what's responsible for my love of vinegar and spice in general. Also, they make the Vlasic stork shit his pants and run away in tears.

This actually happened.

It's not just me that likes them, the whole family does, particularly my mother. Over the years, other members of the family have made them as well however my Uncle Jack is probably the only true successor to the production process. Besides the pickles he also makes great pies and coconut cake from scratch, you know... like hand-shaving coconuts and everything. So this past 4th of July when the family gathered at his house for the annual crab feast, I got him to fork over the pickle recipe. I figured it was about time that I do the family a favor and carry on the tradition. Of course, I never got around to making them this summer. I kept saying to myself that I had to go to the farmer's market and buy "special cucumbers" for it, which basically translates into "I'm lazy".

Doctor Strangebrew or: How I Learned To Stop Complaining and Love Tea [part 1]

This morning it just dawned upon me that I could take my Ito En fandom to new heights by spending about two hours looking at their website via the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). They only have archives from 2005-2009, but I went ahead and looked through most of them and jotted down some notes pertaining to how their product lineup has changed over the years.

Technically the first time I became aware of Ito En was in 2006 when I went to Japan for the first time. It was during cherry blossom season and I remember walking around Ueno Park doing some hanami. Up until then I was taking the gaijin approach to eating and was mostly going for stuff I was familiar with, but kept on seeing people drinking this stuff out of green bottles. I was getting thirsty from walking around in the sun all day and when I went to get some lunch I ran into one of the million vending machines selling the stuff. I figured if everyone else in the country was drinking it, I should probably give it a try. I don't even think I knew what it was before then either; I probably assumed it was tea but had no idea what kind. It wasn't until much later that I realized it would be my first bottle of Ito En's flagship beverage: Oi Ocha.

Example of "real" Oi Ocha bottle from Japan

That first taste I took... was completely awful. I'm sure a lot of other Americans have the same reaction too, mainly due to our country's preference to sugary/flavored beverages. Oi Ocha is pure Japanese green tea, no flavor or sugar added, but to me it just tasted like they brewed fresh grass clippings and bottled it. I really had a hard time finishing the entire bottle too, in fact I think I did end up throwing away the last 1/4 of it; it had gotten especially gross after it started to get get warm in the sun, too. It would a long time before I would ever cross paths with Ito En again, or even figure out what it was that I had drank that day in Japan.