In the Afterword to Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov wrote that in his books he tried to create an alternate universe “where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” Fermented foods are now a big part of my food world and I remain amazed how different they are from ordinary foods. They are in another universe:
Temperature. To make ordinary food requires high temperatures. You need always be careful that you don’t hurt yourself. Fermented food requires no higher temperature than a hot day.
Deliciousness versus health. With ordinary food there is the tradeoff we are endlessly familiar with: If it tastes good (ice cream, chocolate, cookies) it’s bad for you. If it’s good for you — spinach, carrots, cabbage, brown rice, soy products — it doesn’t taste so great. Anyone who thinks raw food tastes better than cooked food is ignoring history. Whereas fermented food tastes great and is incredibly healthy. (This point has been missed at any number of otherwise great American restaurants, such as Chez Panisse.)
Price. In Berkeley, heirloom tomatoes cost a lot more than ordinary tomatoes. They taste a lot better, too. Perhaps, being organic, they are healthier. The general rule is that better food costs more. An apple costs more than a Coke, etc. Whereas fermented food is often dirt cheap. Kombucha is practically free. For 5 teabags and a cup of sugar, you can make a lot of kombucha. Ordinary milk is cheap but to me at least nutritionally worthless. Whereas yogurt is gold. They cost the same.
Time. Ordinary food takes minutes or no more than an hour or two to make. Fermented food takes somewhere between a day (yogurt) to a month (kombucha) to longer (wine, cheese).
Difficulty. In my experience, it isn’t so easy to prepare a delicious meal if you’re not using fermented food. With fermented food it becomes so much easier. And the result is far healthier, I’m sure.
Need for refrigeration. Fermented food goes bad very slowly at room temperature. Not so ordinary food. I once visited a New York pickle store/factory. No electricity.
You can read a great novel again and again, yes, but not every day. After I read Lolita four or five times, it lost its power over me. But I can happily eat fermented food at every meal, day after day and — judging by other food cultures — year after year.
My one gripe with fermented foods is can’t go to Walmart and try a new one for a buck. Prepared fermented foods in stores cost a premium and are usually weak.
That’s my other one gripe. If you can find it prepared, it’s weak. At elast that’s been my experience with kefir. My mom in law makes some from unpasturized milk and lets if ferment for longer than the store stuff. The mom stuff fixes allergies. The store stuff is fun but no allergy relief.
I wonder if there’s a market for a food product which is just a bite sized sampling of a bunch of available fermented foods?
Darrin, that’s interesting that your mom’s kefir fixes allergies but the store stuff doesn’t.
In Beijing, you can try maybe 20 or 30 fermented foods, various kimchi and pickles, for a buck. They are sold in whatever quantities you want. In Japanese stores, miso is sold in whatever amount you want.
“Big Research” is catching up on bacteria.