Fermenting revolution.
Once upon a time there was a middle-aged man whose culinary aptitude was better euphemistically described as “adventurous”.
One of the things he loved to do was ferment perfectly good food into unidentifiable, more potent alternatives with a far smaller audience.
Most of this was conducted under the influence of numerous books on the subject and in particular the works of Sandor Katz a self-described “fermentation revivalist”.
The tool of choice for this culinary transmogrification was a 5-litre stoneware fermentation crock. The advantage of this was the “lip”. A concavity at the crock’s mouth which one to filled with water thus preventing any (potentially harmful) contamination from without whilst still permitting the (potentially explosive) gases, emitted by the food fermenting within, to escape.
Most of the production was run-of-the-mill krauts and kimchi, although occasionally, and much to the lamengt of his poor family there would be keshek el foukara. Also known as Poor Man’s Cheese, it was a Persian dish made from fermented bulgar wheat. The only other things required are water, salt, seasoning and familial tolerance, although the lack of any olfactory senses was a bonus as it’s production entailed an insistent and ungodly, cheesy funk that eventually pervades the entire house.
Thankfully it’s taste was more mild that its scent though there was much rejoicing when it was eventually preserved in jars of olive oil, like spent uranium being encased in concrete.
Listen up.
Few of my possessions get as much use as my Airpod Pros. Still going strong after three years (which is a record for any kind of headphones in our house), I appreciate both the transparency settings (when jogging) and the noise cancelling feature (when doing pretty much anything else).
I’ve only recently realised, however that their output can be customised to your specific hearing requirements via a bespoke audiogram. The easiest way to do this is to take a hearing test with Mimi app, on your phone and the upload the resulting audiogram to your phone (step-by-step tutorials of exactly how to that can be found in this blog).
And hey presto, you have headphone output tailored to your specific needs. Thankfully I have no hearing loss, but do seem to have slightly weaker hearing on my left side for which the headphones are now compensating. I have even read articles in which people experiencing hearing difficulty have used this and the AirPods transparency settings as ersatz hearing aids
Grilled Cheese Cafe
My new favourite local eatery. If you ever find yourself in the mid-west of Hampshire I can not recommend the mac & cheese toastie highly enough, and plenty of on-theme vegan options too.