Like wine and cheese, some things get better with age

[delphipsmith]

Just read a fascinating article from the NY Times that explores the opposite end of the food spectrum from an apple fresh off the tree or baby peas fresh off the vine: the foods that are best, or at least interestingly robust, with a bit (in some cases A LOT) of aging. There's even a Japanese mold that appears as a character in a mange series -- who knew???

...noorook, a mold that is known more widely in the West by its Japanese name, koji, as the base for a creamy porridge of fermented grains, stained pink by beets. (The mold appears as a character in the Japanese manga series “Moyasimon,” under its scientific name, Aspergillus oryzae.)...The century-old restaurant Otafuku, in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, specializes in a long-simmered stew called oden, with a base of dashi broth first made in 1945....the sell-by date on goods [is] “kind of a con game,” he said. “We need it because we can’t trust our nose — we’ve lost that language.”

Read the rest ==>

Comments

[hikorichan]

Fermented foods are also supposed to be really good for you! Definitely a lot more common in Asia from my experience. I think we in North America have been conditioned that old = bad (and I don’t just mean with food). Sad.

I love oden. We make it at home in winter, but obviously I lack the ancient unclean pot, lol. I’d love to get my hands on some koji to make amazake (so good!).

Now I am craving kimchi and really old cheese... though, maybe not together...