january journal: condiments

brainwane asked me to post about "Condiments you like, especially ones that aren't what you ordinarily find on restaurant tables."

I'm not really into condiments, for a few different reasons: I mostly cook for myself and do the adjustments in the kitchen, I prefer meals based on rice to sandwiches, and since my earliest childhood I have distrusted squishy, oozing food. So... sometimes I put Sriracha on things.

If you look at the list of things I might combine while improvising lunch, options become much more interesting. The collection of condiment-like substances stored in the door of my fridge includes sambal oelek and a big Persian bottle of verjuice. Right now I've also got some organic lime juice, and half a Meyer lemon left over from making Moroccan-style salted lemons. Cupboard items I use on a fairly regular basis include dark and light soy sauce, fish sauce, champagne vinegar, Chinese chili paste with soybeans (I like the Lan Chi brand), sesame oil, chili oil, and Chinkiang black vinegar.

The meta-recipe here is probably to fry some garlic, add a vegetable, pick two or three of salty, hot, and acidic, add the appropriate condiment-ish things (sambal oelek is both hot and acidic, so it makes life especially simple), throw in some quinoa or leftover rice, let everything get hot, and add a handful of nuts if the vegetable was squishy.