Dandelion Pickles for Food n Flix

Heather, of  All Roads Lead to the Kitchen, is the founder of a cool group to which I belong called Food n Flix.    Heather is also hosting this month and chose the movie Tampopo, a Japanese Spaghetti Noodle Western, as the flix portion this month.  Heather explained in her invitation post why she chose this movie from 1985 and also extends invitations to any who would like to join the club.  It is a great club and we love to have new members.

I was on vacation for much of this month.  When I got home from the first vacation I went to the library looking for this movie and found that they did not have it available.  Then I went onto amazon and netflix neither of which had the movie for streaming but Amazon did have the movie for sale.  I ordered it up but not early enough to get it before my next vacation.  I got home in the wee morning hours of Sunday, April 24th, which is my daughter's birthday.  I grabbed some sleep and then prepared to have company over for her birthday dinner.  Yesterday was catch up day.  Laundry, yard work, shopping, etc.  Finally, today (1 day before the deadline) I sat down to watch the movie.

There is no shortage of food in the movie, that's for sure.  It is in Japanese with English subtitles.  It is a spoofy movie which are not my favorite in English and I think that Japanese spoofiness is completely over my head.  It's not that I don't "get" it....I catch most of the jokes and innuendos, in English and this Japanese version, it's just that I don't "get" it.  I don't think it is funny....I don't like the 3 Stooges, I wasn't crazy about Airplane or movies of that sort...It is just not my type of humor, I guess.  Except for Young Frankenstein....I love Young Frankenstein.  Weird, I know.

Anyway the movie would be okay if you liked this type of movie, I guess, but I stopped watching about halfway through until Little Miss awoke from her nap.  I turned it off and had no real compulsion to go back and finish it.

That's okay though because even in the short time I watched it I had a very long list of food:

• Noodle bowl with 3 slices of Pork
• Shinachiku (bamboo shoot)
• Several Noodle Restaurants
• Rice in Nori
• Japanese Pickles
• Seafood Restaurant
• Sole Meuniere
• Consomme
• Quenelle
• Escargot
• Spaghetti Alle Vongole
• Lobster
• Prawns
• Egg
• Whipped Cream
• Pork and Wonton Dumplings
• Boeuf Bourguignon
• Rice Omelet
• Oysters
• Dumpling
• Steamed Buns
• Ice Cream
• Pig Head
• Chicken with feet included
• Snapping Turtle

And I am sure that there was plenty I didn't get written down because it is hard to write and read subtitles at the same time.  And that was only half of the movie!!

I knew right at the beginning what I wanted to make.  When the two cowboys come into Tampopo's Noodle Restaurant, they are not impressed with her Noodle Bowl but they are very impressed with her pickles.  Being as I was short on time, had the baby and didn't want to take her to the grocery store....pickles it was going to be.

Tampopo means Dandelion....hence the name of my pickle. There is no dandelion in them at all.  I found a recipe for Fast Japanese Pickles from The Splendid Table.  I adapted it to make one pint of pickles and used the vegetables I had in my refrigerator, baby carrots and red pepper.  

Dandelion Pickles

adapted from The Splendid Table

3/4 c. rice vinegar

pinch of kosher salt

scant 2 T. sugar

1/4 t. chili paste

1/4 t. grated lemon zest

asst. vegetables of choice to fit into pint jar  (I used baby carrots and red pepper cut into chunks)

Combine vinegar, salt, sugar, chili paste and zest in a small bowl and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Pack vegetables into a pint jar.  Cover with the vinegar mixture and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.  Can be kept in refrigerator for up to two weeks.  Print Recipe