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How does this work?

So I cut two chunks off of a flat iron steak. One was marinated/incubated with koji for 4 hours. I chopped off the end of the untreated steak for identification purposes. The stuff looked like baby barf, a viscous liquid filled with rice fragments. Left steak is koji treated. It darkened like it was treated with sugar although the label on the koji had no sugar listed. The taste was sweet too. The promised funk in the meat was barely detectable. Unless I made some big mistake in method or choice of koji (certainly possible), I can't imagine using koji again. I get a much tastier speed-age with @rotuts Red Boat and soy and none of the sweetness.

No photos. Went to a local sports bar where an old friend tends bar. Had a couple of glasses of wine and a pork tenderloin sandwich with tots--all scratch made to order. Fatty, dreadfully unhealthy and delicious. And I have enough leftovers for 2 more meals.

Ah. A hidden vice. 🙂

And there lies a major difference. Most people here shop for vegetables daily and never trouble their fridges. (Anyway, there would be no difficulty in cutting it into sections to refrigerate.)

五仁月饼 (wǔ rén yuè bǐng), five nut mooncake. This one, I would eat.

Maltitol is much better for dogs.

Chicken masala leftovers. As with many complex dishes, this was even better the next day.

Every year I have a few of THESE sent to the US from Malaysia. This year is particularly challenging with new tariff and shipping rules changes. Two years ago every one of them had a finger pressed in - later we learned that was the FDA/USDA? shoving a finger to prove there was no egg yolk inside, which is illegal. I find hers to be gorgeous, interesting but not out there flavors, and actually enjoyable versus the more traditional Cantonese style. [ETA for my poor sentence structure - salted yolk filling is illegal to ship in without prior approval, not shoving a finger in my mooncakes. That's perfectly legal. :)]

That looks great!

Slavery-free would be a more notable advancement for Hershey's. But as for sweeteners, Guittard and Callebaut sugar free both use maltitol.

sure. They are going to notify me when back in stock, I will let you know.

Little potatoes here, too, in this kinda artsy fartsy smoked trout, eggs & keta (salmon roe) with sour cream dressing from Simple: Effortless Food, Big Flavours by Diana Henry I thought this was just delightful in looks and taste. The potatoes, greens and trout are all dressed in a simple vinaigrette with a separate sour cream/Dijon/lemon juice dressing drizzled on top. I used a mix of little red, white and purple potatoes with more arugula and less olive oil than in the recipe.

Lemon and garlic marinated chicken with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli

I’ve never seen anything like that here and the size is almost intimidating. I’d need a much larger refrigerator!! 😜

Fingerling Potato hash- Italian sausage, shisitos, onion, beans

Amazon , of course https://www.amazon.com/s?k=utility+kitchen+towels&crid=3B9V6TG18CBBO&sprefix=%2Caps%2C70&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent there are dozens of offereing . generic . might not be much difference between them aside from price // towel look at the weight of the towels , might be more important and none of them will bleed your trust fund dry . nothing fancy about them . as you wash themn , they get more absorbent but absorbency is not what you are buying them for really . these are the towels used to grab hot trays out of the oven etc.

Thanks, @rotuts. Where do I get these towels (in quantity)?

@TdeV hold it with a ' tea towel ' I have older kitchen towels , that are clean , go through the washer repeatedly but are not impressive to look at after years of use this sort . I keep them forever hold w something like this pay careful attention to where your finger tips are i.e. always behind or to the far side of the blade . should work well.

I was in the market today and looked for the largest Welsh onion I could find. That involved examining around 20 vegetable stalls. The longest was this one at 66 cm / 2 foot, 2 inches. Cost me the equivalent of 27 cents US.

DH has a special blade (used for food) for a battery operated jig saw he uses for cutting open bones (for stock). Like @FlashJack I'd worry about the oxtail sliding around on the table. I've no idea where our vice is, probably left it behind when we moved. I'm going to complain to the farmers if I see them at the market this weekend. Will discuss what I discover.

No direct experience of using it but certainly of consuming it. Shio (しお or 塩) means salt in Japanese. Koji (こうじ or 麹) can be rice, barley or soy beans infected with Aspergillus oryzae. Put the two together and you have shio koji which is indeed used as a tenderiser. It is a paste made from a mixture of rice koji, salt and water. It breaks down protein and starches. It also adds umami to dishes.

Delicious looking waffles @blue_dolphin Another breakfast for me was a slice of sourdough bread fried in olive oil till crunchy with avocado and topped with halloumi.

Nor do I but I'd dearly like one. As a frustrated butcher manque I bought a meat saw: Details here: https://www.mefe.com.au/handsaw-butcher-bone-meat-saw-19-482mm-cam-lock-stainless-steel-frame-with-needle-tip-blade-for-bone-ss-blade-for-softer-meats/ It comes with one blade for flesh and one for bone. Kind of frustrating and I've used it very little. Sawing through a joint that's sliding around the bench or board feels unsafe. It might work well enough on oxtail if the tail was secured in a vise. Is anyone aware of a small band saw that can clamp to a bench? Commercial band saws are expensive behemoths. There must be an alternative but I've never come across one.

There was a local Chef here in LA that did a Koji Pork chop that was super popular at the time. To me it had a bit of a cured / hammy flavor.