Welcome!
Akitachow is a food site with a dog motif. Why a dog motif? I love dogs* and happen to have had an akita-chow mix named Berry. The “chow” part also refers to the food.
Food people are a bit strange, and this presents itself early on.
As a kid growing up in Queens I took a strong interest in what I later learned was garde manger, the cold kitchen. Cured fish, salads, terrines, appetizers. Those were the kinds of dishes I was attracted to.
Before I was 10 I was in charge of holiday hors d’oeuvres. I pickled and canned my way through high school and college, and cooked nights and weekends during a 15+ year business career. In 2003 the full-time career was given its walking papers in favor of culinary school, food writing and a more modest work situation.
As a project-based business consultant, I have much more time for cooking and writing.
I’m an experimenter when it comes to food. I try to encourage others to cook by feel, or from the heart. Sticking to recipes is fine if you don’t have cooking in your bones and just need to get the job done, but it’s far better to use recipes as a means of developing your ability to put together pleasing flavor combinations — especially if you want to become a great cook.
What is a great cook?
It’s the one whose roast chicken is legendary, or the one who put together a cheese and fruit platter by which you now judge all others.
Figure it this way: any competent cook can produce a fancy dish from a highfalutin cookbook, but it takes talent to coax a great soup from a couple of bones and a few root vegetables.
If you’d like to contact me, I’m at: primerib@akitachow.com
*Yes. I love and have cats.
Matjes:
I’m from Hamburg and love matjes. As you write, its very difficult to find them here for a reasonable price. I used to bring them back from germany in my suitcase. However, we went to Venice, Fl over the Christmas holidays where I met some Germans who told me about some International Food Stores. As I’m always hunting for German food I thought it couldn’t hurt to go for a visit. Both stores are run by Ukrainians but had a good variety of imported goods from western Europe. The best part was that they had matjes filets in oil. The come from the eastern baltic states. I did buy some and they were delicious. They had different brands from Lithuania and Russia but they were as good as from Hamburg. It never occurred to me to look for matjes from the Baltic states. Later I went back for more to take home to Illinois. The price was reasonable. $6.50 for 1kg -2.2lb. packet.
Marcel, thanks for the tip! I will look for them myself and see if I can do mail order. Note that I am going to move your comment and my reply to the herring salad post comment thread.