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life & style // no. 9

¢ Bucha Basics: fermentation sensation
¢ Fancy dinners and lots of kombucha

¢ Douglas College New Westminster
campus gym review

..and more

Fancy dinners and lots of kombucha

» Reviews of food at this year’s NASH Convention

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

very year, the Canadian University

Press hosts a journalism conference
(NASH) for students from across the
country. These conferences present
opportunities for aspiring reporters to
learn from professionals while networking
with their peers. I hadn't had the
opportunity to attend NASH in my years
at the paper before, but finally got to go
this January. This year’s NASH took place
in Vancouver at the Marriott Pinnacle
Downtown Hotel, and was hosted by the
University of British Columbia’s student
newspaper, The Ubyssey.

During the convention, we ate a lot of
interesting food and the rest of the Other
Press staff asked me to do reviews; so, here
I go! When we checked in at the hotel, they
had cookies and hot chocolate on top of the
desk. The hot chocolate tasted like tomato
soup with the creamy taste of chocolate
and dipping the cookie in the hot chocolate
made it more delicious.

At the check-in desk of the
convention, the staff were giving cans of

Yerba Mate kombucha to everyone. I drank
most of the flavours and it did not have a
vinegar taste at all, but it has more of an
iced tea taste. The mint flavour has a strong
mint taste and the fruit flavour tastes like
fruit juice.

The first dinner we had was
a buffet and they offered Korean fried
chicken wings which had a grainy texture
and a lot of sauce. It was great when eaten
with the chipotle sauce. The following day,
we had fish with a curry sauce on top and
a coconut rice block. The entire dish was
probably inspired by Malaysian cuisine,

 

but the curry sauce overpowered the fish’s
taste. It was interesting that they shaped
the rice into a block. There was also a
salad dressing that tasted like either Dijon
mustard or horseradish and you could even
eat it with bread.

On day three of the convention,
we had a gala that was like going to the
journalism equivalent of the Golden
Globe Awards. We were treated to chicken
surrounded by the sauce and a block of
cornbread. The skin of the chicken was
crispy and the sauce added flavour to both
the chicken and the cornbread.

Photos by Jerrison Oracion

The cornbread looked and tasted like
either cornbread or mashed potato—it
could’ve been both. If it was mashed potato,
it could've been served ina block as well.
For dessert, we had créme brulé and the
caramelized sugar top was very crunchy and
had a sweet taste, and the cream was soft.

Thad a very fun time at the NASH
Convention this year and it had food that
all of us at the Other Press were talking
about long after we left. Hopefully, I can
go to the convention again next year and
review more food!

‘Bucha Basics: Fermentation sensation

» What to do after you brew

Jacey Gibb
Distribution Manager

 

Welcome to ‘Bucha Basics, where we
cover everything there is to know about
homebrewing kombucha

Ir my previous article, we covered the
initial brewing steps for kombucha and
had just added the SCOBY in the sugar-
tea mixture. However, this is only one leg
of the journey; we still have a ways to go
before you're slinging fresh kombucha to
your loved ones.

Following last time, your pre-
kombucha should have spent the last week
sitting undisturbed in a dark, cool area.
(Jealous!) The one-week timeline is open
for interpretation: if you have a larger,
more active SCOBY, then the fermentation
process will be accelerated by a few days;
asmaller, older SCOBY will need the full
week. The only way to know is by trial and
error, so make a note of how much time was
spent in the primary fermentation phase,
and adjust accordingly for the next batch.

If in the end, your kombucha comes
out bitter and almost vinegary, shorten the
fermentation time. If it’s overly sweet, try
adding a few days. Enjoy the process, as
they say.

Once your ‘buch has finished the
primary fermentation process, it’s onto
the flavouring step. Remove the SCOBY

toa glass bowl with approximately half a
cup of the kombucha. (We'll come back
to this bow] later on.) Pour the rest of the
kombucha into large (at least a few litres)
glass swing-top bottles, leaving about a cup
of space in each. Swing-tops are important
here because they give a bit of leeway
in terms of pressure buildup. I’ve used
non-swing-top bottles at my own risk, but
usually, they don’t carbonate as well. Plus,
there’s a chance they will blow up on you, so
just do some thrift shopping for swing-tops.
Back to the kombucha: I'll cover
flavours in another article, but for now,

I recommend buying a few packages of
frozen fruit and just keeping them in
your freezer. How much you add to each
kombucha depends on your preference and
which fruit, but half a cup in each jar is a
good baseline. There should still be a few
inches of room in each jar from the top.
Return the fruit-filled kombucha
jars to the place where you conducted the
primary fermentation, and leave them
for two to three days. You'll notice some
bubbling, which is completely normal
at this stage. (It’s actually what'll make
kombucha fizzy.) After the time has

 

elapsed, strain the gnarly-looking fruit
bits out, and voila! Your first batch of
kombucha is ready. Pour the liquid into
jars (screw-top is fine at this point) and
pop those puppies in the fridge, since
kombucha is always better chilled.

As for the SCOBY and remaining
liquid, this is the beginning of your next
kombucha batch! I generally have a routine
on the final day of the first fermentation
process, where I brew a new batch of
sugar-tea in the morning, and when I come
home, I’m able to slide the SCOBY and
half cup of kombucha into the sugar-tea.
This way I always have a new batch of
kombucha on the way in case I drink all of
it or something goes wrong with one batch.

My last piece of advice for this stage
of kombucha-making, and I’ve already
mentioned it before but it’s worth
repeating: sanitize everything. From the
jars to their lids to the strainer you use, you
only want the good kind of bacteria in your
kombucha, so be fanatical when it comes
to sanitization.

When all the steps are laid out ina
single article, brewing kombucha might
seem like an intimidating process, but it
truly is a simple activity. The first few brews
might involve a lot of double-checking steps
and measurements, but after those initial
forays, you'll realize how straightforward
and easy it is.