Symbiotic Cultures Is Giving Seattle Its First Fermentation Store — With a Noma Pedigree

That is going to be an article a couple of new fermentation store opening quickly known as Symbiotic Cultures, however as a substitute of studying it what you must do is monitor down Michelle Pogostkin’s stand at your nearest farmers market and take a look at certainly one of her vinegars — the one with D’Anjou pear in it, perhaps, or the crimson bell pepper one. These vinegars are so easy and have such an intense depth of taste that you just’ll notice how skinny and boring grocery retailer vinegars are. They flip weeknight salads into dinner party-quality occasion dishes. You might end up taking little sips of pure vinegar, simply to expertise its undiluted energy.

If you happen to haven’t had any of Pogostkin’s merchandise, you might be somewhat hesitant to pay $22 for an 8.5-ounce bottle of vinegar; you is perhaps like, “What would I even do with a jar of parsnip mayacoba bean miso?” You won’t even have heard of garum, a fermented sauce utilized by the Romans and different historic civilizations. Pogostkin and her accomplice in enterprise and life, Jaimon Westing, are hoping that their new brick-and-mortar store — which they plan to open someday this 12 months in Ballard — will serve not simply as a “specialty grocery retailer” for his or her fermentation-centric wares, however as a possibility to teach the general public on what the purpose of a toasted yellow pea shoyu is.

“Everybody loves the flavors,” Pogostkin says, “however lots of people don’t know what to do with them.”

Each Pogostkin and Westing hint their curiosity in ferments again to Noma, the exceptionally hyped Copenhagen restaurant well-known for its Fermentation Lab. Pogostkin labored there after a stint in culinary college satisfied her that restaurant kitchens have been “method too intense for me.” Westing caught the fermentation bug throughout a stint a decade in the past on the acclaimed Lummi Island restaurant Willows Inn, which later closed amid scandal. Noma disciple Blaine Wetzel ran the restaurant as “basically a duplicate and paste of Noma,” Westing says, proper right down to the deal with fermentation.

Symbiotic Cultures

Symbiotic Cultures

As Westing continued to bounce across the Seattle eating scene — he was most lately the pinnacle chef on the now-closed forty ninth Road Beast, the second location of Beast and Cleaver — he labored with Pogostkin on Amino, a wildly ingenious pop-up that centered on fermentation. It served dishes like “salsify sticks,” the place the basis vegetable was cured with spices, poached, then incubated with koji (a mould sometimes used to ferment issues in Asian cuisines), then lastly dried out to offer it the feel of jerky.

That sort of “vegan charcuterie” will probably be bought on the new store, and Amino will generally take over the house within the evenings. Prospects may even be capable to participate in workshops and lessons and see firsthand how the koji fermentation course of works.

“It’s sort of a distinct segment factor and sort of a tough promote generally,” Westing says. “The purpose is to create a group hub that’s primarily based round all this fermentation training and these workshops and stuff.”

The store will promote a variety of vinegar, miso, garum, and different gadgets, lots of that are naturally vegan and gluten-free. The couple plans to take it “one notch additional,” Westing says, by specializing in ready-to-eat condiments that is perhaps somewhat extra approachable than Symbiotic Tradition’s present choices. One instance is a vegan XO-style sauce they improvised lately. First, they turned pumpkin scraps into garum over a interval of six weeks, then added fried shallots, garlic, fermented ramps, and hemp seeds. “So it was like this bizarre sludge-looking paste,” Westing says, “but it surely was simply so intense and filled with umami.”

Westing and Pogostkin hope they will get prospects to purchase not simply certainly one of their odd condiments however “a pantry of flavors,” as Westing places it, that may enliven even essentially the most routine weeknight dinner. (Their merchandise have extraordinarily lengthy shelf lives.)

“It’s actually like educating residence cooks to make meals simpler and extra scrumptious,” Posgostkin says. “These merchandise add a lot depth and taste… they will actually simply change the best way you cook dinner.”

Symbiotic Cultures could be discovered at Seattle farmers markets whereas they work to open a brick-and-mortar retailer. Comply with them on Instagram for updates.