Drinking Vinegar Dreams

If last week's Yuzu and Coconut Chicken Soup post wasn't enough and you're still feeling like shit, then you need to take the next step and get yourself some drinking vinegar. We've currently got two super awesome brands that will help you get through the FLU season, relatively unscathed.  

Pok Pok Som - Made in Portland with organic cane sugar and natural vinegars, this tonic has been used at Andy Ricker's super amazing Pok Pok restaurants since 2005. And although they don't claim that their drinking vinegar has any actual known health benefits, these kinds of solutions have been used as a cure-all since the colonial times. We've got plenty of Tamarind and Apple on hand in the shop, but as of now, we don't sell any online.

Fire Cider: This completely raw and organic medicinal tonic is made up of apple cider vinegar, raw wildflower honey, oranges, lemons, onions, ginger, horseradish, garlic, turmeric and habanero peppers. As you can imagine, this tonic packs quite a punch and it will totally knock whatever cold you have right out of your system. Take a shot straight up, mix in salad dressings, or add to hot toddies for an extra homeopathic beat down. The Flu won't have shit on you once you're breathing that fire.

Buy some [here] and keep the homeopathic dream alive.

Yuzu & Coconut Chicken Soup

Everyone is sick. So disturbingly sick, it's quite possible that chicken noodle soup sales are skyrocketing across the country. Sure, you may reach for this the bland, sodium-heavy soup blend because its flavorless aluminum can is comforting. But really, you can do so much better for yourself. Making soup truly isn't that hard and how good does a spicy, creamy, and citrusy Thai-inspired soup sound? A lot better than some weird canned "flavored" chicken stock studded with floating bits of weird meat and mushy waterlogged noodles, that's for sure. Yuck.  

We think you should totally bypass Campbell's and join us on TEAM REAL FOOD. And after a week spent in cooking schools in Thailand, all I came back with was this lousy NO IT'S AMAZING chicken soup to share with you. The spiciness from the chiles will totally clear your sinuses, the creaminess from the coconut will sooth your throat, and the citrus will pack you full of all that good vitamin c that you need so badly.

Ingredients:

2 carrots, sliced into medallions

1/2 large sweet onion, roughly chopped

1/2 cup straw mushrooms

1 tbsp butter

7 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup lucedio venere black rice, cooked

1 tbsp yuzu juice

juice of 1 lime

1 can of full fat coconut milk

1/2 tbsp galangal

1/2 tbsp ginger, minced

1/2 stalk of lemongrass tied in a knot

2.5 tbsp palm sugar

1 chicken boneless chicken breast, sliced into thin pieces

2 birds eye chiles, bruised and split

1 tbsp cilantro

salt

Instructions

1. In a tall soup pot, melt butter and add onions, carrots, galanga, ginger, lemongrass, and a pinch of salt; cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, and palm sugar and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for 30 minutes or until broth starts to reduce.

2. Add the rice, mushrooms, and the sliced chicken breast and simmer until cooked through. Add the chiles, cilantro, yuzu, and lime and stir. Add salt to taste. Serve immediately