bloodyoffal – THE RED CELLAR

Hello, my fellow eccentric eaters. ❤ This time around, we (awkwardly) attempt to seduce your lovely eyes with a northern Thai specialty, Khao kan jeen (ข้าวกั๊นจิ๊น). This is a fairly humble looking dish, we must admit, but don’t let that fool you. Like most S.E. Asian food, it’s incredibly fragrant and has a lot of flavor to offer your eager mouths..

What it be? Well, it’s much like a rice dumpling or tamale in spirit. Blood, rice, meat, and aromatics wrapped in a pretty little package. This dish (is a tease) tends to be eaten as a type of appetizer or accompaniment to the main event. Like most blood food, it’s quite location oriented, sadly, and not often found outside of Northern Thailand. It can be made at home with minimal effort, however, so why not have a little adventure? And, and..honestly, who doesn’t love steamy, adorable bloody rice presents?!
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Chapssal-tteok / Chaltteok is a chewy Korean treat made from sweet glutinous rice flour, not unlike Japanese mochi. It’s commonly found with steamed and baked confectionery items in most Asian markets, and for good reason.. Chaltteok is textural hedonism, especially this adaption.

Traditionally, it exists in a fairly glutinous state, with only the additional items providing contrast. This version, however, brings a crispy crust to the texture party (think mochi brownies). L.A. rice cake, as it’s commonly referred to, evolved to suit the ingredients readily available outside of Asia in decades past.

Borne out of necessity and immigrant ingenuity, we now have a treat that’s not only unique, but incredibly unfussy. Even with the addition of blood, it only takes a few minutes to come together. The taste of blood is very light in this version, so feel free to swap more blood in place of milk if you’d like to make it more pronounced.