Primrose Madayag Knazan - Lessons In Fusion

Lessons in Fusion

If you like salty buttery popcorn, make it extra extra by adding the briny flavours of furikake and the nuttiness of sesame oil and browned butter. I eat this by the fistful; it is soooo good. Ugh, Im craving it right now.

Furikake Popcorn with Sesame Browned Butter

2 tsp furikake seasoning (or make your own with crushed nori, toasted sesame seeds, and kosher salt)

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sesame oil

cup popcorn kernels

Mix furikake and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a small pot, heat butter on medium heat until it turns brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add sesame oil and 2 popcorn kernels to a heavy-bottomed pot. Set to medium heat. Cover.

When you hear both kernels pop, one after the other, remove pot from heat, remove cover and add the rest of the popcorn kernels.

Cover and place pot back on the hot element. Jiggle the pot back and forth to coat the kernels.

Once the popping starts, listen for it to slow down. Jiggle pot intermittently for kernels to fall to the bottom of pot.

Once the popping slows down and you can hear the popping of individual kernels, lower the heat slightly.

Lift the lid just a bit and place slightly askew to let out steam or youll end up with soggy popcorn.

When 3 seconds pass and theres no more popping, turn
off heat.

Remove lid, wait 10 seconds.

Dump popcorn into a wide bowl. Use a spoon to drizzle butter over popcorn.

Toss the popcorn with a large spoon to coat. Drizzle more butter. Toss again. Repeat until all butter has been added.

Sprinkle the salt and furikake evenly over the popcorn. Toss with the spoon.

Serve while still warm. And be ready to make more because its THAT good.

My girl is going to win. Youll see. I will bet money, like, real money.

I had just stuffed a handful of popcorn into my mouth. I chewed quickly and gulped the salty puffed kernels, chewing too fast to savour the nutty flavour. I carefully wiped the seasoning off my fingers with a napkin before picking up my phone to reply to Lena. Out of habit, I swept my tongue across the front perimeter of my mouth to ensure no bits of sesame seeds or nori were stuck to the front of my teeth before holding the camera lens at eye level and starting to speak.

Where are you going to get real money, Lena? I asked, somewhat smugly to the video image of my BFF. I havent touched cash in almost a year.

Lena rolled her eyes so hard they could have rotated the orientation of the screen.

Youre always such a smartass, Sar, she said with a smirk. You know what I mean. Twenty bucks on Nessa. Those whipped ricotta crostini were epic.

Fine, I agreed. You can transfer it to me right after the show when Lai takes the title. Her bun bo hue blew my mind.

My phone vibrated and started to play the midi theme from an 8-bit video game I love. I got a notification that someone was trying to join our video chat. Typical. Jay was always late. I tapped a button and let him into the chat. His image popped up on the screen next to Lenas, her box shrinking to accommodate his. I placed my phone down on a stack of books on the table, laying it sideways to give their images more space.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, Jay said in his usual quick, clipped notes. Just got home. Whatd I miss?

E-ve-ry-thing! Lena stretched out each syllable. Jay did miss everything. It was the season finale of Cyber Chef after all.

My friends and I were OBSESSED with Cyber Chef since it aired a couple of months into the pandemic. Unable to produce the standard cooking competition television show with on-site cooks creating dishes for a panel of judges, the Food and Drink Channel came up with the idea to hold a virtual competition between food bloggers who never had to leave their homes. FaD Channel had an instant hit on their hands with a version of the show now airing in several countries. With only seven episodes each season and six weeks in between, FaD was churning them out quickly. It was February, and we were already at the end of season three.

Ill recap, I said, turning down the volume on the commercial. For the appetizer round, Nessa made whipped ricotta cheese with blood oranges on toasted baguette. They looked better than Lais salad rolls, but Lai definitely took the entre round with her spicy beef soup. Nessas chicken n waffles looked too basic for

WHAT?! They were, like, sooooo good! Anyway, I dont care if theyre basic, Lena said, arms crossed. Im still making spicy chicken n waffles for dinner tomorrow. That chili marmalade looked ah-may-zing.

Lena was Team Nessa from the beginning. I was Team Lai since episode three when she made turkey larb. I made the Thai meat salad recipe the next day, and I was hooked. Ground turkey with mint, fish sauce, lime juice, and chillies in lettuce wraps. Salty, fresh, and funky. Who knew? The best part of the show was that the links to the recipes and videos were posted on the Cyber Chef website that night. You could even order the ingredients right off their site with just the click of a button. Not that my mom would let me use her credit card. I always texted her a list of the ingredients so she could add it to the family shopping list.

They just started the dessert round, I finished explaining.

Sure, sure, sure, Jay said. Thanks.

Its star-ting! Lena yelled.

We stopped talking as the show returned from the break. I heard a doorbell ring. Not mine. Jay probably ordered pizza again. He always ordered junk food on days he was working at his familys Argentinean cafe. After laying off most of their staff last year, his parents depended on him and his siblings more than ever to carry the slack.

Overhead shots of Lai dredging under-ripe banana slices in a light batter filled the screen.

When our high-definition televisions were taken over by shows featuring streaming videoconference boxes, many of us of the younger generation adapted quickly as we were already using video to talk to friends and family long before the pandemic. I spent the last few months of grade ten learning through group chats and video meetings. I had to teach my parents how to use video meetings for work. Talk shows, news, even reality shows had jumped on the streaming format. Why not cooking?

As I watched Nessa infuse oat milk with Earl Grey to add to frosting, I thought of how I would attempt infusing the bergamot tea flavour. I would grind up half of the tea leaves into powder and mix them into the icing sugar. The frosting would have a stronger Earl Grey flavour and would have pretty specks throughout. There might even be a little bitterness from the straight-up tea leaves, but we like a little bitter with our sweet, right?

This was probably why I was so into Cyber Chef . It piqued my imagination. It also gave me ideas for my own food blog. I started creating my own recipes when I was fourteen. I filed the Earl Grey frosting recipe in the back of my mind to test out later. Hmm, we have butter and vanilla. Ill need Earl Grey tea, icing sugar

Whos winning? my mom asked as she plopped down next to me on the couch. She grabbed a handful of popcorn. My Furikake Popcorn with Sesame Browned Butter was one of her favourites. She loved how the briny saltiness combined with the nuttiness of the sesame browned butter. My mom was my taste tester whenever I would experiment and she wasnt shy about giving me feedback on the many, many, many times I had ended up with a fail.

Lai is deep-frying bananas, I recapped. And Nessa is making London fog macarons.

We watched in silence as my mind whirled. You need colour, Lai! I wanted to shout as she pulled out homemade mango ice cream from the freezer. Yellow on yellow. So boring. As if she heard me, Lai tore up basil leaves and threw them into a pot of boiling sugar. Basil syrup on fried banana and mango, what?!