Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Shrimp paste and fish sauce

My poor gallerist friend. She moved into a nice apartment in St Kilda and has had nothing but trouble. She got permission to hang some of her artwork in the public spaces and two got ripped off the walls and were stolen. Then her storage space got broken into. So much for secure swipe card access into the building.

Her latest gripe has been about her neighbours downstairs. The bloke is British. His wife is Indonesian - and evidently the chef in the household. My friend has been complaining about pungent smells wafting into her apartment. Turns out to be shrimp paste and fish sauce. Even though I don't cook with those ingredients very often, I personally wouldn't have a problem but I'm used to those smells. I find cigarette smoke wafting into my apartment to be more annoying.

Given my friend's German heritage, I suggested she cook sauerkraut to block out the pungent shrimp paste odours in her apartment.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our just moved out mainlander neighbours used to cook something that smelt like what I imagined as pickled cabbage. It was vile but only seeped out onto the landing. I am sure if the range hood fan was used it wouldn't have been a problem.

Victor said...

Ah, duelling cuisines. I love it!

Adaptive Radiation said...

Apartment fans in our complex are useless. I started getting paranoid with my own cooking when I noticed a neighbour had propped open the car park door to air the corridor!

Adaptive Radiation said...

I think Asian cuisines have an advantage on the pungency front.

Anonymous said...

Our fans are quite good, though noisy, and vent outside, which can be a problem for neighbours with a close by open window.

Adaptive Radiation said...

Andrew: Ours merely vents into the cupboard above. Hopeless.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have never thought that they would work well. I think they work by finely filtering the exhaust fan fumes. You may have something historic there, as I think even the cheapest new student apartments vent to the outside. Yes, still staring up, at apartment vents.