HOW HAVE I NEVER HAD A CABBAGE ROLL
There's a rightfully beloved Russian restaurant in PDX called Kachka, and when I told Sean, "What I want for my birthday is for you to reserve a table at a place that sounds good," he chose Kachka. Because I'd been there once before with the former friend, and he'd never been properly (he showed up to get me and finish my pressed hen), and it was absolutely the perfect choice. It let me re-write my experience to something that does not carry baggage, and MY GOD THE FOOD.
THE FOOD.
We started with the meat and cheese board, and there was a smoked string cheese that my brain was certain was a meat because of how the strings wrapped. And there were various cured meats and a not-fucking-around spicy mustard, and the restaurant prepares for possible allergies, so they had tiny buckwheat pancakes for me to use instead of bread.
For entrees, Sean ordered the rabbit in a clay plot. I almost ordered it first, but then the server said, "If you want a completely gluten-free meal with no substitutions, the cabbage rolls are totally safe, and it's a pork/beef/lamb mix."
I nearly shouted "YES" because it sounded AMAZING.
Also, I've had rabbit, but I've never had cabbage rolls, and I love to try new foods.
So, the rabbit in the clay pot came out first, and the server brought me thick-sliced roasted potatoes so I could enjoy the full experience of the meal. The course is usually served with potato cakes that include wheat. Sean tried one of my potato slices with the rest of the dish and reported it tastes basically the same.
It was AMAZING, by the way. Just a really well-balanced rabbit stew, basically.
Then my cabbage rolls showed up, and my god. My god. MY. GOD.
Every Christmas, my dad sends a very heavy box of home-canned foods he spends the whole year making in large enough quantities for the family (his dad was one of ten kids; he doesn't send food to everyone, but it's at least 20 people). He has a marinara clam sauce that he does, made with whole clams and homemade tomato juice and lots of spices and mushrooms and it's just real fucking good, okay? When he and I were first figuring our shit out when I met him at 14, he asked if he could make me a birthday dinner, and I said yes. He asked what I wanted. I said pasta. Because I've always loved pasta. The current clam sauce is a descendent of the first sauce he made for the first time he cooked for my birthday.
The cabbage rolls were served in a thick tomato sauce, and the entire dish reminded me wonderfully of my dad's cooking. I nearly cried.
It was astoundingly good.
And I am very glad I thought to myself, "I don't know what the histamine situation at Kachka is gonna be, so I'm gonna take precautions this week" because otherwise I'd be VERY itchy (cured meats, aged cheeses, ground meat, mushrooms, and tomatoes are all high-histamine and they were all parts of our meal).
