Makgeolli

On December 25, 2025 8 Comments - Cooking, Fermentation

What is Makgeolli / 막걸리 ?

Makgeolli is a Korean alcohol (or sool 술) made by fermenting rice with a natural starter called nuruk (누룩, sounds like noo-rook). I have heard it called “rice wine”, “rice beer” and “Korean sake” but it has very little in common with any of those. Makgeolli is its own thing. A few good ingredients and a complex, multi-layered, simultaneous fermentation by a large variety of bacteria and yeasts make this a uniquely Korean sool. It has its own distinct flavours, textures and history. It is unlike any other rice ferment.

The recipe below is not the most simple but the preparation and process are fairly straightforward. My goal was to make the recipe easy to follow so I have included lots of pictures and even some sounds.

Important considerations before you start

There are 2 stages to this recipe and, from start to finish, this brew can take anywhere from 3 weeks to a month. In Stage 1, during the first three days or so you will need to stir it up a few times. In Stage 2, you will need to stir it again for a few days after which it is mostly just waiting and tasting occasionally.

Each stage of this recipe takes several hours to prepare. In Stage 2, you will spend 5 hours just washing, soaking and steaming rice. It’s best to plan ahead so you have enough time to get through the process in one shot.

Temperature is important. You will need to find a spot that is room temperature or a bit cooler for fermenting this brew (20-25C). Higher temperatures can cause your brew to ferment too quickly and may cause some off-flavours. Cooler is always better.

Equipment

You will need a glass or pottery container to hold your brew. 8-10 litres is a good size.

***You can find these glass jars at many Asian grocery stores or supermarkets.***

**These ceramic onggi jars are sometimes for sale in Korean grocery stores or markets**.

I think most people use glass. I have ceramic onggi jars around the house so that is what you will see in the pictures but either will get the job done. You will also need a piece of fabric or cheesecloth and an elastic band to cover the top of your jar. This ferment needs to breathe and will release a lot of gas. A fabric cover will let it vent and keep insects and dust out.

You will need a steamer of some kind. Bamboo steamers are cheap and very useful. I have a medium size one with two decks that I will use to steam rice for this recipe. If you have a pot with a stainless steel steamer insert, that will also work. Lastly, you will need a piece of cheesecloth or other fabric big enough to wrap the rice in the steamer.

Ingredients:

There are only 3 ingredients here: rice, water and nuruk.

Nuruk is made by forming moist cakes of grain (usually some combination of wheat and barley and rice) and hanging them in open air to attract wild yeasts, bacteria and mold as they dry. These are then pounded into rough granules to use as a fermenting starter. Bags of this powder can be found at Korean grocers under the english name “Enzyme powder” or just look for the Korean name “누룩” on the bag. There is a picture of a bag of nuruk in the ingredients below.

You can make makgeolli with many different kinds of rice. For this recipe I am using a short grain sweet rice called chapssal (찹쌀). I think that this rice is most likely to make a successful and easy drinking first brew.

Here is what we need:

500 grams sweet rice flour (this is just rice milled into a fine powder)
2 kg sweet rice (chappsal)
2.5 litres filtered or spring water
250 grams nuruk plus another 250ml filtered or spring water to hydrate it

ingredients for making makgeolli — Sweet rice flour, nuruk and sweet rice.

Process:

The recipe is broken into 2 parts. In Stage 1, we will ferment the rice flour for a number of days (around 3). In Stage 2, we will add steamed sweet rice and finish the ferment over the next few weeks. A two stage recipe like this is called “Iyangju”.

Stage 1

rice flour and water — Measure out 250 grams rice flour and 2.5 litres of spring water.

mixing rice flour and water in pot over medium high heat — Combine rice flour with water in a heavy bottom pot and heat on medium-high while stirring constantly. This takes some time to come up to temperature but it is important to keep it moving so that it doesn’t burn. We want this to come up to boiling temperature. It will be thick and steamy when done.

Eventually, as the mixture nears the boiling point, it will get very thick. Once it is very thick, take it off the heat. The video here shows just how thick it should get. This thick rice slurry is called juk (죽), sounds like “jook”.

finished juk for first stage of makgeolli — Transfer the juk to a clean bowl and let it cool down to room temperature (no hotter than 25 celsius). Stir it from time to time to release some heat from the centre. This takes a long time, maybe a few hours. You can speed this up by putting the bowl into an ice bath and stirring until it cools.

weighing nuruk — While the juk is cooling, weigh out 250 grams of nuruk.

nuruk mixed with water — Add 250 ml of spring water and allow it to hydrate. At this point, give the nuruk a good sniff. I think it smells like a dusty antique book that was abandoned in a damp basement for years. If you get any other interesting impressions, please leave them in the comments.

steam sanitizing a clay onggi jar — In this picture I am sanitizing a clay onggi jar with steam. I have these jars around so that’s what I use. Most people will use a glass jar instead (8-10 litre/2 gallon capacity). Whichever container you use, make sure to wash and sanitize it by steaming, boiling or using a food safe brewers sanitizer like Star-san. We are looking to sanitize *not* sterilize so filling your container with boiling water and letting it sit for 10-15 minutes is fine.

mixing nuruk and juk — Once the juk cools to room temp (25C or below), combine it with the hydrated nuruk in a clean bowl.

nuruk and juk after mixing — Mix very well. If you stir long enough, the thick juk will eventually become more liquid making it easier to pour into your container. This can take 5-10 minutes of stirring.

pouring mixture into onggi jar — Pour all of the mixture into your sanitized container.

first stage of makgeolli ready to ferment — It will rest in here for the next few days as the first stage of fermentation gets under way.

I like these clay jars because they don’t allow any light inside. I can keep them anywhere. If you are using a glass jar, try to keep it somewhere dark or cover it with a towel. The yeast and bacteria are happier away from light. ***IMPORTANT:*** place your container somewhere where the temperature is between 20 and 25 celsius. Higher temperatures can result in very fast fermentation and unwanted flavours. Room temperature or a little cooler is ideal. This ferment also needs air so, cover the top of your container with some cloth and seal it with an elastic band to keep out insects and dust. Do not put on a tight lid.

shows need to cover fermenting jar with breathable cover of mesh or cloth — I found this cover at a Korean supermarket. It looks like a mesh shower cap made specifically to fit these jars. Any piece of fabric or towel sealed with an elastic band works just as well.

stirring twice a day — Twice a day, open up the container and give it a good stir, making sure to get all the sludge in the bottom mixed in.

first bubbles show active fermentation — There will probably be a little raft of bubbles starting a day or so into the ferment. These are the first signs of life.

more bubbles the next day — This is after around 2.5 days. My brew is very active with lots of bubbles and a strong sweet scent. I dropped a microphone over the edge and put the cover back on and made a recording. The field recorder and mics are sensitive so they pick up every pop and fizz.

This is the sound of a very active ferment. It sounds almost like running water or something frying in a pan. This level of activity means this needs a little more time. Once it settles down, you can plan to start Stage 2.

This is a day later, about 3.5 days in to Stage 1. You can hear that the activity has slowed down quite a bit compared to the first sound file with just a little fizzing and popping. It is now ready for Stage 2.

Stage 2:

In this stage we will wash, soak, drain, steam and cool our 2kg of sweet rice. And, afterwards, we will add it to our fermenting container.

Wash the rice by hand. Be gentle here. Try not to crush the rice or grind the grains too much. Just gently swish it around with an open hand from bottom to top.

pouring off water while washing rice — You will likely need to wash the rice at least 10 times. Mix it with lots of fresh water, dump out most of water, refill with fresh water and repeat…The goal is to wash it until the water is mostly (like 80%) clear. The first few washes will be very cloudy like this one and then gradually it will clear up with each wash.

clear water after 12 washes — I washed my rice 12 times and this is the last drain. You can see that it is much clearer than the above picture but there is still a little sediment. This is fine.

rice soaking for 3 hours in bowl of fresh water — Cover the washed rice with fresh water and let it soak for at least 3 hours at room temperature.

rinsing rice — After soaking for 3 hours, drain the rice into a big strainer or colander. Rinse it with fresh cold water.

draining rice for makgeolli — Let it drain for around an hour. It will still be damp but not dripping wet.

sample of a bamboo steamer — Prepare your steamer. I will use this double deck bamboo steamer.

lining bamboo steamer with cheese cloth — Whichever steamer you use, line the baskets with a large square of clean fabric or cheesecloth.

filling steamer with rice for makgeolli — Fill with rice. For best steaming, don’t pack them tight right to the top. The rice and steam need a little space to cook properly.

Bring water to a full hard boil before putting the steamer over it.

Once the water is rolling, cover with the steamer.

rice in steamer over pot of boiling water — If all the rice fits in a single steam basket (bigger than mine), set a timer for 40 minutes and let it steam hard. Make sure to start with enough water so that it doesn’t boil dry or check half way through and top it up. If your steamer has 2 decks like mine, set a timer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, switch the top and bottom trays and set a timer for the remaining 20 minutes. Switching the trays will make sure the top and bottom rice steams evenly.

While the rice is steaming, prepare a cooling tray by lining it with a fuzz-free towel or cloth. Wet the cloth in water and squeeze it out as hard as you can so that it is just damp not wet. This will keep the cooling rice from sticking to it. I am using a baking sheet covered with a linen tea towel.

After 40 minutes, remove the basket(s) from the steamer. The rice should be cooked but dry. It will be translucent and have a bouncy texture when you chew it. Korean brewers call this steamed rice “godubap”. It will fuel the fermentation for Stage 2.

finished rice cooling on tray — Empty the the steaming baskets onto the tray and spread the rice out to cool to room temperature. This will happen pretty quickly, 10-15 minutes. Rice will stick to the rice basket cloths..do your best to pick it off by hand but don’t worry if you can’t get it every grain. The rice should not stick to your damp towel cooling tray.

adding steamed rice to the brew container — When the rice has cooled to room temperature, add it to the fermenting container.

It will seem very full and dry but over the next few days the rice will break down and start to liquefy as it ferments.

Stir it very well, seal the top with cloth and elastic and return it to your cool and dark fermenting spot.

Stage 2, Day 1

brew after 1 day — The rice has absorbed almost all of the liquid. It looks just like a pile of cooked rice. Over the next few days, this will change as the rice gets broken down. Listen to this:

It is bubbling and fizzing. Not as much as in the first stage but still sounds pretty active.

It feels just like very wet cooked rice. Continue to stir twice a day…

Stage 2, Day 2

brew on day 2 — The rice looks softer and wetter than the first day.

After stirring, you can see how the rice is starting to breakdown and liquify. It looks like hot oatmeal.

Moderate amount of bubbling…it has a thicker sound to it.

Stage 2, Day 3

brew on day 3. Rice is plump and breaking down — The rice is even more plump and wet. There is a somewhat thinner raft of rice on top and more liquid underneath.

After stirring, it is obvious that the rice has broken down and there is more liquid than solid in the mix. This is the last time we will stir this brew. Clean up the sides up your container as much as possible above the brew. Use a rubber spatula or a damp cloth to give it a wipe. There is an alcohol smell now. I can also taste alcohol on the spoon after stirring.

A steady moderate amount of bubbling.

Now we wait

For the next 2 to 3 weeks or so, open up the jar every few days and listen for activity and monitor any changes on the surface. Smell it and taste it for alcohol strength by sticking a spoon or chopstick into the mix.

The Match Test

By lowering a lit match into your container, you can get a visual cue for how much fermentation is going on. An actively fermenting brew will give off carbon dioxide. This will snuff a match quickly. The brew below is around 10 days into Stage 2. The match test shows that it is still actively producing CO2. The match goes out as soon as it gets past the rim of the jar. Eventually, as fermentation slows, you should be able to lower a match right to the surface without it going out.

This is just a fun measure of how active the fermentation is.

Stage 2: 2 weeks after adding rice

The brew is starting to have a nice boozy sweet smell. There is a thin shiny layer of liquid forming on top of the rice mash.

Stage 2: 14 days after adding steamed rice.

Over the last 2 weeks, the bubbling has become much slower but the brew is still active.

Brew is showing signs of being done

We are now 18 days into Stage 2 (3 weeks total fermentation time measured from the start of Stage 1). The bubbling has practically stopped with very little activity (not enough to even get one bubble during a 10 second sound recording). The brew smells and tastes of alcohol. Compared to a few days ago, there is now a very clear layer of liquid on top.

brew is finished fermenting as indicated by clear layer of liquid on top of rice — In this picture there is a clear glassy layer of liquid above the surface of the rice.

The Match Test Take 2

Unlike the first time we did this, the match stays lit even if I hold it right against the surface of the brew. This is good indication that little to no fermentation is happening and the brew is ready for filtering.

Filtering the brew

This is a very useful tool in the kitchen. Premium kitchen stores sell them but they will probably be cheaper at a restaurant supply shop. This particular strainer is called a “fine mesh chinois”. The mesh is fine enough to strain makgeolli without filtering through a cloth or bag. Cloth filtering works great and is more common. I prefer this just because I have the chinois around and I find it a little less messy.

Before filtering give your brew a good stir to get the sediment off the bottom.

It should have a very creamy texture with little chunks of rice and nuruk suspended inside.

The onggi jar is awkward to work with here so I will dump everything into an open top container first.

straining brew through fine mesh strainer — With my fine strainer over a second clean container, I can begin transferring the brew and slowly filtering it.

Milky liquid and fine sediment will pass through but the heavier, thicker remains will not.

The mesh will eventually clog up so you will need to stir it constantly and gently scrape up the inside walls of the strainer to keep the liquid moving through.

jigemi: the leftover solids from brewing makgeolli — When it gets really thick, you can gently press the contents of the strainer against the sides to squeeze out the last drops. What you are left with is a very damp rice mash called “jigemi”. Most people will toss this out but, if you have a look online you may find uses for this boozy mash. I recently learned that you can make another drink out of this called “moju”. I will probably try this in the future and post up a recipe.

bottling the finished brew — Once the straining is done, transfer your brew to bottles for storage. I recommend plastic soda bottles. They are safer. If your brew is still fermenting it will continue to produce gases which can break a glass bottle if the pressure gets too high. I like to use these plastic Perrier bottles. Before filling each bottle give your brew a good stir. This will keep the sediment even from bottle to bottle.

Mission accomplished. You can drink this right away if you like. Mine will go in the fridge for a few days.

picture shows the separation of clear alcohol and sediment after 48 hours — After a couple of days, the brew is starting to separate into a clear layer on top and a milky layer of sediment on the bottom. It will continue to settle over the next week or so.

This is around 2 weeks after this brew was bottled. There is now a layer of clear liquid above and thick sediment below.

Terminology around nuruk-fermented rice alcohol and how to enjoy your brew:

Depending on a few different factors, there a few different categories of rice alcohol. Without going into a lot of detail, here is a basic list:

Makgeolli: sedimented brew with less than 10% alcohol
Takju: sedimented brew with more than 10% alcohol
Yakju: clarified rice brew (the clear top layer in the above picture)

Our two-stage brew, long-fermented in a cool environment will almost certainly have more than 10% alcohol by volume. This means that it is a “Takju” and I think it is best to drink it as is. Gently turn the bottle over a few times to distribute the sediment and enjoy.

If you leave the bottles to rest, after a week or so, all of the sediment will settle to the bottom and there will be a very clear sediment-free layer on top. This is “Yakju”. You can pour it off slowly so as not to disturb the sediment and enjoy just the clear alcohol on it’s own. You can also pour it off, rebottle only the clear layer and age it indefinitely. It will change and develop new flavours over time.

If you pour off the Yakju, and dilute the sediment with fresh water, you will end up with a weaker drink in the under 10% alcohol range: this is Makgeolli. OR..you can also dilute your Takju with water to lighten it up and bring the alcohol concentration down…this would also be Makgeolli.

If I want something really refreshing and thirst quenching to drink with spicy food, I will often dilute my Takju with sparkling water. The brew is lighter and slightly fizzy and the flavours open up in a little different way…similar to the way an ice cube or a little water affects Scotch whiskey.

Commercial Makgeolli:

You have probably seen plastic bottles of commercial makgeolli at your local liquor store or in convenience stores in Korea. This cheap and tasty drink has it’s own charm but it does not have that much in common with a traditionally fermented brew like we have made. This commercial Makgeolli is usually fizzy, watery, has very low alcohol content and it surprisingly sweet, almost like a soda. It is sweetened with aspartame to make it more palatable and to prevent further fermentation in the bottle (and pressure related accidents while it is transported).

In contrast, our home brew has little to no fizz, a much higher alcohol content and is not especially sweet. In fact, it will lean closer to the dry and tart side with complex rice-y, boozy flavours and a thick creamy mouthfeel. You will taste and feel the alcohol very quickly. It is delicious! And, it is unlike anything else. Korean rice alcohol is entirely it’s own thing and it is next to impossible to compare it to any other brew.

The home made brew is thick, creamy, tart and strong.

Commercial brewers making traditional Korean sool

Over the last 5 years or so, some commercial brewers of traditional Korean sool have emerged. The first in the US was Hana Makgeolli, founded by Alice Jun. Alice and her team have produced a range of small-batch rice brews ranging from traditional Takju to, most recently, a potent full-strength Soju 60. I have linked a video below of Alice explaining the range of traditional Korean sools as well as Hana Makgeolli’s current offerings.

It was probably close to 10 years ago that I had the pleasure of meeting Alice in New York City when she was still developing recipes in her Brooklyn apartment. I got to sample an early brew “under the table” over Poke-bowls at a Manhattan SunriseMart. To this day, it is still one of my best New York experiences! Alice is one of the loveliest and most generous people I have met and she has a deep understanding of Korean rice alcohol, learning first-hand as a child helping her dad with traditional home brews. I highly recommend having a look at the above video for a comprehensive Sool School and if you are lucky enough to be able to try Alice’s brews in person, don’t hesitate to visit her shop and brewery.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them below. If you try this recipe and like the results, please let me know. I hope you enjoy making your own rice brew as much as I do. Cheers! : )

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cooking, Korean

Winter Solstice

On December 21, 2025 2 Comments - Photography, Toronto

The shortest day

December 21st is the shortest day of the year. Daylight shrinks to barely 9 hours with sunrise just before 8 am and sunset just before 5 pm. I know I am not the only one who feels the weight of this time of year. Many people I know seem to enter some kind of seasonal depression, sometimes (but not always) tempered by Christmas festivities.

Toronto is a lovely city for the three warmer seasons but not so much in winter. From now until spring the sun rarely shines and the occasional bright morning inevitably turns to gloom by the afternoon. Most years, there is not much snow in the city and winter temperatures tend to fluctuate above and below the freezing point. Snow quickly melts into salty, grimy pools that later freeze into sheer ice. Sometime in the new year, Toronto enters a deep freeze that lasts anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months. These cold days can bring sunlight but it doesn’t last for long and the city soon sinks back into murky grey.

When traveling, sometimes people ask me what Toronto winter is like. I am sure they are imagining crisp cold air and bright blue skies meeting a sparkling white horizon. I am always a little sad to tell them that, at least where I live, it is mostly salt crusted dirty streets, grey days and long dark nights.

orchid blooming during winter solstice — Blooming White Orchid on winter solstice

Toronto bank towers in black and white — King Street Bank Towers

Winter Blues (except when it snows)

Even though I live in this colourless city, I can still enjoy winter. The cold doesn’t bother me, and of all the natural phenomenon in the world, I am always deeply moved by the magic of a big snowfall. Every time. I love the way it mutes the city noise and how it transforms the urban landscape into something soft and beautiful. I can’t think of too many things that make me happier. Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually last very long before the next melt cycle.

Deep in the typical gloom of Toronto winter, I have a hard time seeing anything that I want to photograph and writing becomes a lot more difficult. Creativity shrinks back. I tend to retreat into reading books, watching films, listening to and learning music and language studies. A lot of input, not much output.

From spring to fall I was writing on here at least once every two weeks and I had so many pictures that I sometimes had trouble organizing them. Lately I have been doing less creative writing. And I have not wanted to pick up my camera as much but, I have taken a few pictures that I like. I will post them up here with no other purpose than sharing a few good, mostly unrelated, shots.

Rosedale station at night with strong diffusion filter — Rosedale Station from a failed photo project involving strong diffusion filters. I especially like the green lights on the turnstiles inside.

concrete subway station at Downsview Park — Downsview Park Station: All concrete grey on grey. On my way to get yeast to ferment pear alcohol. I shot this in black and white but a colour photo would look about the same here.

2025 in review

For a long time, I had planned to take a year off from work and 2025 was it. Originally I thought I would get right into planning my next career move but, instead, I was flooded by the desire to create and to learn. Not in any organized way…just to follow threads as they appeared and to accept and act on ideas and inspiration without any resistance and with the least amount of judgement possible. The result was a ton of writing.

This website started as a travel diary for an early spring trip to Japan and Korea that I took with my daughter. Sick of all the trash and advertising on social media, I thought this would be a fun alternative. In the end, it became something I loved doing and something I am quite proud of. I still revisit the trip quite often. The photos are good and the articles are fun and pretty well written.

When I got back, I wanted to keep writing and TigerSalad became a place for me to document photo projects, recipes, articles, ideas and sounds…all things I used to dump (in some compromised way) onto social media. On here, I rarely involve my phone and I can write as much or as little as I like. To date, I have written over 70 articles.

Surprisingly, TigerSalad has done ok. I get a decent amount of traffic and I know that the people who are visiting are interested in what I am doing rather than getting directed here by some stupid algorithm . I don’t link ads or pop-ups and so, I make zero income from it. Fine with me! Instead, I have a discreet donation link where people can send me some dollars which I put into website maintenance if they enjoy the articles. Even though I had zero expectations, a few generous amounts came through in the first few days. Thank you!!

On top of those 70 or so website entries, I have been doing other writing on the side. I have started some long form fiction (in other words, a book). Whether or not it ever gets finished or sees the light of day is not so important to me. I just enjoy writing it and learning about the inner lives of my characters as they unfold. I like the people in the story. They make me laugh and I care about them and I want to know what happens next. That is enough for now.

In the last few months, I have also picked up a few paid jobs doing copy writing: captions for social media projects and website copy. I really enjoy this work. I will labour for hours choosing the sharpest word, the most effective sentence, the most concise and economical phrase where necessary. To me it is like solving a puzzle. I love it. And, I do it all facing my big windows with a hot coffee and a sleeping cat on my desk. It is like a dream and I wish I could keep doing it. Let’s see what happens…

Varsity stadium sign toronto — From a series I planned around black and white photos with strong backlight and hard contrast. This is the sign outside Varsity Stadium on Bloor Street

Danforth and Braodview Streets at sundown — Danforth and Broadview shooting into the sun.

ROM at sundown — ROM with strong shadows and contrast. The little people give scale to the huge crystal building. The sunbeams bouncing and reflecting off the buildings is beautiful.

Bloor Street with harsh backlight — The old Hudson’s Bay Company on Bloor. Hard light and contrast. I like the flag shadows.

Backlit highrises and concrete elevated subway tunnel. That tunnel looks so Eastern Europe to me.

Christmas is coming…

I have a few close friends who are sincere Christians with a strong connection to their church and community. Christmas has a deep spiritual meaning for them. It is a time for celebration. The effort and joy that they put into this season is awe inspiring. It is fun to witness and some of their energy definitely rubs off on me.

As for me, I was mostly raised without any religion. Czechs, along with Japanese and Chinese are among the worlds least religious people. My family never went to church and religion was never a topic of conversation. Christmas was important but it centered entirely around family.

When I was very young, my parents (barely 20 years old) were new immigrants to Canada with no family here at all. I don’t remember too much of those days. I think our Christmases were probably more like house parties with lots of music, drinking and smoking with me sleeping in a pile of fur coats on a bed somewhere. But, over the next few years, my family began to grow as my parents began sponsoring their brothers and sisters to move to Canada.

At some point in my early adolescence, our family was suddenly huge. Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, everyone gathered at our house for the Christmas season. For around a week between Christmas and New Years Day, our house was packed with aunties cooking and baking and uncles smoking and drinking and talking non stop. Food was everywhere. People slept over and stayed for days. One meal would blend into the next. Endless packs of cigarettes would burn to ash over hours and hours of card playing and laughter. To me, it was heaven. I can’t remember a time when I felt more warmth and happiness.

Of course, as years pass, time takes its toll and my once huge family Christmas has all but disappeared. Death, disease, divorce and relocation for work have all played a part in chipping away at the giant celebration of the past. These days, Christmas is always coloured with a little sadness. I miss that huge family made up of the people I have loved the most. I especially miss my uncles who have died, the ones who worked awful jobs and had nothing, but would still manage to tuck a few hundred dollar bills into my pocket every Christmas. XOXOXOXO.

These days, my family is very small. Still… we have our Christmas rituals, we eat our turkey dinner, exchange a few gifts and enjoy the love and warmth of the season. We are lucky to be able to do so. Although Christmas arrives with a little sadness and a little loneliness, I still look forward to it and feel fortunate to spend the hours with people that I love. Merry Christmas!

Best Christmas Song: “The Christmas Song” Nat King Cole (chestnuts roasting on an open fire..)

Best Christmas Food: Turkey (brined)! Stuffing (must have bacon or sausage)! Cranberries!

Best Christmas Movie: “2046” Wong Kar Wai. Not exactly a Christmas movie but a lot of its key moments happen at Christmas. It is really my favourite movie. I watch it once a year at night on the 25th.

OCAD and AGO at dusk — AGO blue building and OCAD university at dusk with blue sky

Upcoming Projects

Although I haven’t posted up anything lately, I have been busy photographing and documenting a few fermentation projects. My apartment is cool in winter so it is a perfect time for long ferments. I have a batch of 2 stage makgeolli (Korean rice alcohol) that is almost done. A detailed recipe with tons of pictures and sounds will go up soon. I will also be fermenting pears, first into alcohol and then into vinegar. This will take well over a month but it is in the works.

TigerSalad has a fair amount of recipes and I use them all the time. Originally, I had recipes scribbled down all over the place on loose paper and the backs of receipts etc… I started putting the recipes on here because I wanted to make an online cookbook for myself so I can have everything in one place. I really dislike cooking from videos, and most online recipes have too much filler and way too many ads and pop ups. My recipes are designed to be clear and logical, with lots of photos to make even complicated things doable. Try them…they work.

University of Toronto at night — Foggy autumn night University of Toronto campus

Remembrance Day wreaths at U of T — Two old-timers looking at Remembrance Day wreaths U of T

Man walking dog on rainy night in Philosophers Walk toronto — Man walking his dog in the rain Philosophers Walk

Winter Photos

I hope it snows soon. Big snow. Lots of it. I am looking forward to getting out in the city with my camera and capturing Toronto in some of its handsome winter moments. Like this one in St James Town last year:

Big City Winter Survival Tips:

1-Go outside! It’s not as cold as you think and the more you go out the more you will get used to it. There is lots of oxygen and less pollution in heavy cold winter air. It is energizing.

2-Don’t try to look cool or fashionable in winter. Just dress up in warm layers of clothes. Unless you are very wealthy, it is hard to be warm and look cool at the same time. Just give up!

Happy holidays from TigerSalad! See you soon with a home made booze recipe just in time for New Years!

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please leave them below. I look forward to hearing from you. It is the only way I know you have been here…other than vague stats from Google : )

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

photography, toronto

Autumn Cemetery

On November 4, 2025 6 Comments - Photography, Toronto

Toronto Cemeteries:

I am lucky to live within walking distance of 3 beautiful old cemeteries: St James Cemetery, The Toronto Necropolis and Mount Pleasant Cemetery. I spend a fair amount of time in these places. Here, gigantic old trees grow to their full natural forms, never chopped and deformed to make way for electrical wires. There is no constant hum and noise of traffic. The are only ever a few people and they usually seem quiet and contemplative. Even their dogs don’t bark. I took these photos over a few autumn days walking through St James and Mount Pleasant cemeteries.

Orange, red, yellow and purple leaves together in St James Cemetery — I didn’t manipulate the colours at all. This is natural saturation from the light just before sunset.

Death (and Beyond?)

As a child, I remember finding dead birds in the grass under big windows and examining their intact but unmoving bodies. I thought: “It looks like a sleeping bird but, something is missing…it’s not asleep and somehow, it’s not really a bird at all anymore.” It wasn’t something I could see…but something I could sense. A cold absence. Going to an open casket funeral some years later, I had the same feeling while peering over the heavily made-up face of the old woman in the box: this is not really a person anymore.

Growing up, I never lost my curiosity about death and I paid attention to cultural and religious differences around the subject. I had so many questions. Where do we go, if anywhere? Do we return in a new form? Do we really face almighty judgement for our behaviour during our short time here? If death separates us, will we meet again? Do we just say these things to comfort ourselves when we lose someone or, do we really believe them? Maybe living is just like a light switch: Now it’s on…you are alive. Now it’s off…darkness…forever. I guess only the dead have all the answers and, at least in my life, they remain silent.

Autumn foliage on display in St James Cemetery Toronto

What I know for certain is that the dead can live on in our thoughts, in our memories. They can be present in that way. When I visit a cemetery, I am always mindful of the fact that I am walking among graves and not in a city park. And even though the dead are silent, I feel like I am meeting them in some way. Reading their names out loud and calculating the bracket of time stamped on their headstones I wonder what they might have done while they were still here. Who did you love and what did you care about? How did you manage to grow so old? And why did you die so young?

Remains:

Long ago, reading a Rohinton Mistry novel, I discovered the Zoroastrian practice of laying the dead out on a Tower of Silence for the vultures to eat the flesh from the bones. The idea seemed shocking at first but later, I learned that this custom is a final act of charity: to feed the flesh to the birds rather than letting the body go to waste. The living help the dead to perform a final act of good will. In the West, this might seem like an objectionable practice. But, the Zoroastrians would probably think that incinerating a body in a gas oven and placing the ashes in a jar to display is strange and wasteful. There are so many different ways that the living dispose of the dead. Religious or cultural beliefs usually dictate the method, but more recently, economics of space and cost are influential as well.

Sunlight shining through orange leaves in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in autumn

Bright orange leaves on the ground around tombstones in St James Cemetery

These days cremation seems to be most common method while certain religions still insist on whole body burial. “Green” burials (where shrouded bodies are interred to decompose in a natural area) are becoming increasingly popular. Burial at sea for servicemen and civilians still happens. A few small areas of the world still practice mummification. In Tibet, because there is only rock underfoot, the dead are left on a high peak to decompose or be eaten in what is known as a sky burial. Similarly, indigenous tribes in parts of British Columbia and the US southwest used to perform tree burials, where a body wrapped in a shroud gets placed in the high crook of a tree for nature to use.

Large monument in Mount Pleasant Cemetery

About Cremation

I have noticed quite a few job openings for crematory workers lately. The pay is high and there are almost no requirements other than being able to lift heavy things (one end of a corpse I assume). Not knowing much about the process of cremation, I did some research.

As expected, bodies are placed in gas ovens and burned at high temperatures over several hours. But not everything turns to ash. Bone fragments remain, and these get put into a “cremulator“, which works much like a coffee grinder. Bone fragments go into a hopper, get ground up and deposited into in a paper bag below. The bag of ash and powdered bone is sealed, labeled and placed in a container to be returned to the family. Artificial joints made of metal remain intact after cremation and, if the family does not request to have these parts returned, the metal is recycled and repurposed.

In Japan, cremation is handled a little differently in that the bone fragments are not ground up. Instead, they are collected and placed into an urn which ends up in a family grave or mausoleum. Family members use ceremonial chopsticks to pick bone fragments out of the ashes starting with the legs and ending with the skull. This way, the person will not be assembled upside-down in the urn. It is interesting to imagine of the remains getting handled directly by the family, something that seems so unthinkable in the west.

St James Cemetery Toronto in autumn with orange and yellow leaves

Mount Pleasant cemetery with red leaves in fall

Traveling

While traveling in different parts of the world, I often wonder if it is ok to photograph cemeteries. I visit them everywhere I go but I never take pictures if there is a ceremony going on or if any family is around visiting the dead. Once, I discovered a beautiful cemetery on a steep hill in Kyoto. There were several families washing graves and leaving offerings so I didn’t take any pictures. But, I was moved by the devotion with which the visitors cared for the graves. It was my first time seeing anything like this.

I have pictures of old cemeteries in Zizkov, Praha, where my mom grew up, ones she would have passed by everyday. They probably look exactly the same now as they did back then. My grandmother is in there somewhere although I haven’t been back since before her death, around the time of Covid. I look forward to visiting her sometime soon.

Gwangju

After reading Han Kang’s Human Acts (a deeply affecting book set around the days of the Gwangju Uprising and massacre in 1980), I felt a need to travel to Gwangju on my next trip to Korea in 2017. On a bright and chilly autumn morning, I got on a bus and arrived at the Gwangju Memorial.

Other than a few attendants at the museum, I was the only person there. It was a truly beautiful place, especially on that day, flooded with sunlight and the colours of fall. After a walk through the memorial and the museum, I wandered on the footpaths which eventually opened up onto an old cemetery in the hills. It was breathtaking: the silence, the beauty. There was nobody else there so I took photos, two of which are below. I remember the distinct feeling of not being alone even though I was the only person in this huge open space.

Just west of the May 18th Memorial, Mudeung Cemetery, Gwangju, 2017

We don’t talk about death much around here….

I think about death pretty often. And the older I get, the more I think about it. Never in a fearful or sad way…maybe more like a calm acknowledgement that it is inevitable. I am much farther from the starting line than I am to the finish line, and people have been disappearing from my life for years. More than half of the family members I knew growing up are now gone. Childhood friends have disappeared. Even people I have known who were much much younger than I am have had their lives cut surprisingly short.

Death is always accompanied by the deep sadness of those left behind. But, I think it is also an important and positive reminder that you….you are still alive. Whenever I am walking through a cemetery, I am reminded that I will be joining the club in the not so distant future but, more importantly, that I am still alive right now. It’s a potent warning that time is short and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Every minute you are alive is another minute you are closer to death. Really. No exceptions.

As to what happens after our heart stops and we draw our last breath…who can say? I do know that when I am in a cemetery, even though I might be the only person walking among the acres of trees and headstones, it is impossible to feel lonely there. I just never do. Are the dead keeping me company? Are they watching from somewhere?

We don’t talk about death so much in the West so I hope this doesn’t come across as something too uncomfortable or sad. I would be happy if it was just the opposite. Every morning, I wake up feeling genuinely excited to start another day. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I open my eyes and I think: “Ah…I am still here. Thank you!” Every day.

I like this picture because you can see the highrises of St James Town just across the street from the west fence of St James Cemetery.

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