Two doors down from my home sits a crock pot on the front porch and it is plugged into the outside outlet. It smells so damn foul it makes my dog Izzy run away.
The first day I noticed this horrendous odor I had just opened the door to pick up a package UPS had left me on my porch. I came back inside and said to Rick it smells bad out there, like possibly a gas leak or worse. So he goes to the front door and sticks his head out the door.
He says he smells nothing. How can he not smell anything it was so strong and awful?!
I figured his smeller was broken!
That evening when he went for a walk with the dog Rick got a good wiff of this horrible "stuff" on our neighbors porch. He came home and said, "Oh my goodness that is the worst smelling stuff I have ever smelled." No shit sherlock. Good to know your nose is indeed working.
I couldn't imagine how he couldn't smell it before.
Then we began to discuss what could someone possibly be making on their porch and why would they make something that smells so foul?
As the days/weeks go on it just gets stronger and more foul smelling.
Last week (week 3 of this stench) the wind picked up & that got all the neighbors asking one another what was that smell? A sweet woman who I see when I go to my mailbox told me she called the gas company. Her name is pronounced Young but I am sure that is not how it is spelled. (She is Korean) I laughed and said to her, " Young, I believe it is our neighbor, they have a crock pot on their porch and the stench is coming from there." She giggled and said, "Oh no I called the gas company."
The gas company arrived and determined there was no gas leak but the stuff on the neighbors porch was pretty damn stinky the man said. He asked if we knocked on his door.
I told the gas man that our neighbor doesn't answer his door - ever.
We have tried for other reasons before this.
This past Sunday Rick saw the man who lives in the house with the stinky crock pot.
He asked him what it was. He said it was something in Korean food/beverage that has to ferment. Rick asked, "is it like saki?" He said no with his head down and not actually looking at Rick and scurried into his house.
He's a friendly sort isn't he?
I can't fathom eating or drinking anything in the world that smelled this horrendous.
It is so much worse smelling this week.
The young man who lives in this house with the stinky crock pot is pretty much a stealth neighbor. He has lived there for 3 years and I have only seen him 2 times. He only nods and says nothing. So I now have learned he is Korean and makes something stinky to ingest.
I do find it funny that Young, the woman who called the gas company, is also Korean and she is apparently unfamiliar with this stench. She has not lived in this country for a long time so I would assume she would know.
I am on a quest to find out what this is. Curiosity has now taken over.
The only thing I have found online that is stinky is something called kimchi.
But I didn't read where this must sit in a crock pot for weeks on end.
According to Rick he made it sound like it was something you drank.
Kimchi appears to be something you eat. But I don't know that for fact.
Imagine how bad it must smell if he won't put it in his own house?
Then again perhaps we are all going to just blow up from whatever this is brewing on his porch.
You know how they always say on the news after a neighbor has murdered the people in his home, "Oh he was such a nice quiet young man"
Okay this guy may be quiet but he packs a real stink!
My hair dresser is Korean so I am going to ask her Wednesday when I see her.
I am dying of courosity of what this could possibly be.
Any ideas?
16 comments:
Hubby was in the service in Korea and used to talk about kimchi and the smell. (a traditional fermented Korean dish) That just might be what it is!
I'm reading this and wondering why the home owner association hasn't written him up yet. Seems like every person I know who lives in a condo has someone whose duty is to make sure things like this doesn't happen :o/
Cora - who could eat anything that smells that badly?
Bonnie - we don't live in a condo.
With my over-active imagination, I'm afraid that when I was reading this it sounded like a good beginning to a crime novel ... and I was thinking 'body parts'. :D
Angelcel - AAaaah!! That is where my mind has been going too. Creepy isn't it all?
I'm curious too (and like Angelcel, something human or animal rotting was what I was thinking too).
Bonnie, this situation is a good example of why I dislike HOAs! I don't want someone feeling like they have the right to tell me what color I can paint my door, what length to have my grass, when to remove my Christmas lights, or what I can let ferment on my porch.
Sounds like a good dose of bleach in the middle of the night might fix that.
I suppose it could be some form of kimchi, but all the kimchi (a fermented vegetable dish made of cabbage or other veggies) I've had over the years hasn't smelled as foul as you describe. Perhaps Ms Young, your other Korean neighbor could approach him and hint that it's not winning him any friends (although it doesn't seem as if he's worried). If that doesn't work, Mike's approach is always an option ...
Good luck!
Arnebya - I would never call the home owners assoc for something like that anyways. He has every right to stink up the joint. Cars on the lawn on blocks is another story.
Mike - I would never do that to him. Especially now that it's been there for 3 weeks. Besides he may have other bodies inside the home and I don't wish to be one of them.
Bill - I really don't think it's kimchi. I heard today that he said to rick it was korean style rice wine. How Rick even sees him is beyond me. He must have special glasses. It's all so mysterious isn't it?
Don't know why I thought you live in a condo but thought you had a HOA there. Agree with Arnebya that HOA's can be a pain in the ass. Have a friend who had to get rid of the playhouse her dad had made for her when she was a kid. She could have kept it if it was plastic, but because it was made out of wood, they deemed it to be too much like a shed. Though having the Burbs living behind us, there are times I wish we did have an HOA......
Bonnie....we have an HOA but i would never turn him in for this. It would be too petty. And since this is a cultural thing i don't wish to tread on that part of it you know? He doesnt have a messy yard or cars on blocks....just stinking up the joint. :-)
kimchi is fermented cabbage. it is traditionally buried in the ground.
many fermented foods stink pretty much bad while they're fermenting.
ever spent time downwind of a brewery?
flask - it is not kimchi. and yes I have been up wind of a brewery - it doesn't smell good but nothing like this. I also lived in my very early 20's a couple blocks from hammermill paper mill and that smell is far worse than a brewery but yet nothing as bad as this neighbor stench.
this seems to be a stinky fermenting drink.
We live downwind from a dairy, That fermenting silage is disgusting.
I was also thinking body parts at first lol.
Peggy, I am normally with you, I would not want to call out the HOA, however, when something begins impedeing on your ability to sit outside and enjoy the weather (if that were an option) well it does smack of the complaint people had about cigarette smoke. I know, I know, they could at least argue second hand is bad. But what if you claimed it gave you migraines. On a side note it reminds me of the stories I used to hear about when southern African Americans (we were Black then) moved to a tenement up North and began cooking Chitterlings (pronounced: "chitlins")and had the whole complex up at arms.
tina, just came in from a frosty walk with Izzy and as you know it is blustery out there. If you are standing up wind you get a good wiff of this stuff.
I asked his mother who was outside yesterday. I couldn't understand a word she said. I just smiled. So she was no help to me. :-)
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