Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
My wife's from Zhejiang province, and so is this can of pickled cabbage that she bought yesterday. I like the label a lot. It's not quite Engrish: of course, we would say "people's mess hall", but the Chinese characters actually denote an extremely basic canteen-like eatery. A mess hall, a canteen, maybe a refectory; very latter-day Maoist. It's a correct translation.
I endorse the pickled cabbage of the Chun'an Qiandaohu Nongxing Food Co., Ltd.. It is by far good enough to be served not only in mess halls.
Comments
Is this suan cai?
Posted by: Roy | July 9, 2011 10:13 AM
This type of suan cai (sour cabbage) is made from a plant called xue cai (snow cabbage) or xue li hong (snow in red).
Posted by: Martin R | July 9, 2011 10:37 AM
Could this be considered a congener of Korean kimchi? The photo of a suan cai soup on the suan chi Wikipedia page seems a tad reminiscent of what is called kimchi jjigae, although I presume the jjigae to be quite a bit more spicy.
Posted by: Bob Carlson | July 9, 2011 4:27 PM
Itt reminds me that in northern Iran they have pickled garlic, a rather acquired taste.
Posted by: Birger Johansson | July 9, 2011 6:26 PM
Very old joke from "Wizard of Id"
Sir Rodney: "People are calling my soldiers "pigs"! What are you going to do about it?"
King: "Close the doors to the messhall when the troops are eating."
Posted by: Birger Johansson | July 9, 2011 7:17 PM
Bob, this stuff is like kimchi only you use a plant with a mild mustardy taste and omit both chili and garlic.
Posted by: Martin R | July 10, 2011 2:29 AM
Of course, Koreans have been putting chili in their kimchi only since chilis were brought to the Old World from the Americas. When I mentioned this to one brother-in-law, he became irate and insisted that Koreans have always had red pepper in their kimchi. According to what I read in a work titled Asia in the Making of Europe, following their discovery by Columbus, capsicums spread like wildfire through the Old World. Therefore, I suppose it is possible that they had reached Korea by 1500.
Posted by: Bob Carlson | July 11, 2011 12:46 PM
Imagine back when the Chinese ate mainly millet and the Italians hadn't even heard of a tomato...
Posted by: Martin R | July 11, 2011 2:05 PM
Indeed, no tomato sauce in Italy seems just as hard to imagine as no red pepper in Korea or Thailand. Does no potatoes in Ireland or Sweden come anywhere close?
Posted by: Bob Carlson | July 12, 2011 8:59 PM
Yes, what currently goes for traditional Swedish cuisine is heavily potato-based. Midsummer's Eve: salted herring, boiled potatoes with dill, and potato-based schnapps. Then drunken fornication with your sister-in-law behind a bush.
Posted by: Martin R | July 13, 2011 2:23 AM
This type of suan cai (sour cabbage) is called xue cai (snow cabbage) or xue li hong (snow in red).
Posted by: Wife | July 13, 2011 2:30 AM
Yes, I should have attributed that info to my excellent source. (-;
Posted by: Martin R | July 13, 2011 2:31 AM
Iranian pickled garlic is delicious. I ate some earlier today.
Although chili peppers come from the Americas, we should not forget that various other kinds of "pepper" are native to the Old World, so while chilis certainly changed the culinary picture, its not as if all food prior to contact with the Americas was bland. An example is "Szechuan pepper" (花椒 - hua jiao) which isn't as piquant as chili pepper but has a fascinating numbing quality.
Posted by: Bill Poser | July 26, 2011 12:34 AM
I had Junior's left-over salad at a Mexican place the other day and there was more black pepper than oil in the dressing. Not bland, but not good either unfortunately.
Posted by: Martin R | July 26, 2011 3:16 AM