(Source: image.baidu.com)  

“To the people foodstuff is all-important.” Unlike today, people in the past only had vegetables from their own farms. That’s why the pickled vegetables were so popular in Nanjing, especially in winter. One kind of cabbage named gao geng bai is most frequently used to make pickled vegetables. During Minor Snow, all families buy vegetables by the danzi (a carrying pole and there are about 100 jin (half kilograms) in every danzi). The vegetables were air dried on a rope or on the ground for several days. After that, they were washed and dried out. Four jin of salt were added per hundred jin of vegetables. After being rubbed softly with salt, the vegetable were put in a big vat and covered with a huge stone. About a week later, the vegetables were taken out and put in a vessel with a narrow mouth and broad belly one by one. The vessel was sealed tightly. In good condition, the pickled vegetables were edible until next summer. There is an old saying about delicious pickled vegetables: “you cannot refuse the vegetable even when your mouth was hit”. There a story in which Song Meiling was deeply impressed by the delicious pickled vegetable of a restaurant in Nanjing. For thousands of years, the people of Nanjing have passed the winter with pickled vegetables cooked in different ways. Nanjing is known for its pickled vegetables.

Source: confucianism.com.cn

Translated by Zhang Min

Editor: Wen Yi