Laiyuan pickled vegetables

The winter in the north is long. Laiyuan entered the winter from the middle of November last year, and the trees didn't spit out new buds until the end of April next year. The cold winter lasted for more than five months. In the past, it was impossible to eat fresh vegetables in winter without a greenhouse. How to survive this long winter has become a serious problem for the people in the mountainous areas who are not rich. Under the pressure of the environment, the people of Laiyuan invented the practice of storing vegetables by pickling. Laiyuan pickles are not like Sichuan pickles or Korean pickles, but have their own unique flavor. There are not only many varieties, but also great differences in taste. A rough inventory shows that there are more than ten kinds of pickled cabbage, various pickled vegetables, rotten pickled vegetables, seasoning vegetables, spicy vegetables, leeks, pickled cucumbers, pickled peppers, sour beans, stinky leeks (also called pressed vegetables) and so on. Among these pickles, pickled white, seasoning and spicy vegetables are the most distinctive. Everything has a material basis, and pickles are no exception. Laiyuan area produces a kind of cabbage with big head, which grows well in dry land. People commonly call it Huibai, the small one weighs at least seven or eight kilograms, and the big one can reach twenty or thirty kilograms. Taking this cabbage as the main raw material, together with ginger and yam (Guizijiang), dripping dew, manna, celery, green pepper, green tomato and other vegetables, chopped and pickled together with ginger, pepper and other condiments, it tastes sour, crisp and delicious. Pickled cabbage in the eastern part of Laiyuan has the most flavor. The seasoning dish is made by blanching the whole Chinese cabbage, mustard and wild stems, adding pepper, salt and other condiments. This dish tastes quite unique, especially in Zoumayi and Nanmazhuang. Although the raw materials of spicy dishes are very common, they are nothing more than white radish, carrot and cabbage. In particular, spicy mustard (equivalent to mustard paste) is used as seasoning, which makes people choke their noses when eating, so there is a very vivid phrase circulating among the people: onion is spicy, garlic is spicy, and mustard is spicy with two tendons (referring to the nose). As for stinky vegetables, it is also necessary to mention that this kind of vegetables is made of bitter vegetables and has a strange smell, but even so, people like to eat stinky tofu, and some people prefer to eat it. All kinds of sauerkraut can be eaten cold, or cooked or stewed with other dishes. It is also a good choice to taste all kinds of pickles in Laiyuan in winter for a change.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)