Sichuan Pickled CabbageRe: [Sca-cooks] A Question

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
> > Could this be what you're thinking of? I believe this made it to last
> > Pennsic with Phlip, and Margali had asked for the recipe, too, but life
> > has, as always, been interesting, and you just reminded me. Once again,
> > from _Florence Lin's Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings, and
> > Breads_,  the One True Chinese Cookbook. Well, my favorite, if perhaps
> > less encyclopedic than some other good ones.
> >
> > "SICHUAN PICKLED CABBAGE
> >
> > Sichuan Pao Cai
>
> Oooh. They are doing catapults and trebuchets at Pennsic now. I wonder
> if this could be used instead of those wimpy tennis balls? :-)

Funny, I heard they'd been experimenting with wieners... are all the
rumors that Stefan is from Vienna untrue? ;  )

Seriously, though, I'm not sure what the source is for this
xenobrassicaophobia. You don't hear stories about birds dropping from
the sky in Korea, do you? At least not from the cabbage fumes? In
sauerkraut-producing areas, however, I have personally witnessed this.
Well, not having performed autopsies or anything I can't be certain of
the cause of death ("Blunt trauma to the head after falling from the sky
after flying over a sauerkraut-producing town or plant" -- "I can't fit
all that in on the little birdy death certificate!" -- "Just fill in,
cause of death: 'complications from sauerkraut fumes'. ")

Is it the burial aspect alleged in kim chee production, but never
actually mentioned in any recipe I've seen? (Commonly buried foods
include apples, potatoes, onions, and anything else stored in a root
cellar, gravlax -- the name translates roughly as "buried salmon", but
people still love a good gloat over those wacky Koreans burying their
kim chee. H**l, some people bury barbecue!) Is it the garlic,
conspicuously absent from the Szechuan cabbage recipe? It surely can't
be the chilies, coming from a Texan.

The best I can figure is that you are referring to the smell, which can
be powerful, but no more so than sauerkraut, especially since kim chee
tends to be eaten at a lower degree of fermentation than some sauerkraut.

What's the deal, Stefan? Were you attacked and traumatized as an infant
in the cradle by a vicious cabbage? [Does anybody else remember Lord
Percy Percy's fear of the ocean in the Blackadder series, and the reason
for it??? I actually know someone who makes this claim about cats,
which, in combination with Percy's dilemma, causes me to break up with
hysterical laughter every time it is mentioned, quite in denial of my
genuine sympathy for my aleurophobic friend.]

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com