[Sca-cooks] tinted ginger
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Tue Feb 24 12:55:48 PST 2009
On Feb 24, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Moramarsh at aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 2/24/2009 1:52:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> adamantius1 at verizon.net writes:
>
>>
>>> Where does the pink color come from in the sushi ginger? Is it added
>>> or is the actual ginger root used for this pink in color?
>>
>> As far as I know, it's somewhat pinkish on the outer surfaces, and
>> then coloring is added to enhance that. I note that the past, oh,
>> five
>> or six times I've eaten sushi the pickled ginger seems to have been
>> made without the pink coloring, so the ginger was mostly sort of
>> cream-
>> colored, with only the faintest of pink tinges. It may be that the
>> sushi market is finally catching up with some of the data
>> available on
>> some of the red food dyes, but either way, I think it's now a trend
>> rather than an isolated phenomenon.
>
<snip>
> I read somewhere in an oriental history book that the ginger was
> tinted red
> (pink) with wine vinegar to bring good luck to you because the
> uncooked fish
> you just ate might be poisonous. Kind of like a good luck charm.
> The ginger
> was given as a gastrointestinal corrective to prevent the
> fermentative and
> irritating conditions of the stomach caused by raw foods with
> questionable
> cleanliness.
I wouldn't rule that out, but the baby ginger is distinctly pinkish on
the outside, as it comes from the ground -- under the dirt, that is...
But yes, red is the happy color all right.
Adamantius
"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's
bellies."
-- Rabbi Israel Salanter
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