[Sca-cooks] New 544 CE Chinese Recipes

[Terry Decker]

Taro does have seeds which can be collected when the plant flowers.  There's 
a hybridization project using seed to improve taro cultivars.  You can find 
the manual here, 
http://www.adap.hawaii.edu/adap/Publications/Ireta_pubs/taro_breeding.pdf . 
While they're probably edible, I've never heard of them being used that way.

Indofevillea is a distinct genus of cucurbit.  You can find the botanical 
description for I. khasiana here, 
http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/PDF19/Indofevillea.pdf .  From what I 
can find, most of the members of the genus are classed as rare or 
endangered.  A new species I. jiroi is known from one plant found in 
Myanmar.

Bear


This is so exciting. I have so many questions about your translation!

"Taro seed"- what was the original term? Do you mean Colocasia esculenta? 
Because I grow Colocasia esculenta, and it has no seeds. The parts you eat 
are the root (actually a corm) and the leaves. It's an elephant ear plant.

"Beans" again, what was the original word used? Do you think it means soy 
beans, broad beans, azuki beans, or something else?

"Indofevillea khasiana" I googled this to no avail. Is this "winter 
melon/wax gourd"? or another kind of gourd?

"Sour rice water" could totally be a thing, it's very common in Indian 
cooking all through history too (called kanji, similar to congee) often 
sweetened and spiced like a medieval ginger beer.

"Zongzi" Almost this exact dish is also found in India. I really want to try 
this.

Don't be too quick to dismiss the use of starch in pickle-making. Many 
modern-traditional Korean kimchi recipes use a base of boiled glutinous rice 
flour paste. That method makes the most lovely, crunchy, and long-lasting 
kimchi you've ever eaten.

Can't wait to try these dishes. Thank you so much for doing this work, it's 
really wonderful.

Madhavi
Trimaris