Posted
on October 19, 2013
Sweet
and salty daikon radish pickles!
And
lots of them!
Many
Americans think of “pickles” as cucumbers that have been pickled...
Which means they have been preserved in brine and / or vinegar...
Sweet or sour, large or
small, sticky and juicy and always green.
But
of course foods other than cucumbers can be pickled, too!
Olives
are pickled. People eat pickled beets, onion, cauliflower, mushrooms,
tomatoes, peppers, mangos, cabbage, turnips, gooseberries...
Well—just
about any edible plant part can be pickled! And people also pickle
fish, meat, eggs, and even rice. Today's pickle market in Tokyo,
Japan, concentrates on pickled daikon radishes. The pickles are
large, sticky, white blobs that don't make me think “pickle” at
all!
(Get
this: vendors used to sell the bettara dangling from ropes. When
people walked home from the market, they would swing the pickles by
the ropes, calling out to warn others that they had sticky pickles!)
In
the past, vendors knew that the people of Tokyo were getting ready
for a Shinto ceremony to honor the god Ebisu, one of the seven gods
of luck. The Ebisu festival was held on October 20, so the vendors
would set up their wares outside of the shrine gates the day before,
and they would sell people wooden images of Ebisu. Of course, food
vendors would set up there, too—to lure hungry shoppers to purchase
their foods. The fair grew and grew, and now there are between 400
and 500 stalls set up in the streets!
Hopefully,
many of these stalls are selling things other than pickles! I mean,
we can eat only so many pickles in an evening!
Why
does brine and vinegar preserve food?
It
is difficult for bacteria to grow in very salty or acidic solutions,
and that is why from ancient times people have used salt and vinegar
(which is a form of acid) to keep food from going bad. Learn more
about pickled foods here.
Here
is a step-by-step guide to making homemade pickles.
Weird
pickle stuff...
I
am uncertain if all these weird pickle “facts” are actually true.
It would be interesting to dig in and find out, wouldn't it?
- I read that there is a law in Connecticut that a pickle can only be officially called a pickle if it bounces.
- People create and sell Koolickles,which are colorful Kool-Aid pickles!
One
commercial product I think I will skip is pickled pigs' lips! Also
popular with some, but not me, are pickled pigs' feet.
What
do you think of Pickle Sickles? These pickle juice “popsickles”
are supposed to be a craze in Texas.
Dill pickle bread is supposed to be truly yummy for those of us who
like sourdough.
- In the past, pickled food stored up for emergencies was so important on some Pacific islands, a man had to prove worthy of marrying by showing his prospective bride's parents his pickled food inside his banana-leaf-lined sand pits!
I can just imagine that conversation: “May I have the honor of your daughter's hand in marriage?” “Show me your pickle pits!”
Also
on this date:
Teen Read Week (October 13 – 19)
This
year's theme: Seek the Unknown
Plan
Ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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