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Information about Zha Cai

Zha cai
A bowl of zha cai cut into thick strings
Traditional Chinese:
Simplified Chinese:
Hanyu Pinyin:zhà cài
Zha cai (literally "pressed vegetable") is a type of pickled mustard stem originating from Sichuan, China. Other transliterations might include cha tsai, tsa tsai (Mandarin Chinese); or jar choy, jar choi, ja choi, ja choy, or cha tsoi (Cantonese Chinese). In English, it is commonly known as Sichuan vegetable, Szechwan vegetable, or Chinese pickled vegetable (although the latter term may also refer to any of a number of other Chinese pickles).

The pickle is made from the knobby, fist-sized, swollen green stem of Brassica juncea, subspecies tatsai. The stem is first salted, pressed, and dried before being rubbed with hot chile paste and allowed to ferment in an earthenware jar. This preservation process is similar to that used to produce Korean kimchi.

The taste is a combination of spicy, sour, and salty, while the aroma is similar to sauerkraut with hot chili paste. Its unique texture -- crunchy, yet tender -- can only be vaguely compared to western pickled cucumbers. Zha cai is generally washed prior to use in order to remove the chili paste and excess salt coating the preserved vegetable. Depending on the region and the brand, the flavor can be on the sweet, spicy, salty, or sour side.

Although originating in Sichuan, zha cai is also used frequently in the cuisines of southern China, particularly in a soup made with ground pork and mifen, and also as a condiment added to rice congee. It is generally sliced into thin strips and used in small amounts due to its extreme saltiness, although this saltiness can be tempered somewhat by soaking the strips in water prior to use.

A famous and popular Chinese dish featuring zha cai is "Noodles with Zha Cai and Shredded Pork" (榨菜肉絲麵; zhà cài ròusī miàn). Zha cai is also an ingredient of ci fan tuan, a popular dish in Shanghai cuisine.

In Japan, the pickle is common in Chinese restaurants (though it is usually less spicy, to suit Japanese tastes), and it is transliterated into Japanese as zāsai (katakana: ; kanji: ).

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See also

Traditional Chinese
Child systems Simplified Chinese
Chữ Nôm
Sister systems Hanja, Kanji

ISO 15924 Hant

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Simplified Chinese

Sister systems Kanji, Chữ Nôm

ISO 15924 Hans

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  • **
Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; Traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音
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This page contains Chinese text.
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Standard Mandarin, also known as Modern Standard Chinese
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Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; Traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音
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Cantonese or Yue (粵語) is a major Chinese dialect group or language, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The exact number of Cantonese speakers is unknown due to a lack of statistics and census data.
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This page contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.


Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin
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Pickling, also known as brining or corning, is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine (a solution of salt in water), to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar (acetic acid).
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四川省
Sìchuān Shěng
Abbreviations: 川/?  (Pinyin: Chuān or Shu)

Origin of name
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This page contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
China (Traditional Chinese:
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Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. It is also the system of rules for that practice.

Technically, from a linguistic point of view, it is a mapping from one system of writing into another.
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This page contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.


Standard Mandarin, also known as Modern Standard Chinese
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Cantonese or Yue (粵語) is a major Chinese dialect group or language, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The exact number of Cantonese speakers is unknown due to a lack of statistics and census data.
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B. juncea

Binomial name
Brassica juncea
(L.) Czern.

This article is about the vegetable. For other uses, see mustard.

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The chili pepper, or more simply just "chili", is the fruit of the plants from the Genus Capsicum and the nightshade family, Solanaceae.

The name, which is spelled differently in many regions (chili, chile or chilli
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Fermentation typically refers to the conversion of sugar to alcohol using yeast under anaerobic conditions. A more general definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols or acids.
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Korean cuisine is based on the traditional foods and preparation techniques of Korea. From the complex Korean royal court cuisine to regional specialties and modern fusion cuisine, their ingredients and preparation are richly varied.
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Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of seasoned vegetables, such as the pickled Chinese cabbage.

Kimchi is the most common Korean banchan eaten with rice along with other banchan dishes.
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Sauerkraut is finely sliced cabbage fermented by various lactic acid bacteria including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus.[1][2]
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A pickled cucumber, most often simply called a pickle in the United States and Canada, is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution.

Origin

Cucumbers were probably first pickled 4400 years ago in Mesopotamia.
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Rice noodles are noodles that are made from rice. Their principal ingredients are rice flour and water. However, sometimes other ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are also added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the
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Rice congee is a type of rice porridge that is eaten in many Asian countries. The word congee is possibly derived from the Dravidian word kanji.[1] In some cultures, congee is eaten primarily as a breakfast food or late supper, while in others, it is eaten as a
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Cí fàn tuán (糍飯糰) is a kind of food in Chinese cuisine, originated in Shanghai. In Hong Kong, it is usually known as ci faan (秶飯).
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Shanghai cuisine (上海菜), also known as Hu cai (滬菜, pinyin: hù cài) is a style of Chinese cuisine, and is a popular and celebrated cuisine among the Chinese in China.
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Tianjin preserved vegetable (Chinese: ; pinyin: Tiānjīn dōngcài; literally "Tianjin winter vegetable"; also called Tientsin preserved vegetable or Tianjin preserved cabbage) is a type of pickled Chinese cabbage originating from Tianjin, China.
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Suan cai or Chinese Sauerkraut is a traditional Chinese cuisine vegetable dish used in a variety of ways. It consists of pickled Chinese cabbage. Suan cai is a unique form of pao cai due to the material used and the method of production.
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Pao cai is a type of pickle, usually pickled cabbage, often found in Chinese, and particularly Sichuanese cuisine. It is most common to northern and western China, an unique form of pao cai is called suan cai, which is prominent in Northeast China.
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