*stranglehands*

[lazulisong]

1. Has anybody had Tianjin preserved vegetables? I guess it's some sort of pickled cabbage with salt and garlic? I was intrigued by the pot used to pack it in yesterday but I thought I'd go ask the internet if they liked it before I bought it, hated it, and dumped it out to use the pot as a vase

Comments

[dipping_sauce]

2a. Yes, you can boil water in the microwave; and yes it all tastes the same.

[lazulisong]

....huh.

because if you read tea blogs they act like you're killing babies by doing it.

[dipping_sauce]

YES BUT PEOPLE WHO WRITE TEA BLOGS ARE CRAY-ZAY

[lacewood]

If the Tianjin thing is what I think it is, they're Chinese pickles and they're eaten with porridge/congee because they're really, really salty. If you like those yellow Japanese pickles I can't remember the name of, then they should be fine? They taste sort of similar.

I like them, but I've been eating them since I was a kid and I like salty food, so your mileage might vary. XD (I'd say just don't use the juice they're in, because that would really be a salt overdose)

[lazulisong]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_preserved_vegetable <-- this shit

I like kimchi okay and I like salty foods so I'm willing to spend three bucks to see if I like it.

[lacewood]

Oh, that's not what I was thinking of at all. So much for my opinion, then XD But if you're good with kimchi, it should be worth a shot!

I seem to remember secondary school physics saying that you shouldn't microwave water because there's a chance it'll explode scalding water on you afterwards (something about the water tension breaking, or not) But yeah, taste has nothing to do with it.

[reisha]

there's a small danger of superheating water in a microwave, but I did it all the time and have come to no ill effects, so!

[lazulisong]

well people keep going like, OH MY GOD YOU MICROWAVED WATER FOR YOUR TEA and *scratches head* obviously it tastes nasty if you put the tea bag in the microwave but I can't figure out how microwaving the water makes it taste any different than boiling it on the stove.

[vampireborg]

JSYK, this is the person who has given ME shit for years for making my tea in the microwave. Just saying,

[lazulisong]

okay

in my defense

YOU PUT THE TEABAG IN THE CUP AND NUKE IT

THERE IS NO WAY THAT IS NOT TOTALLY GROSS

[vampireborg]

w/e, it's the only way to get Properly Irish sludge tea.

[lazulisong]

are we even related? were you switched at birth with my real twin?

also, quarters?

[petronia]

The problem with water in the microwave is more mechanical, I think (i.e. it might boil over / react weirdly with your container / etc.)? But don't quote me.

The Tianjin preserved vegetable is a kind of kimchi, basically (this is another; in Shanghai we use that one more, Shanghai cooking being typically milder). It can be used to flavour soups, stir fries, or eaten by itself as a condiment over rice if you don't mind MEGA SODIUM. My one caveat is that I don't know how those containers would do as vases, since they're probably porous on the inside, like earthenware teapots, and you might not be able to get the kimchi smell out by washing. I don't know anyone who's tried. XD;

[firedawn]

This. I also really like it just with straight up white porridge, or stir fried with cabbages.

I would eat this with frying a bit of chopped garlic in a tad of olive oil, adding lots of cabbages, stir frying with a bit of chicken stock or water, and adding the preserved vegetable in the end.

[uminohikari]

Zha cai tastes better! The Tianjin just tastes like salt /o\

[cynic_in_charge]

I love how I was going to make the exact same comment. Tianjin cai is sort of, hmm, salty but not in a way that is acceptably delicious by Chinese standards, I feel like.