Not all pickled cucumbers are created equal

So today, I made my first attempt (and hopefully success!) at making canned food. More specifically, I made some pickled beets.

Behold the proof:

I came up with snazzy catch phrases, too

Granted, I only made five jars and who knows if they worked out at all.

Nova Scotia has a particular history of canning and pickling and such, as does Canada in general, since we have such a short growing season in most parts of the country. We’re particularly lucky in this area of Nova Scotia to be so abundant. Such thoughts and talk about canning got me wondering if there are any particular pickled foods that the Taiwanese enjoy. Korea has its kimchi, so I set out to find the Taiwanese equivalent. (Though that would be hard to top, given that Korea has a kimchi museum and all, where you can see thousand year-old pickled cabbage.)

Apparently, the Taiwanese like pickled things as well, in particular, a pickled cucumber salad that looks extremely yummy, I must say:

Image taken from eatingchina.com

(Though, from what I understand, the Taiwanese take pride in being called Taiwanese and not Chinese, so the website where I got this photo intrigues me.)

It’s deceptively simple, just involving vegetables, white rice wine, and salt, sugar, and garlic for seasoning. Apparently this is popular – pickled cucumber, I mean. But wait, isn’t that just pickles for us?

Perhaps not. Recipes for said pickled cucumber salad call for oriental cucumbers. What’s the difference? (Dave’s input: “The oriental cucumbers work very, very hard.”)

I didn’t find a specific article explaining the differences. But what I gather from a couple different websites, most of which were trying to sell me said cucumbers, is that oriental cucumbers are thinner, longer, sweeter, and have less seeds. I tried to come up with some sort of innuendo to make that funny, but it’s early, and I’m coming up empty-handed.

Cucumbers aren’t the only things in a pickle in Taiwan. According to this fellow blogger, Taiwanese make a kimchi of their own (though they probably don’t call it that), except it comes out a little milder and sweeter. Having tried kimchi made by some local Koreans here, I’d be happy to try such a thing.

It makes sense that pickled vegetables are popular the world over, since it’s generally a very useful and cost-effective method of preserving food. I wasn’t sure if Taiwan would do this as well, simply because it is a semi-tropical country, and being the little temperate zone girl that I am, I’m quite naive to the food cultures of people who have a longer growing season.

Dave and I have been living on local produce only for about a year now, and so we think we will try to continue the habit in Taiwan, if it’s possible. Look for an entry soon on Taiwanese local foods.  Given that we’ll be living in the capital and cities are usually well stocked, we’ll probably have good luck with that.

Until next time!

A Do-Over: Trading Osaka for Taipei

So, this is what they mean when they say “do-over.”

Let me explain. (This extrapolation will serve double-duty, telling those of you whom I don’t speak to often of my new plans.) My boyfriend, Dave, and I were planning to travel to Japan. More specifically, we were drooling over the prospect of Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan with a reputation for its winning combination of modernity and traditional values, especially its architecture. So excited was I that I even made a blog about it.

Now that blog is null and void, as we have changed our plans and are headed southwest of Japan, bound for Taiwan, aiming at Taipei.

Why the change of heart? Mostly to do with money. Of course money isn’t everything, but sometimes it’s just enough. We found out through several resources that, while we would make more money teaching English in Japan, we wouldn’t get to save as much of it since the cost of living is so high. In Taiwan, we can (hope to) expect the opposite: we will make a bit less money, but we will be able to keep more of it, while simultaneously biting the head off the travel bug we both have.

So our plans are ever changing. Hopefully we won’t find out that Taiwan hosts some local ferocious beasts that only enjoy feasting on Canadians. I can only make so many blogs.

But for now, we are aiming to leave Nova Scotia in the autumn to embark on a ridiculously long flight, predicted at around 25-30 hours. But we hope that it will all be worth it in the end for the experiences we have.

Starting a bit early, am I? Very true. I hope to use this blog to update any friends, family, and friends of friends and family on our developing plans. Every time I get on the phone with my mother, she’s asking if we’re “still travelling to Asia.” And I get on the phone with my mom multiple times a week. Mom, if you’re reading, consider this proof that yes, we are still going.

I also want to use this blog as a storage unit for any relevant information on Taiwan and its culture, especially its art scene. We are crossing our fingers for an awesome arts and music scene in Taipei, and so far, from my research, we might be in luck. But we’ll never know until we get there.

Until next time!