Hakusai

I love saying hakusai- it sounds like a samurai war cry or something. It is what we call Napa cabbage, which is confusing because some other green is called napa which is not Napa. My silly daughter is posing with the giant cabbage.

The aunt from the neighboring village came by with some produce from her garden and I'm thinking they must live on a dung heap to grow such gigantic veggies. Even my mom-in-law is not having this much success. This cabbage is used in fresh pickles, the kind that you store in the refrigerator for a few days but can't keep for long. By rubbing the chopped hakusai in salt and draining it, it becomes soft. It is tossed with slivered carrots, daikon radish, konbu kelp, vinegar and sugar and you have a basic pickle that is eaten like a side salad. I didn't make any, but they did and I got to eat it.

I weeded a bit today and then got lost on a nostalgic journey. I discovered some of my old journals from college and pos-college days and I simply had to read through some of it!