Chinese Pickled Vegetables

Chinese Pickled Vegetables and the foods I experienced in China!  

I’m super excited to be able to share highlights of my recent trip to China with all of you. . . the food, people, and culture were amazing to experience so with that being said we are jumping over to the beautiful land of China for the next few weeks for our Culinary Journey Around the World! 

Traditionally, the at home Chinese meal always includes a little something pickled on the table.  So, I thought we’d better start off our recipes with some Chinese Pickled Vegetables.  

This common Chinese side dish is normally served as a pre-meal appetizer.  The Chinese use pickling and brining to preserve perishable food items. 

I used white and orange petite carrots with some petite cucumbers all purchased at Trader Joes.  Ohhhh and the Rice Vinegar was from TJ’s too!  Then it’s just a bit of sugar and some salt and that’s it!!  So simple and so good. 

Now, let’s get to talking about my trip to China and the food.  The photo’s below were taken in a providence called Yantai, it’s a smaller (only 6.5 million compared to Beijing at 33 million) coastal city.  The city is located in the northeast of the Shandong Province.  It’s bordered by both the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, and lies across from South Korea and Japan.  There is evidence suggests Yantai existed as a city as long as 10,000 years ago!

Pretty incredible, right?!

You’ve just gotta go to China with an open mind around the food and even play with getting a little adventurous while you’re at it!!  We tasted everything from a sit down sushi restaurant, local family style, the open market, and street food too.  I loved it.  It was such a fun adventure! 

These oysters on the half shell were simply amazing!  They had rice noodles on them with garlic and chives.  I could have eaten them all myself. . . seriously!  The seafood in Yantai is caught fresh daily and the people I was with assured me I’d be just fine. I’ve heard that eating street food in smaller cities is probably not such a great idea but in the large areas it’s said to be pretty safe.

This a photo of the seafood isle at the open market. . .   

We enjoyed the most amazing sushi at the Zhen Chinese restaurant in the Wanda Vista Hotel, Yantai in Shandong Province, China.  The food just kept on coming and it was all exquisite (possibly excepting the sea urchin but, I did try it)!  

I was a newbie to the Hot Pots style restaurant. . . it was super cool!  Being new I went for the mildest hotness on hot pot broth and it’s a good thing!!  They do not mess around with the heat index in the spiciness of foods in China.  Start with meats and the items that take longer to cook and save the vegetables for last because the hot pepper oils LOVE to attach themselves to the greens and then it’s a whole new level of spicy-hot!  Eating meat again will cool off your mouth and apparently the key to digesting spicy hot foods is to eat ice cream right after and then the cream coats the spicy. . .  it’ll make it’s route SO much happier. 🙂 

(hope that wasn’t too much information) 

I had to give Chinese Beer a try – it has very mild, light flavor.  It’s actually pretty good and with the the hottie-ness of the hot pots, I found it to be quite a refreshing combination. 

The only thing I’d to give a thumbs down is the on the bread. . . the really don’t do it well.  It looks lovely but it’s got hardly any flavor and the texture is just off.  That purple bite in the photo below nearly took out my front teeth!  

For reals.  

Whatever was in the center was rock hard.  I learned a good lesson though and broke things apart before just sinking my teeth into them from then on! 

These photo’s are from a more casual dining restaurant. . .  the fish always have their heads and tails on- it’s just part of the culture there AND nope I didn’t eat any chicken feet soup! (although they sure love it there). 

I discovered that Durian Desserts are NOT my favorite… not so much. 

Next Wednesday I’ll be back with more highlights of my trip to China and some of the amazing sights I was able to see!  Until then enjoy a taste of China with these Chinese Pickled Vegetables! 

Chinese Pickled Vegetables are a quick and easy appetizer for any meal! 

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Much Love and Peace~

Ruthie