It is said that in Japan there are four thousand different kinds of tsukemono and over one hundred different techniques for making them. ~ Donald Richie

In Japan, one eats tsukemono – Japanese pickles – during every meal, before meals as an appetizer, between meals as a snack. Between bites to clear the palate for other foods.

So it makes perfect sense that you can find pickled versions of virtually every kind of food in Japanese cuisine including fish, seeds, eggs, fruit, vegetables. And cherry blossoms!

However, pickled vegetables remain the kind of tsukemono most often consumed today just as years ago when they were the only vegetables available to Japanese country and mountain dwellers in the wintertime.

Carrots, turnips, nasu (eggplant), and kyuri (cucumber), are some of the many vegetables used for tsukemono. Daikon is one of of the crispest and spiciest of these. And it has many health benefits: [Read more...]