If you live in China, you would not be strange with it. Especially in southern China, people usually eat it with porriage.

  It origins from fuling, which is in chongqing, with a long history of hundred years. It enjoys a good fame in China. Nowadays, it becomes a brand and produces in mass production. While, many local people still make it in the traditional way. In June 2008, this traditional production technology is listed in the National Intangile Cultural Heritage. 

The Procedures

The basic material is Brassica juncea. People get them from the field and then select them good from bad, peel them off the skin, thread them together, dehydrate them by wind on the drying rack. And many people in Fuling must be familiar with these drying rack. These racks has been a memory at that time.  And after they are dehydrated, people need to put them down and pickle them in the gallipots. After a period of time, people need to get them out and wash them, put some  mixtures into them, and then close the gallipot for eating. Completing all these doings usually needs several months. People who knows the doings all agree that making it needs your efforts and patiences. 

The Characters

A professor in the university says that making zhacai needs strictness, as if it is alive. For example, when people dehydrate, they must pay attention to the time. If too early to bring them home, there will be still a lot of water in the brassica juncea so that they will be hard to restore; but if too late, the brassica juncea will lose its textures. As for the cutting, if people cut in the rainy days, it will be too damp for the brassica juncea; if in the hot days, it will be smelly. 

Dishes

People usually use the zhacai as the ingredients. Like in the tomato and egg soup, people like to add some zhacai to make the soup more delicious. 

Can you guess what it is called by chinese people?