ISO Mei Gan Cai (Land of Fish and Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop)

I picked up Land of Fish and Rice by Dunlop at Costco.
It may not have been my best choice, after all, SueF isn't a fan of fin-fish and there's a lot of fish in there. But there's a lot of other stuff in there too that I have to try, including pot-sticker buns filled with jelled broth, and... Mei Gan Cai Kou Rou, or Pork Belly with Fermented Vegetable, which was my favorite dish of the last year from Chengdu Impression. Silky pork belly with a funky, chewy vegetable in a slightly sweet soy, cinnamon and anise sauce.

The key ingredient is Mei Gan Cai, which is a dried, fermented brassica. I just spent a good hour in the Glenview Joong Boo Market looking for it: frozen, dried, whatever, with several people helping, and no luck (closest thing we found was dried, un-fermented radish leaves and stems). Anyone have a suggestion where I can find that?

JoelF wrote:Anyone have a suggestion where I can find that?

Try Viet Hoa Plaza/Argyle, Tai Nam/Broadway or, if all else fails, gigantic and well stocked Park to Shop on Wallace. As you live in Mount Prospect* I'd also check Richwell Market on Dempster in Morton Grove.

Go to Google images capture a few images of Mei Gan Cai/Meigan cai in packages on your phone and ask a clerk. Pictures help overcome the often found language barrier. Its also helpful to have an image of the name in Chinese, Meigan cai on Wikipedia

I've done this exact same thing quite a few times, often when using one of Fuchsia Dunlop's books. Also check out Seriously Asian: Dried and Pickled Greens

*I'm not stalking you, it says Mount Prospect just under your name on the LTH page.

If this preserved veggie is what I think it is, it might be "mui choy" in Cantonese. The photos on this blog (https://umamimart.com/blogs/main/fat-belly-tiny-bubbles) show a marinated and an unmarinated version. I believe I have seen the lantern branding of the unmarinated version on various products in Argyle.

excelsior wrote:If this preserved veggie is what I think it is, it might be "mui choy" in Cantonese. The photos on this blog (https://umamimart.com/blogs/main/fat-belly-tiny-bubbles) show a marinated and an unmarinated version. I believe I have seen the lantern branding of the unmarinated version on various products in Argyle.

The marinated version matches what I found (but haven't yet ordered) on Amazon