ChiliCult in China: Vegetables in the Courtyard

Mise en place in Hunan

Again Hunan, again that courtyard at the grandparents’…

… but, I have learnt new things in the meantime and thus noticed things that had either not been there or went without catching my attention before.

And that was only a small part of the 3 weeks in China this year, during which I discovered more. On which I will say more, soon.

Farther out from the courtyard, there is the path leading onto rice fields.

Rice Fields / Reisfelder

Clearly an important part of agriculture (which I’ve been trying out in Austria, in a small dimension, more on which I’ll have to say soon, too). However, what has fascinated me for much longer already is how many vegetables are being grown in China in urban surroundings.

The courtyard at the grandparents’ is not really an urban setting, but it is basically all in concrete. Only a thin layer of soil, set between bricks (and in nothing but their height) was brought there – and serves as space for growing a lot:

Gemüsebeet / Vegetable Patch in Hunan

Food from the market (which I again had a look at) and quite a bit from right here ended up in the kitchen and on the plates, of course. Technically, I should say it ended up in our bowls, but I digress.

Mise en place in Hunan

XiangCai - Hunan-Kitchen
XiangCai – Hunan-Kitchen: Fish with red chile pepper, soy beans (with green chile peppers), not-sure-what with red chilli, ShengCai (Chinese cooked salad; without chilli)
That YeCai from the video (“wild herb,” Handama, Okinawa Spinach… unrecognizably dark), glass fish with egg and black pepper and, behind it, soy beans (with green chile pepper, we just like those too much), another I-really-don’t-know-what, and, in the upper right corner, JiaChang Doufu

On the kitchen and the cooking, there’ll be more shortly – and there’s constantly more of Cooking with ChiliCult recipes and videos!

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