“Preserved Turnip”

Another of my favourite chinese preserves is the preserved turnip or 菜脯. There are two types.. a very salty type and a sweet-salty type. I prefer the sweet-salty type… and when I searched for it in the UK, and tried all the types, I was surprise to discover that the brand I like is actually made in Thailand and not China. Strange huh? Well, when we buy it in Malaysia it’s from an open wet market stall and there are no labels, so it could have been from Thailand for all we knew and hey… we might never have known. Apparently it is a teochew thing.. and there is a large teochew chinese community in Thailand.. so eh… who knows anyway.

This tastes very good chopped up in a stir fry or with minced meat. Another way my mother likes to cook it is chopped up in an omelette. I don’t know any other ways of using it.. but I suppose there must be other ways too.. Maybe I should experiment with it and share it eh? 😉

I made a stir fry with the preserved turnip and green beans, baby corn, celery & edamame. It was delicious! Vegan too!

My rice was taking aaaaaaages to cook once the stir fry was done.. and I was starving.. so I cut up an avocado and ate it with one of my favourite condiments. Crispy Prawn Chilli.

This fragrant savoury chilli is a product of Singapore and it is just simply absolutely amazing. Goes will with everything and I buy it in 1kg jars as the teeny 200g bottles just vanish in an instant.

A few days ago I was feeling fat & low… and sometimes when I feel like that I want stodgy, salty comfort food. The Hawaiians are known for loving spam… it’s not as well known… but a few countries in the asia pacific have that same love of spam thanks to American GIs and world war II. So.. embarassing fact of the day…. I always have a can of spam in my pantry. Fat, salty, stodgy, comforting food. And the other day I mad a spam omelette. Omg I just absolutely love that stuff. Not good for you if you eat too much.. but once in a blue moon… I just give in to the craving and make something with spam.

Aaaanndddd that’s my post for the week. Tomorrow is essay writing day and I have college this weekend so I doubt I’ll be posting much.

8 thoughts on ““Preserved Turnip””

These meals look amazing, definitely making me super hungry. Where’d you get all of the inspiration for these dishes that you made?

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Lysandra says:

March 2, 2017 at 12:33 am

Necessity mainly. The cheapest way to feed myself is to cook. Eating out is sooooo expensive in London. Read the intro pages if you want to find out more about me 🙂 thank you for commenting!

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Will definitely check that out for sure 🙂

I was wondering if you were on FB at all? We have an awesome community of food lovers and sharers, would you be interested in sharing your articles with us? Check us out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OnlyGoodEats/

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I think preserved turnip is an acquired taste —it’s one of my top 3 “hated” ingredients, especially the sweet-salty type.

Here in New York City, there are some Thai restaurants that use it — In the Thai language “cha pone” or “ja pone” are what it sounds like phonetically. I think the taste is dreadful and I always ask for it not to be in my Thai noodles or anywhere.

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