Kunming Tomato Season

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We have had a warm spring with the start of an early summer (daytime highs in the upper 20’s.) This has apparently produced a bumper crop of outdoor tomatoes.

 

We get two main kinds here, one grown in plastic tents 塑料大棚 and these are often picked green for commercial distribution to supermarkets and such. Then there is a “home garden” variety, grown outside 露天 allowed to ripen most of the way on the vine and sold in small clusters. The latter don’t travel as well, but are full of flavor.

 

I’m guessing that lots of the “home garden” type have all gotten ripe at about the same time, since they have flooded the market and prices are down. I can buy a kilogram for 5 Yuan, without even bargaining.

 

Consequently, I’ve been using lots of them. Today I bought some long green runner beans 四季豆 and made them with tomatoes in a hearty vegetable salad. I dunk the tomatoes in boiling water long enough to loosen the skin, then immerse them in cold water until they are cool enough to handle. Slip off the skin and cut them up coarsely.

 

Boiled the beans separately al dente then combined everything with minced garlic 大蒜 and shallot. Tossed with salt, ground red pepper (after all this is Yunnan) and light soy sauce 酱油, old vinegar 老陈醋 and fragrant freshly-ground sesame oil 着麻油. Today I added some cilantro, just because I had it on hand. They call it 香菜 here.

 

Makes the basis of a good warm-weather meal. Or I suppose it can be a side dish in a meal featuring meat.

 

 

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Edit to ask: Does anyone know the word for these hard Chinese shallots? I always just point at them when buying. A single vendor will typically carry garlic, shallot, and ginger; just those three items.

[Demonic_Duck]

Does anyone know the word for these hard Chinese shallots? I always just point at them when buying. A single vendor will typically carry garlic, shallot, and ginger; just those three items.

I don't know myself, but... surely the vendors themselves would be the best people to ask?

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Yes, of course, you're right. I just always forget to ask. Will make a point of it next time I'm in the market. The words I found in the dictionary don't sound quite like what I've heard on the street.

[fanglu]

My Chinese vegetable buying skills are a bit shaky, but is the word you're after 韭菜?

[Kenny同志]

Does anyone know the word for these hard Chinese shallots?

 

I am pretty sure it's a kind of 蔥 but I have to ask my mum for its exact name. 分蔥？

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@Fanglu, 韭菜 are long, green and tender. Sometimes stir-fried with eggs, sometimes used as stuffing for 饺子。Translated as "Chinese chives."

 

 

By contrast, these are dried and hard like a head of garlic but without internal partitions. They are too large to just smash with the flat of the 菜刀; must be thinly sliced or minced. When cut they have a strong aroma that's a cross between garlic and onion.

 

@Kenny, I think you are right; they are some kind of 葱。

 

[fanglu]

@Fanglu, 韭菜 are long, green and tender. Sometimes stir-fried with eggs, sometimes used as stuffing for 饺子。Translated as "Chinese chives."

Sorry I jumped in without thinking about it. In Australia what we call shallots are similarly long, green and tender(ish), and 韭菜 was the first thing that jumped to mind.

 

The vegetable I was thinking of ('shallot') is called spring onion or scallion in other English-speaking countries, according to wikipedia. In Chinese usually just called 葱 or 大葱, from memory.

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That's OK. These may eventually turn out to be one of those things that has several names, depending on where one finds them.

[Mindmaxd]

It is 独子蒜，you can baidu it.

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You are right! That's it! Thanks very much. I was mistaken to call it a shallot.

 

Seems it originated in Yunnan, which may be why they are so common here.

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Went to the market this afternoon and asked three different vendors about the name for the large, non-partitioned, single-clove garlic. They all called it 独蒜。 I asked the first one 独立的独吗？and she said 是的。They were selling it side by side with the traditional kind of garlic.