Rustic pickled eggplant

(Baonghean) - Pickled eggplant is a familiar rustic dish of people from rural to urban areas, especially in the meals of Nghe An people, there is always a plate of pickled eggplant...

Illustration photo

Pickled eggplant is delicious, cheap, and easy to make. There are many types of eggplant, but the best is the young eggplant, only as big as a marble, crispy when salted, and has a strong sour taste. There is also a slightly larger oval-shaped eggplant, with a slightly thicker skin but when bitten it pops like a firecracker, so it is called firecracker eggplant. Both types of eggplant are available everywhere in Nghe An, but Nghi Loc is where many people grow them and they are much more delicious than other places.

The way Nghe An people pickle eggplants is different from the way other places pickle eggplants. That is, when the eggplants have been picked, they choose the small white ones and dry them until they wilt. When the eggplants have lost some of their water and become soft, wash them, drain them, sprinkle a little salt on them, and shake them evenly. Then put them all in a crock, pour boiled water that has cooled down and is still slightly moist, and sprinkle a little garlic on top. Finally, cover them with a round plate or bamboo tray, and press down with a heavy stone so that the eggplants do not float above the water. Leave them like that for a week and you can gradually take them out to eat. The longer they are left, the better they taste, but if they are left too long, the eggplants will be too sour to eat, so people add a lot of salt to make them salty and bitter, and the fruit will be flat, no longer plump like the quick-pickled eggplants because they have become compressed eggplants like eggplant bowls, which have very large fruits, and the way of eating them has also changed. Eggplant bowls are only compressed and eaten all year round, becoming a "field" food store for long-term use, reserved for rainy and stormy seasons when green vegetables are scarce. Almost every farmer family in Nghe An has a jar of eggplant. Eggplant soaked in soy sauce is as delicious as a feast dish. That's why some people are addicted to eggplant. There is a rather interesting anecdote about pickled eggplant. Pickled eggplant is not only a rustic dish that Vietnamese people love, but also Westerners love it...

Only then do we know that our traditional national dishes are truly attractive and convincing to all people, including foreigners, because pickled eggplant has long been a “super-suitable” food for everyone’s taste. Those who are far from home sometimes miss a meal of crab soup with pickled eggplant. That is when the love for our homeland Nghe An rises up and makes us flutter.

TB

(Synthetic)