Chinese Sour Cabbage?

I am looking at potentially moving back to Chicago from NYC with my wife (who has never lived in Chicago but visited plenty). She is originally from NE China and one dish she makes quite often that is popular there is Sour Cabbage Soup.

She specifically asked where she can buy this type of sour cabbage in Chicago, specifically in Chinese/Asian markets. It is very similar to sauerkraut (any lover of sauerkraut would love this) but specifically Chinese as there's some slight differences.

Thanks for your help.

If this is a packaged sour cabbage, do you have a picture of what she is looking for? We have been stopping by 88 Marketplace weekly and I can take a look.

Yeah, I told my wife at a minimum I bet 88 Marketplace would have it. Hopefully... this is the northern kind which is pretty damn similar to sauerkraut. Most people are surprised that sauerkraut actually originates from China but they slightly changed the recipe in Europe over time.

There is a southern kind, but it's different than this which is the northern kind.


or

Is it similar to what's shown being made in this video? If so, it should be pretty easy to make a home . . .


酸白菜

=R=

Okay, we will look this weekend. I know they have pickled mustard green, so I suspect they have this as well.

Yeah, it's suan cai, same as Gao's video. If you've ever made kimchi, this is about 1% of the work. I'm pretty sure Richwell Market should have it, maybe even H-Mart. I'll update when I've looked.

Yeah, that video is apparently similar in preparation. My wife says in Dongbei (NE) every household makes its own. My mother in law makes it but in big jars - we are kind of lazy to do that so we just go with prepackaged version.

This is what is currently available at 88. Given the number of pickled vegetables they have, I was kind of surprised to see only one option. As indicated by other responses, it's almost certain this can also be obtained at other places such as Park to Shop, Richwell, etc. So, safe to move here!

I think we are going to try making this soup.

bw77 wrote:This is what is currently available at 88.

I love the image of the cabbage-making session that's depicted on the packaging!

=R=

This is how our attempt turned out. Much of this was based on the recipe on the Woks of Life website. As that recipe suggested, we did add some chicken broth since we had some in the fridge ready to go. May have made this a bit soupier than shown in the BestRecipies video above, but I think I liked it that way. The sour cabbage gives the broth a very nice tang.

Thanks for mentioning this soup. It gave us the impetus to try it and it was nice to have on a cold day.

Awesome - thank you very much for checking! Great to know at least one place sells it.

The soup looks pretty good. My wife makes it quite a bit especially in winters. I'm a fan of tangy stuff and grew up with sauerkraut at times, so this is a natural thing for me. It is definitely good for cold days too.

You can also make the soup with pork ribs, which is what my wife does. She makes her own broth using the ribs. Especially if you go to a Chinese market with a butcher, they can get you the ribs cut up. She basically simmers the ribs in water with anise, garlic, and a little cooking wine for an hour or so. Then she stir fries the sour cabbage in a wok before kind of putting it all together.

She's been making a lot of Chinese soups lately - this one, tomato egg, lamb soup, oxtail soup, etc.

marothisu wrote:She's been making a lot of Chinese soups lately - this one, tomato egg, lamb soup, oxtail soup, etc.

Chinese sour cabbage looks wonderful, I will definitely give it a spin.
Not soup but I make the Chinese home kitchen mainstay stir-fry tomato and egg at least a couple of times a month. Quick, easy and the flavors appeal to me. Perfect with a bowl of rice.

G Wiv wrote:Not soup but I make the Chinese home kitchen mainstay stir-fry tomato and egg at least a couple of times a month. Quick, easy and the flavors appeal to me. Perfect with a bowl of rice.

I don't know why I never thought of it myself, but ever since having this over hand-pulled noodles at Xi An Tasty in SoCal, I've been making it that way. Maybe not as quick as over rice, but so much better. (Tomato sauce over pasta, can you even imagine such a thing.)

Sorry to sidetrack, we now return you to the sour cabbage discussion.

You can also make the soup with pork ribs

It makes sense to me that this would make a better stock than the pork belly because of the bones. When my wife makes douchi pai gu we always save the cooking liquid and it is, indeed, very rich. Next time we will use ribs.

We have been eating a lot of winter melon soup here, which I like very much and winter melon is very easy to incorporate into soup. Today, as a change, lotus root soup is on the menu.

The 88 Market is new and huge but the selection is nothing compared to the old Hong Kong Market which is now called Park To Shop Supermarket or something? It's a lot older and not nearly as fancy as 88 but they have a lot more selection and volume. It's located next to Connie's Pizza. This would be the first place I would look for the cabbage.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/park-to-shop-s ... et-chicago

marothisu wrote:Yeah, I told my wife at a minimum I bet 88 Marketplace would have it. Hopefully... this is the northern kind which is pretty damn similar to sauerkraut.

bw77 wrote:This is what is currently available at 88. Given the number of pickled vegetables they have, I was kind of surprised to see only one option.

In addition to the package shown by bw77, 88 Marketplace carries some other fermented napa cabbage (Northeastern-style, as I understand it). The packages on the right, I believe are identical to that pictured above, but the cabbage is uncut.




I think the two others are a similar product (ie, fermented napa cabbage). In addition, 88 Marketplace carries a number of fermented mustards (Southern-style) in their refrigerated section.

I almost picked up a pouch, but I already had some sauerkraut from a Polish market at home that needed to be used. The soup sounds really good.