Tsukemono

When we say "pickle" in the U.S. we have a very specific understanding of what it is we are going to eat. We have also heard about pickled vegetables but not that many people have actually eaten any.

Pickled vegetables are much more common in Japan. These could include giant radishes, turnips, carrots, Chinese cabbages, ginger, eggplant, burdock root and white mushrooms.

What is used in the pickling process can vary and includes salt, miso (soy bean paste), soy sauce, vinegar, rice bran and the dregs from a barrel of sake. The pickling process compresses the vegetables and results in a food filled with vitamins A, B-complex, C, and various minerals.

Nuka-zuke refers to vegetables pickled in rice-bran paste and contains from three to five times the amount of vitamin B1 that is present in raw vegetables. It's made of eggplant, cucumber, daikon, carrots and other vegetables. The lactic acid, bacteria and yeast in it also helps in the process of digestion.

On the negative side, though, people with high blood pressure should probably avoid pickled vegetables since they are packed with salt.

In the anime Maison Ikkoku there is a scene with Godai's grandmother presents Kyoko with a gift, plum wine with a pickled plum still in it. The pickled plums are called umeboshi and have a tart taste. The plums are pickled with salt and leaves from a plant that is a member of the mint family.

Umeboshi is a popular item and is used in many health food dishes, in traditional Japanese breakfasts and in bento or box lunches.

Making them is a time-consuming process. Green umeboshi are put in a stoneware vat and sprinkled with salt then left to marinate in their own juices for two weeks. Then leaves of the red, mintlike shiso are rubbed in salt and added to the vat. This is left to marinate over the rainy season. When the marinating process is done the plums are removed and left to dry in the air for one or two days then are stored in a clean vat.