Pickling Cabbage

When I was still working as a junior executive of some sort with crappy working hours, my then-colleagues and I often abused lunch hour to go for food excursions. We would travel all over the little petite island, up north, down south, far west and east just to find the best gems. Always in two taxis, or one big car over a heavy downpour. Nothing stopped us back then. We had crappy jobs of being the person always got stuck in middle anyway. It wasn't bad by most standards, but we always had something to complain. And to gossip ;)

So one of the most memorable excursion is to eat Salted Duck Soup (咸菜鸭肉汤, xiancai ya rou tang) somewhere up north (I can barely remember the name of the place now! shucks, am I that senile??). Anyway, last July I heard they have closed down the place and no one knows where it is now or whether it had shut down for good, since the husband and wife duo are old.


Now that I have probably a corn-eating duck originated from France, I can't stop salivating about this soup. Heck care if H won't eat it at all, I can lick the pot dry. Provided my pickled swatow (mustard green vegetable) turns okay.


Let me rephrase it, provided my pickled white cabbage is giving the taste it should. It has the right smell, but cabbage can't be compared with mustard green in terms of texture and thickness. But I'm desperate. That desperate. My parents will laugh till the cows come home if they heard about this.

Original recipe is from Taste Hong Kong, here, I use the exact measurement, except that my cabbage is 150gr.

We'll see how it goes in this thursday. Time to pray for magical things in this kitchen. Yahoo!

n.b. If you are craving for a nice salted duck soup, and if you happen to be in Singapore, go down to Hong Lim hawker centre, 2nd floor. By the middle lane, 3rd vendor from right, there's one hawker selling roasted duck meat and make one mean salted duck soup. Next to vendor selling chinese pancakes, curry puffs & chinese fried desserts. When you turn your head to right and see the longest queue for bakchor mee, you are at the right spot. I believe they are the only one selling salted duck soup. Even my dad agreed with the flavors. And that's rare.

n.b.2. I know it's not a direction worthy of michelin. But hey, that's how I remember things.