The pickles are made asazuke (light pickling) style...not too puckery or too sweet because they are not soaked for very long.
The mizunasu (literally water eggplant) are grown in the southern part of Osaka and have lots of moisture.
Since this pickle is very popular at this time of year, it is rare to find them in big supermarkets.
Most are found at small pickle shops, at the department stores or if you have "connections".
I'm pretty sure this was the first time we tried this because it is just that rare & pricey...for a small sized eggplant I bought this for 350 yen (tax included) at the department store.
There is another way of pickling the mizunasu...nukazuke (pickling in rice bran)...which I also saw at the department store.
Hopefully the next time I'm wandering around in the department store they'll have some for us to try.
If not, we'll just try to get some next summer.
Looks like something I would like. I love the plate BTW.
ReplyDeletethey must be difficult to grow for them to be so rare, and I didn't find them listed among the more exotic seeds offered by my favorite american suppliers.
ReplyDeleteI think I got this plate at a 100 yen shop Jalna, most of my plates are :)
ReplyDeletemight be a hybrid of sorts Rowena...
Take care you two.
Kat
Sounds very refreshing Kat. Wish we had a better variety around these parts.
ReplyDeleteguess you'll just have to eat your fill when you visit Kirk :)
ReplyDeleteTake care!
Kat