Hi! First time poster, I recently took a trip to Japan for the first time ever. It was amazing! I got to try tons of new stuff that I knew and a few that I didn’t know. One of which is the app pictured. I would love to know what this is and how to make it. Expecting it to be soft and slimy, but it was actually crunchy! Help pls?
11 comments
When I plug this into Google, it tells me they’re green beans lol.
Had these before as well, but unsure of the vegetable.
I’ve had it before. Hate to tell you I also don’t know what it is. However I wasn’t the biggest fan so I didn’t bother to figure it out.
Looks like nopalito, strangely enough. A pretty prevalent dish in Mexico. We eat it here in El Paso alot. (Basically prickly pear)
Looks like Pepper Kinpira
I think it’s celtuce (also sometimes called lettuce root). It’s really common in Chinese cuisine, though not sure about in Japanese cuisine.
Here’s an example: https://ohsnapletseat.com/2022/05/28/chinese-celtuce-salad/
Have you visited the PokeCenter yet??????
[Yamakurage.](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E5%B1%B1%E3%81%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%92&sca_esv=582779246&tbm=isch) It’s dehydrated then rehydrated celtuce or lettuce stem. It should have a distinctive soft-ish crunch described as kori-kori in Japanese.
While it is popular enough in Japan to show up in random restaruants, in Japan it’s considered Chinese food, and most often found served at Japanese style Chinese restaurants (including ramen shops and gyoza shops). In Chinese it’s usually called [Gong-Cai](https://imgur.com/a/XVb3pj5).
Celtuce!! I ate it regularly when I lived in China. It’s soooo good and so hard to find in America 🙁
Good for you for trying random stuff. You’ll be pleased to know that this is sometimes called mountain jelly vegetable. You can find it in Asian stores (it’s usually already blanched) and typically you can do something like:
Cut it into smaller pieces and give it a quick stir fry over high heat in sesame oil. Add 1/2 cup soup stock, 2 tablespoons sake, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
https://www.waiyeehong.com/images/large/Products/01/Products_0001828_LRG.jpg
The more common alternative you can find in your local asian grocer in the states is called 莴笋 in Chinese (Celtuce/”woh-suhn”), and like many other comments have mentioned is a common vegetable ingredient in Chinese cuisine.
That being said, what’s in your dish could either be Celtuce or a veggie in the same family (near cousin) called 贡菜 (“gong-tsai”) which is pretty common in Asia to use as a cold side dish but it’s pretty hard to find it in the states fresh. You might try looking for dried 贡菜 via online asian grocers that are based in the States.
(fwiw, you can just go up to any worker at a local asian grocer and ask for “woh-suhn” and they should be able to tell you if they have it or not)
I wanna say bell peppers with soy and chili pil and sesame seeds. Probably with sesame oil.