个人资料
正文

Encountered Fiddleheads

(2021-06-06 08:39:32) 下一个

Sat morning, rucking back from downtown Los Altos, we stopped at the DeMartini

Orchard, a farmers-market style grocery store, and came away awed. It boasted a 

few exotic foods, including porcini, morel, and truffles and buffalo milk and

this was the first time we saw fresh fiddleheads in a store, fetching $30/lb.

Just five days ago, I paid four bucks at a nearby Korean store for a 2lb pack

of presoaked fernbrake.

 

Meanwhile, half a globe away in north-eastern China near the Russian border,

the spring harvest frenzy for wild greens has just drawn to a close and the

crops, including mainly various fiddleheads, are blanched and often dried, and

bagged or vacuum-sealed for shipping. Some might just have come to the Bay

Area and ended up in my fridge.

 

Until recently, the greens foraged from the ChangBaiShan(长白山)region have mostly

been exported to two eastern Asian neighbors. According to an 80-year-old lady

from the Wanda Mountains, the Japanese came with demand in the 60s. It was said

that the islanders ate bracken fiddleheads (they called it weicai) regularly in

small portions to fend off industrial pollution and radiation. They first bought

the greens fresh and later taught the gatherers how to process them for longer

shelf life. In the days of planned economy, it was an important source of income 

for the locals and nearly every family picked. Known as gosari on the Korean

peninsula, the fernbrake is an ingredient of the bibimbap and some of their

banchans. The Chinese first did not like the plant's slightly bitter taste and

worked only for the money but domestic demands have since picked up as the trend

of natural foods overtook the globe.

 

An article in The Atlantic warned, like liqor, bracken fiddleheads could be

carcinogenic if not properly treated or over-consumed. The author might relax to 

enjoy gosari from ethnic food stores, however, if he watched how Asian foragers

first boiled and then soaked the greens in cold water before further processing.

 

Armed with the background knowledge, I gingerly opened my pack of gosari. The

spears looked recently picked and they sported grayish purple to dark green

colors. The liquid they came in had no smell or taste. I soaked half, cut them

into bite-size pieces, and sauted them in butter. Tender and crunchy, they

reminded me of wilted asparagus. Except for a slight earthiness, they gave

almost no flavor. They didn't even taste bitter.

 

My experiment was far from over, however, as we finished the dish. Wild greens

are a valuable cultural heritage worth preserving and they will have a place in

my diet.

 
[ 打印 ]
阅读 ()评论 (7)
评论
7grizzly 回复 悄悄话 回复 'stillthere' 的评论 :
Wow. In 1985 I was boarding in middle school, learning English under a handsome
teacher who collected stamps. Los Altos must have looked quite different back then.

I remember Reagan as a folksy guy who liked to tell jokes.
Today, every little town around here seems to have a Goodwill.

Thanks for dropping by.
stillthere 回复 悄悄话 Los Altos/Palo Alto was the area I stayed for a month, 1985... Bought a used book titled

Make-Believe: The Story of Nancy and Ronald Reagan
by Laurence Leamer

at a local Goodwill store.
7grizzly 回复 悄悄话 The one I bought might be what the locals call 蕨菜, and not 薇菜. It will take a while to sort out which is which with the names from different regions.
7grizzly 回复 悄悄话 回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you for clarifying. And you are right that they flourish in the Pacific Northwest. We just need to have the eye for them. There is actually an underground wild food (especially mushrooms) economy in the national parks.
暖冬cool夏 回复 悄悄话 回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 : Sorry, my friend, for the confusion. When I said dried fiddleheads, I actually meant pre-soaked ones, as your picture looks familiar. I don't think I ever saw dried ones in our Korean supermarket either.
It is said that fiddleheads can be found in Northern CA (the word "ubiquitous" is even used online though I never saw them here myself.). Since they are ferns family, I guess they might like to grow in the forest or among the shade that provides humidity. The reason I remember seeing in Hawaii is that we took pictures of them, as the curled heads caught our attention.
Hopefully one day you can encounter them in the woods:))
7grizzly 回复 悄悄话 回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and your comments. Hawaii, which I've never visited, must be a great place for fiddleheads. I'll keep looking but so far couldn't find dried gosari in the stores here. The presoaked one had a great texture but no flavor. I heard good things about bamboo shoots from friends from Sichuan, e.g., but the packaged products from grocery stores didn't seem to meet expectation. I probably need to go to south China to experience the real deal.
暖冬cool夏 回复 悄悄话 More online pictures of fiddleheads remind me of the trip to Hawaii Big Island, where we saw this kind of ferns in the national park. But I never knew they are edible, and now that you mentioned I actually remember seeing them in a Korean market, dried ones of course. I will try next time too.
This is something similar to bamboo shoots in the Southern China, a cultural heritage preserved within us. Thanks for sharing and your great post.
登录后才可评论.