Western-Hunan Pickled Radish

Western-Hunan pickled radish is made by putting local radish pieces into an old jar and letting them ferment naturally in a handed-down "sour water"—a lactobacillus mother brine—coming out pale yellow, crisp and tender, with a clean tart scent, usually tossed with chilli oil and garlic and eaten at once.

In the hot, damp western mountains fresh produce would not keep, so the Miao and Tujia peoples preserved food in jars, and pickled radish is their emblem; nearly every household keeps an "old-jar sour water," often passed down for generations, the epitome of a western-Hunan table where nothing is eaten without sour.

Pickled radish is mostly an appetizer or side; on the street it is threaded on bamboo skewers, tossed with chilli oil and sold to eat on the spot, tart and crisp to cut grease and wake the senses, often served alongside rice tofu or she-fan.

The clean tartness of natural fermentation in a generations-old jar brine, the snap of the radish, and the western-Hunan family custom of handing down a pickle jar are what mark this dish.