Can anyone name that cabbage?

It just occurred to me that someone here will be able to help resolve this dilemma.

Background: my grandfather was in business with a Chinese family (restaurant/bar in the 60's-80's). Sometimes, Mr Shing would take us to eat in Chinatown, to places not frequented by westerners; he would order for the whole table (in Chinese - we had NO clue what we were eating, and didn't usually ask), which sometimes included part of our family, bartenders, or waitresses that were brave enough to venture outside the safe, Americanized Cantonese food we served. These excursions were usually on weeknights, after the main rush in our restaurant was over. A few times a year, on a Monday, our family would go to (big) Three Happiness for dim sum with Mr Shing's family.

Three Happiness had this spicy, (sweet/sour maybe), bright orange, probably supposed to be cool but served room temp cabbage dish. My mom and I, and later my best friend during college, LOVED this cabbage. No one else in our family would eat it, but other than the fried taro root, it's the only thing my mom would "accidentally" ask for too much of so she could take some home with her. Mr Shing eventually moved back to China and over the years, we stopped going to Three Happiness. We ventured to other places, and by that time, we had many more choices. Most recently, we go to one place only: Phoenix. My partner has celiac disease; Eddie, the chef at Phoenix, comes out to talk with him, finds out what he wants that day, and makes a dish specifically for him using safe ingredients and special sauces without gluten. But, as much as I appreciate Eddie's concern for my parther, I've never seen this cabbage there, or the other places I've gone. And I sure would like to have it again.

Is anyone else familiar with this dish? Have any idea of what it's called? The last time I ordered it was at least 12 years ago when I went with my Chinese boss. I forgot to ask Ho what it was called, and I don't see him any more.

We were at Phoenix a couple weeks ago and the cabbage came up in a conversation. If I knew what it was called, I would ask for it at Phoenix or elsewhere. If I knew what was in it, I'd make it .

I'm not sure if it's exactly what your looking for, but Lao Sze Chuan serves a complimentary plate of spicy cabbage to every table. Here is a whole thread about it.

tapler wrote:I'm not sure if it's exactly what your looking for, but Lao Sze Chuan serves a complimentary plate of spicy cabbage to every table. Here is a whole thread about it.

And here's a picture



Lao Sze Chuan
2172 S. Archer
Chicago, IL 60646
312-326-5040.
http://www.laoszechuan.com

It doesn't look the same, but that's not to say it doesn't look good. Will definitely add that to a my list (lengthy list) of places to try and see if it's close.

What's in that photo looks like Korean kimchee to me. I suppose you can make kimchee with a lot of different types of cabbage, so maybe the spicy Chinese one you're thinking of is just someone else's kimchee.

The cabbage at LSC, to my memory, isn't pickled like kimchee. It's very fresh cabbage that's been dressed in a seasoned hot oil... maybe given a quick cook of some kind, or perhaps a short pickle, but nothing like kimchee.

Katie wrote:What's in that photo looks like Korean kimchee to me.

The LSC cabbage (pictured) is far from kimchee. It's basically raw cabbage in Szechuan oil, not pickled or fermented in any way.