Nurturing my inner... unusual flavors

A magazine I was reading recently had a website for Japanese candy.  The fun part about the candy was that it advertised many flavors of Kit Kats.  http://napajapan.com/Products.asp.  Oh, not your garden variety, American flavors, but really, REALLY, strange ones: Mango pudding, fizzy white soda, sour orange, banana, apple vinegar, sweet potato, soy sauce, royal milk tea, green tea, strawberry, blueberry, chestnut, spicy chili pepper, miso, cheesecake, melon, roasted corn and wasabi!  (These are not made up.)

Different cultures prefer different flavors than we do.  (As is blatantly obvious from above.)  What we might consider weird or downright unappetising, they think of as ordinary or ideal.  Today's dish may be slightly unusual to your tastebuds, but it wouldn't be if you were halfway across the world.

Tangy Stir Fry Cabbage

1 small head of cabbage, sliced
2 tsp vegetable or canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 shallot, sliced
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp hot chili peppers
Sesame seeds, toasted

I didn't want to make a ton of it, so I had a small head of regular cabbage.  You could also use Napa cabbage instead.

About the size of a large grapefruit
or a softball.

Slice the cabbage in half and take out the bottom core.



Like a green rainbow. Dark to light inside.

 Then slice the cabbage in strips.

So crispy, I'd be tempted to make coleslaw.

I broke it up as I washed it.  The leaves are so tightly packed.  (How does nature do it?)

Biteable pieces.

I had thought to myself, if I had sesame oil I would have used it.  But I didn't.  However, I remembered I did have sesame seeds.  So I thought I could get the same flavor just a different way.

Raw seeds.

You don't eat sesame seeds raw though. Gotta toast them.  Place them in a shallow pan, but don't put the heat up too high.  They will toast quickly and you have to watch them closely.

Single layer, dry pan.

In just a couple quick minutes, with some minor shaking, you'll have lightly toasted sesame seeds.  The natural oils come out with the heat and with that, the flavor is enhanced.  Put them aside to use later.

Smells just like sesame seed oil.

These were the flavors I did have.  Typical Asian ingredients.

Simple flavor combination that makes
the dish authentically Asian.

And what would an Asian dish be without garlic and fresh ginger?  Well, one I don't want to know about.

Minced up a little of each.

Why not add some shallots too, while I was at it.  It's like cooking Improv!

All in a pan with the canola oil.

After these ingredients began to soften and become translucent, I added all the cabbage and gave it a good stir to make sure all the pieces were coated.  Then I put in the rice wine vinegar.

This would be the tangy part, so be careful
not to overdo it or you'll pucker.

To balance out the tangyness, a little salt and sweet needed to be added.  Some soy sauce, Teriyaki and sugar will do just that.

Watch the color change.

I'm sure you could call it quits right now, but I love the hot chili peppers you get at the Chinese places and enjoy some heat.  (Some like it hot!  I am that some.)  I had extra hot peppers left over from recent take out.  No need to buy what I already had available.

Even comes pretty much premeasured for me.

After the cabbage is tender, and that really is to your own liking, it's basically done and lastly, the hot peppers get added in and tossed about quickly.

Adding them in...

...tossing about quickly.

Place in a dish, I used my square, Asian-inspired one with grooves at the top to hold my chopsticks and sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds you made earlier on top.

Piled up high.

This isn't the type of dish you eat on its own. It's more of an enhancer to a main protein. I prefer it with teriyaki chicken. Nothin' fancy.

It's good to be open to different flavors and take some cooking lessons from other cultures.  You just might find you like something completely different than you've ever had before.