Diary of My Country Life-January 16th, 2026

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

01/16/2026 Friday 22-34F Sunny

Next Tuesday will be Major Cold, the last solar term of winter, which means spring will come within a month. 

Though winter is cold and long and causes many inconveniences, I still think it is a beautiful season. Why? The grasses all turned yellow; the fields are barren; cold winds always blow, stopping us from going anywhere… But it forces us to slow down and to shape our lives to be the simplest. Just like the trees standing outside my window: they sprout in spring; grow thick and lavish in summer; turn into flaming gold, yellow and red in autumn; and now, they stand silently, holding out their leafless branches toward blue sky, displaying a kind of gnarled, rustic beauty. Sometimes a little white cloud passes through, sometimes a flock of noisy geese fly over (of course in their smart formation), adding a touch of lissome liveliness to this serene world. And sometimes when I encounter a quaking aspen or a birch while walking outdoors, I am always surprised by the beauty of its striking white trunk and branches, and the bark on the tree is like eyes, looking over the land with mercy.

I can’t see these in other seasons; they are hidden behind leaves and flowers. Now the flashes are gone, the bone structure shows. So, I like to do my pruning in winter. Without the images given by the leaves, I can see the fact clearer—which branches should go, which ones should stay, all is well presented by themselves.

To me, winter has another big benefit: Certain food can only be made in this particular season, such as dry persimmons, sun-cured meat, kimchi, sauerkraut. I call them “My winter delicious”.

In late October or early November, persimmon trees have lost their leaves and the fruits are getting mature. Pick the firm ones, wash and peel them (but keep the stems on for tying purposes), then string them and let them naturally dry in the sun. Depending on the weather, this drying procedure often takes about three weeks, so at the end of November when the size of fruits shrinks to one third and white sugar starts to appear on the surface, store them in a closed basket with their dried peels to continue the fermentation. After another one month when Christmas approaches, they are overall covered with sugar and ready for enjoying. (Please refer to my video: Lotus’ Christmas Gift-Dried Persimmons)

Once before I pan seared them with butter, they tasted good. But I prefer eating them just as they are, bity, chewy, and very sweet.

About sun-cured meat, it is classic in China. People call it “La Rou”. Not only pork belly, chicken, fish, sausages etc., can also be cured in winter, though the ways vary for people from different parts of China: Cantonese use salt, sugar, soy sauce, liquor to brine the meat first then sun dry it; while for Si-chuanese, of course they add peppercorns to the brine and slowly smoke the meat with burning pine branches; and my formula seems to be the simplest which is mainly from my hometown but slightly altered: toast some sea salt and Si-chuan peppercorns in a pan first, rub them well along with tequila onto the pork belly strips (each strip is usually 3” wide and thick and one foot long), then hang them outdoors to dry. If the weather permits (sunny and windy and cold), the meat can be ready for cook in just one week; but if you are not in a hurry, let them stay in the sun (the longer the better) as long as the temperature is low. I remember in my hometown, almost every household hung their La Rou out at the windows, in the yard, or on top of their roofs (concrete slabbed roofs). (My video: All Natural-My Sun Cured Pork Belly & Its Rack) 

The reason why La Rou is popular in China is because it perfectly combines savory and umami, and there are many ways to cook it. My favorite La Rou dishes are: Cantonese styled clay pot rice (My video: Clay Pot Rice-Our Best One Pot Meal), Shanghainese Yan-du-xian (braised La Rou with fresh ribs and bamboo shoots), steamed La Rou and bacalao, and stir-fried La Rou with garlic bolt. 

Kimchi is another must-have winter food. When the room temperature drops to below 60F in November, time to make it. Choose the yellow-cored nappa cabbage, firm and heavy, hand tear the leaves into smaller pieces, brine them with sea salt, green peppercorns, and a shot glass of tequila for an hour (I like using tequila in almost every recipe that demands fermentation as it has a clean, pure taste which won’t affect the true flavor of the food), then pack them down in a pickling jar. It needs about thirty days in the jar to reduce the level of nitrites produced during the brining process, after that, it will be healthy and crispy to eat and can be stored for a long time in fridge if the weather gets warmer (The relevant video will come out soon).

But my kimchi never had a chance to see warm weather. I always finish it in no more than two weeks. I love to simply cook it in tofu soup, in noodles, or serve it as a cold dish to go with meat. It is said that kimchi is the healthiest food in the world—even if its function may have been exaggerated, I do know that every time after enjoying it, my stomach is always happy and appreciative. That’s why I keep making it, three times a winter—twenty minutes’ preparation, one month’s wait, then one week’s enjoyment of it, and repeat.

Sauerkraut is my new experiment this winter. To make it, I purchased a ten-liter Polish crock and stuffed three and a half nappa cabbages (more than twenty pounds) into that vessel. Different from European’s chopped cabbages, I split a whole nappa into four portions which is more like northern east Chinese way called “Suan Cai”—means sour cabbage. 

I guess all the cuisines from various backgrounds somehow are connected in a mysterious way: Pasta vs noodles, brisket vs Char Siu, blue cheese vs stinky toufu, and here sauerkraut vs Suan Cai… That’s interesting. My sauerkraut was made on January 3rd, so it’s scheduled to be ready in early February. The first dish I would like to try with it is dumplings of sauerkraut and beef filling, for which I have been longing for a long time.