A Laurel, Her Apprentice, and an Impromptu Asian Market Adventure
Sometimes the best research begins before you’re ready.
My apprentice, Lady Tanneke Groenlaken, wanted to visit Omaha’s Asian Market, and she wanted to go that day.
She initiated the adventure knowing it was on my to-do list for our proposed Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival Revel next year. But I hadn’t researched that yet. So the real value of our excursion would be getting comfortable with the market and seeing generally what items it carried.
Armed with curiosity and our phones, we set out to discover modern supermarket treasures, hoping some might be familiar to someone living in Ming China. We didn’t discover everything the market had to offer. There were too many possibilities, too many people, and too little preparation on my part.
First, Find the Biggest Fruit in the Store
Tanneke was an enthusiastic exploring companion. Right off, she came across this enormous jackfruit. At $1.29 per pound, buying that particular specimen would be quite an investment and alot to prepare for a person like me that doesn’t cook. I think I saw it by the slice elsewhere in the store.
Jackfruit (菠萝蜜, bōluómì) was probably known in southern China before the Ming dynasty, but information is cloudy on that. Originally from tropical Asia, it may have traveled through trade and cultivation into southern Chinese regions.
That makes it a legitimate candidate for my Ming research, although my persona, Li Zhenyan, lives in Luzhou, where such tropical fruit would have been less commonplace.
The Dragon That Didn’t Come From China
Next Tanneke discovered the dragon fruit. While its name is interesting and sounds very Chinese-like, I later learned online that it’s popular only in modern Asia. These striking pink fruits, with their green, leaflike projections, even look as though they belong in a Chinese dragon’s garden.
Dragon fruit comes from climbing cacti native to tropical America. It’s a New World item that Indigenous peoples ate long before Europeans arrived.
The dragon fruit is a prime example of how easily we can confuse modern Asian foods with historical ones. Our dragon fruit photographs will make an excellent teaching opportunity. Sometimes learning what doesn’t belong in a particular historical period is just as useful as discovering what does.
Besides, who could resist photographing such an extraordinary fruit?
From Silkworms to Silk
Another discovery brought us directly into the world of historical textiles. Silkworm pupae!
The market stocked cans of Korean silkworm pupae, known as beondegi. Although this particular preparation is Korean, silkworms themselves have an ancient connection to Chinese civilization.
Silk production was already thousands of years old when the Ming dynasty began in 1368.
Chinese sericulture involved raising silkworms, feeding them mulberry leaves, and harvesting their cocoons. Li Shizhen’s Bencao Gangmu (《本草綱目》, Compendium of Materia Medica), completed in 1578, has an entry describing that the pupae were removed after the silk-reeling process and fried or stir-fried.
This discovery offered an unexpected connection between Tanneke’s interest in fiber arts and my developing Chinese persona. However, the modern Korean canned preparation isn’t evidence of how Ming Chinese people prepared or ate them. That “how-to” is for another research project!
Something Loosely Fishy
Our next stop was the seafood department. There, Tanneke examined a crab up close, and I found an escaping live eel.
Fish, eels, and crabs were familiar foods in Ming China, although availability varied a lot by region. For Zhenyan, living in Luzhou along the Yangtze River system, freshwater fish and other river creatures would have been particularly relevant.
Chinese cooks had developed sophisticated methods of preparing aquatic foods long before the Ming dynasty. Steaming, simmering, frying, and seasoning with various sauces were all established techniques.
The market’s live seafood displays offered a fascinating reminder of the importance of fresh ingredients in Chinese cooking. But I don’t anticipate bringing live eels or crabs to our February Baronial Revel.
A Little Incense for the Occasion
I discovered packages of red incense sticks decorated with gold Chinese lettering. Tanneke kindly modeled them for this photo.
Incense has an extensive history in China. During the Ming dynasty, it played important roles in religious ceremonies, ancestral observances, domestic rituals, and scholarly life. Fragrant materials could also be appreciated simply for their aromas.
Incense burners became objects of considerable artistic craftsmanship. Some were made of bronze, others of porcelain or different materials. I already have an incense burner for my Chinese persona, so this discovery fit nicely into my plans. Although the modern packaged sticks aren’t themselves historical artifacts, incense is certainly appropriate to investigate for the coming Revel.
Preparing for a Chinese New Year Revel
As you guessed by now, our shopping expedition wasn’t simply an excuse to examine unusual groceries. I’m planning to sponsor a Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival-themed Revel for the Barony of the Lonely Tower next year.
The plan is to have a separate side table where visitors can explore a few aspects of Chinese material culture without interrupting the traditional potluck meal and Baronial Court. I’ll introduce some activities inspired by the Chinese celebrations and have M. Dolan lead a game of weiqi (圍棋, simplified 围棋) that we know as Go.
My goal isn’t to recreate an entire Ming Chinese festival season at one Revel. That would require considerably more research, preparation, and resources than our Barony can provide for a Revel. Instead, I’d like to introduce our friends to “A Taste of China” with a few selected traditions and their historical backgrounds. I want to encourage everyone to explore the unfamiliar, not scare them away.
When I return to the Asian Market, I’ll be armed with a proper shopping list and a better idea of which historical ingredients I want to investigate. Plus, I’ll try to come on a less crowded supermarket day.
Sources and Further Reading
- James A. Benn, Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015. Especially useful for Ming tea culture and the transition toward loose-leaf tea. OUP Academic
Oxford Academic — Tea in China - Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, “Symbolism in Cloisonné.” Particularly useful for your incense discussion: it describes incense burning in religious and ancestral contexts and includes a Ming Chinese cloisonné incense burner. Asia Archive
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art - Du Hao, “Research on Chinese Traditional Leisure Culture Centered on Tea Fragrance of Literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties.” Discusses tea and incense as important elements of Ming literati life. Francis Academic Press
Read the article - “Research Progress and Production Status of Edible Insects as Food in China.” This one is especially useful for that startling can of silkworm pupae. It cites ancient Chinese evidence for eating pupae and, importantly for you, discusses Li Shizhen’s Ming-dynasty Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), which describes silkworm pupae as both food and medicine. PubMed Central (PMC)
Read the article at PubMed Central - “Stem transcriptome screen for selection in wild and cultivated pitahaya (Selenicereus undatus).” This is the best source I found for your dragon-fruit aside. It identifies the plant as native to Mexico/Central America and reports evidence of its cultivation in the pre-Columbian Yucatán, including documentation by 16th-century chroniclers. PubMed Central (PMC)
Read the dragon-fruit study at PubMed Central - China National Tea Museum digital Ming tea exhibition. The exhibition brings together objects and documentation from the Palace Museum, National Library of China, Shanghai Museum and other institutions and covers Ming tea cultivation, processing, drinking and trade. Ehangzhou
Ming Dynasty Tea Culture exhibition information
