Vegetables kept by salting or fermenting: sour cabbage, brined pickles and salted greens.
Laba garlic consists of whole garlic cloves pickled in vinegar until jade green, with a slightly spicy taste. The custom is mainly found in northern China, especially the North China region, and includes the old Beijing practice. People pickle the garlic on day 8 of lunar month 12 and serve it with dumplings or as a cold dish at Spring Festival.
What
Laba garlic is made by pickling whole garlic cloves in vinegar until they turn jade green, with a slightly spicy taste.1,2
When
People usually pickle the garlic at Laba, day 8 of lunar month 12, and eat it at Spring Festival. The custom is documented in 2017 and 2021 accounts, but no dated primary text establishing when it began was found.1,2,3
Where
The custom is mainly found in northern China, especially the North China region, and includes the old Beijing practice of pickling Laba garlic.1
How
Place peeled cloves of purple-skinned garlic in a ceramic jar with rice vinegar and seal it. The cloves turn green after about 20 days in a cool place. The pickled garlic is served with dumplings or as a cold dish.1,2,3
Why
Jade-green cloves and a slightly spicy taste distinguish Laba garlic. A folk explanation connects suan, meaning garlic, with the identically pronounced word for reckoning, linking it to settling year-end accounts.1,2
Impact and influence
Laba garlic is part of northern New Year food customs, served with dumplings or as a cold dish at Spring Festival, a practice documented in 2017.1
A tale told in Beijing says that shops settled their accounts in the twelfth lunar month. A creditor reluctant to ask directly for repayment might send a small jar of Laba garlic, using the shared pronunciation of the words for garlic and reckoning as a reminder. A debtor unable to pay might stay out of sight. This is a folk tale; no dated early text establishing the origin of Laba garlic was found.
Told in: Told in Beijing and northern China; both the China ICH website and Chinese Wikipedia recount this explanation.
