Vegetables and Tsukemono—Made for Each Other

Abstract

Every food culture in all parts of the world, regardless of its ethnic background, turns to the local plant kingdom for many of the ingredients that make up the daily diet. This is where we find fruits, vegetables, tubers, rhizomes, berries, nuts, seeds, legumes, and cereals, as well as large and small herbs. Vegetables, as such, are not a well-defined botanical category and we tend to classify raw ingredients from plants according to how they are used as food rather than on their genetic makeup and morphology. This is why we often refer to mushrooms, large seaweeds, and some fruits as vegetables—think of champignons, kelp, and cucumbers. Similarly, rhubarb is a true vegetable that we think of as a fruit.