Homemade Green Plum Wine 自制青梅酒

As a result of our recent food shenanigans into the making of homemade Huamei Preserved Plums 話梅, we were left with an extra mound of the little green plums 青梅 that inspired it all.  These are immature plums, plucked from the Chinese Plum Tree, also known as the Prunus Mume Tree, in their green and seriously sour stage.  

With this extra mound of green plums we decided to make our first ever plum wine!  Well, not really a wine, more like a fruit liqueur of sorts.  Based loosely on both the Chinese and Japanese style of making plum wine, this fruity concoction is super easy to make, requires a rather long waiting time, and results in a lusciously fruity and smooth wine/liqueur that captures the essence of spring and summer all in one!

Chinese Pickled Yellow Mud Clam 黄泥螺

This rather strange looking tidbit is actually an incredibly delicious and addictive delicacy from the sea.  Or rather from the windswept tidelands of Ningbo 寧波, Zhejiang 浙江 (my 媽媽's home province!)  Only here are found these little mud clams, these innocuous and plain looking burrowers of wet mud that are used to make these famous Chinese Pickled Yellow Mud Clams 黄泥螺.  This Chinese delicacy can be traced all the way back to the Song Dynasty (that's around 1000 years of eating these delicious clams!)