This $1.85 Bottle of "Famous" 

Yongchun Vinegar

A loss leader from Sungiven Foods, a store of loss leaders.

I'm no expert in Chinese vinegar, such that I'll often find myself at a Chinese grocery store staring at the multitude of offerings, having little to no idea of what I'm looking at and too embarrassed to ask any questions. So often I'll just go with trial and error, which is pricey and, given vinegar's long shelf life, makes the dark area under my cooktop very crowded.

Such was the backdrop to my first visit to the Burnaby-based Sungiven Foodsshortly before the pandemic arrived. I've since heard people refer to it as "the Trader Joe's of Chinese Groceries" presumably in reference to their affordable house brands and practice of selling all fruit and veg by piece rather than weight. But at the time of my first visit, all I knew is that it had moved into the old Safeway digs in the supremely weird City Centre Mall (which is not in the city centre at all, and was also home to this magazine for several years before I arrived). And it was awesome. Avocados, gai lan, mushrooms were all well priced. Bulk rice was a pittance. But as is my habit I ultimately found myself standing in front of the vinegar section, completely clueless.

Driven by the equal vectors of embarrassment and thriftiness, I reached for this bottle on the bottom shelf. I had no idea what was inside, but it was under $2 and the label looked discernible to me. And the truth is, it's tough to go wrong with most vinegar, especially if you're just using it to dip dumplings or green onion cakes in. But forget wrong—this bottle was all right, all the time. The perfect blend of tart and depth, like Balsamic, lemon juice and miso had a kid.

I've since learned that Yongchun vinegar is one of the "Four Famous Vinegars of China." from supremevingegar.com:

The final of the four, and the least likely to be found outside China, Fujian Yongchun Red Vinegar is named both from the town in the southern coastal Fujian province it is made but also due to its unique red color as opposed to the black color of the other three. The red color comes from red mold in the Qu which comes from the Monascus rather than Aspergillus genus of molds. Distinct from the other three, Yongchun Vinegar is a liquid state fermentation process, similar to those in the West, and also uses rice almost exclusively as its starch.

Once converted to alcohol, the mash is poured first into an urn one-half full of one year old vinegar. One year later, one-half of this urn is poured into another urn one-half full of two year old vinegar. This repeats once more so that the vinegar is aged at least three years by the time it is done. This process of using successive containers of aged vinegar to mature new vinegar is nearly identical to the Solera process for aging Sherry Vinegar in Spain.

Oddly, the version from Sungiven has a darker hue than normal red vinegar (which often has that creepy maraschino cherry juice blast of colour), but the rest seems on point. So let's recap.

1. I got a famous vinegar;

2. That's rarely seen outside of China;

3. That tastes amazing;

4. For less than a toonie.

I know what everyone is getting in their stocking next year.

以上英文大意如下：

一瓶1.85美金的“名牌”永春老醋

我并不是一位對中國醋有研究的專家，當我在逛中國超市的時候，經常面臨琳瑯滿目的商品，我卻毫無頭緒，又不好意思問店員。所以我只能反復的嘗試不同的商品，但這非常耗費金錢，并且由于醋的保質期非常長，使得我灶臺下的儲存柜堆滿了各種醋。

在疫情到來之前，對醋并不精通的我第一次訪問了位于本拿比的元初食品。我曾聽到人們稱它為中國的Trader Joe's，大概是由于他們質優價實的自有品牌商品以及嘗試以個體單位售賣水果和蔬菜并非以重量單位售賣。但在我第一次來的時候，我只知道它搬進了老西夫韋的市中心商場。當我到達之后，體驗感簡直棒極了！牛油果、甘藍和蘑菇的價格都十分實惠。散裝大米更是質優價實。但如同之前所述，站在醋的貨架面前，我依然一籌莫展，不知如何選擇。

在尷尬請教和節儉金錢的雙重驅使下，我購買了置于貨架底層的醋，標簽清晰可辨且價格合理，心里暗自祈禱此次一定要成功。其實，在未嘗試我買的這瓶醋之前，我總認為醋千篇一律，無非就是蘸餃子或者作為蔥油餅的佐料，這個想法在我品嘗過Sungiven的醋之后破滅了，恰到好處的酸味以及后續美妙的回味，融合了香醋、檸檬汁、味噌的優點，太美妙了！

后來我在supremevingegar.com了解到永春醋其實是“中國四大名醋”之一。

雖然永春醋是四大名醋的最末位，卻也是在中國以外的國家最難買到的一種。永春醋的命名來自于中國南部沿海城市—福建省永川縣。永春醋不同于其他三款名醋。永春醋的顏色是紅色的，紅色來自曲霉菌中的紅色霉菌，并且采用了液態發酵的工藝，有點類似于西方的醋，而且幾乎只是用大米作為原料。

淀粉一轉化成酒精，人們就會先把麥芽漿倒進一個裝了半缸一年陳醋的缸中，一年后，再把缸里的醋倒到另一個裝有半缸兩年陳食醋的缸里，然后在重復一次這個過程，等醋做出來的時候就有三年陳了。連續用裝有陳醋的容器來陳化新醋，這樣的釀醋工藝流程幾乎與西班牙陳釀雪利酒醋的工藝相同。

比較吸引我的是，永春醋的紅色比其他紅醋顏色更深，沒有令人毛骨悚然的馬拉斯奇諾櫻桃汁的顏色。

總結的差不多了，讓我們一起來回顧一下關鍵信息：

1.我買到了一款名醋

2.這在中國以外的國家非常難買到

3.味道十分美味

4.質優價實，不到2加幣

相信大家已經知道明年該囤點什么在你們櫥柜里了！

原文發表于：https://www.vanmag.com/The-Case-For-This-185-Bottle-of-Yongchun-Vinegar-From-Sungiven-Foods