ABSTRACT
There are several de…nitions for fermented foods in the literature. The most recent de…nition of fermented foods and beverages is given by Tamang (2010b). Ethnic fermented foods are de…ned as foods produced by ethnic people using their native knowledge from locally available raw materials of plant or animal sources either naturally or by adding starter culture(s) containing functional microorganisms which modify the substrates biochemically and organoleptically into edible products that are culturally and socially acceptable to the consumers (Tamang 2010a). Asian people consume vegetables, both domesticated and wild, in a variety of recipes. Perishable and seasonal leafy vegetables, radish, cucumbers, including young edible tender bamboo shoots, are traditionally fermented into edible products using the indigenous knowledge of biopreservation (Table 4.1). The knowledge of the art of pickling vegetables, which is basically fermentation, might have developed in Asia (Pederson 1979). Soybeans are the most common among the legumes used for fermentation of soybean foods in the South East, Far Asia, and the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Cooked rice is a staple food in Asia. Wheat and barley are also important staple diets in the Indian subcontinent and in western and middle eastern Asia. Production of ethnic fermented cereal products is mostly restricted to the Indian subcontinent. Comparable to the African and European dietary cultures, Asia has a limited number of ethnic nonalcoholic fermented cereal products. Cereals are commonly fermented into several ethnic alcoholic drinks in Asia. Tea, the second most popular beverage in the world after water, originated in China and two common species of tea are Camellia sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica (Schillinger et al. 2010). Although normal black tea is drunk everywhere, some ethnic Asian communities, however, have special fermented teas such as miang from Thailand, puer tea and fuzhuan brick and kombucha from China.
