If you can’t find them, consider making your own! You just take a napa cabbage, and cut it in half. Cut that half into eight pieces, and start packing salt between the leaves. I find kosher salt works best, but picking salt works fine, too. Soon the cabbage will start to wilt, and is soft enough to roll in on itself. Once that happens, you can pack it into a jar. Pack as much cabbage as you can into a mason jar. I do two cabbages at a time, so I use a half gallon jar. A while cabbage typically fits into a quart jar. It’s going to seem like it won’t all fit, just keep packing it in there. You might have to leave it for an hour and come back to pack the rest in. Then just seal it tight and leave it on your counter for a couple of weeks. Open it up every now and again to let the extra gas out. After two weeks, it’s going to look, smell, and taste exactly the same as sauerkraut, just made from a more delicate cabbage. This is good as a side dish, in soups, with greasy meats, breaded and deep fried, or even just as a light snack. If you’re interested, but that all sounded really confusing, there’s a detailed video by Magic Ingredients on YouTube.

Yes, this version is really amazing.

Even in Kunming, all the locals complain that gouqiao mixian isn’t nearly as good as it used to be. According to my dad, the broth was made from small farm pork, chicken and Yunnan’s xianwei ham. And, it came with a yellow layer of fat on top. Nowadays I don’t think restaurants are using anything other than cheap factory chicken and msg for their stock and there certainly isn’t any fat in the broth any more. The flavor just isn’t nearly as good.

Anyway, this is a great recipe for xiaoguo mixian. You are right that tomatoes are not traditional, but my uncle started adding tomatoes to his recipe a few years ago and they are a terrific addition.

The only thing I do different is I season the ground pork before frying. I usually use soy sauce, salt and pepper and a little rice wine.