Za xian, the salted saucers
The pickles and salteds that go with porridge: pickled mustard, dried radish, olive greens, mustard stem among them.
Pronunciation zá xián｜Food and tea｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
The collective name for the salted and pickled dishes eaten with porridge: pickled mustard, dried radish, olive greens, black olives, mustard stem, peanuts, plain boiled tofu, ginger-pickled olives. Not for a banquet, not a snack — they stand at the corner of the table at all three meals.
The local test of a saucer is one thing only: can you eat it every day. Pickled mustard is brined mustard greens, dried radish is salted radish, olive greens are black olives and mustard leaf simmered together — the three are often lumped as one and are three different things.
When you eat them
With morning porridge, and the cold counter at the night stall belongs to the same family. Home-made and factory-made run side by side: the bottled sort has a list of ingredients, the home sort depends on whether enough salt went in and whether the weather stayed fine.
Words easily confused
Za xian is the general term; pickled mustard is one member of it, meaning brined mustard greens specifically. Take the two as synonyms and a whole class shrinks to one dish.
Read next: Za xian: the saucers that go with porridge.
Same group: mi, the porridge, the night stall, fish rice.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026