Sometimes food experiments go disastrously wrong. But I know better now. Last night I cooked a vegetable that I may never have eaten before, and rather regretted the result.
I cut the vegetable in chunks, put them in the pan.
Added chopped bacon and sliced ginger.
When everything was nice and fragrant, I added a splash of water, a hefty dollop of chili paste, some fish dew, and a squeeze of lime.
Then cooked it down till glazey with pan-juices.
Dumped it over rice stick noodles.
And sat down to feast.
Dang that was unpleasant!
The taste was fine. Splendid, in fact. But this damned new vegetable was incredibly fibrous!
After I finished, there was a large pile of stringy green steel-wool in the ashtray next to my seat.
萵筍［莴笋］
WO SEUN
To the people who know this in English, it is 'celtuce', or 'asparagus lettuce'. And yes, it IS edible. The Chinese name for lactuca sativa angustata means 'lettuce bamboo-shoot', and that is appropriate, given the fibrous quality.
This stemmed lettuce has a pleasant and slightly bitter pith, surrounded by a dense wall of fibres that cannot be chewed. Wherefore the next time I cook it, I shall peel the bejazous out of it, and simmer it a whole lot longer. A slow-braise seems like it might work.
Or perhaps boil peeled chunks in lightly salted water for ten minutes before doing anything else with it.
It would go very well stirfried with chicken bits and fermented black bean sauce -- touch of garlic and ginger -- or dried shrimp and tamarind broth à l'Indonésienne, with a touch of galangal and ripped fresh herbs.
If fully cooked soft, it could be incorporated into an oyster omelette to good effect.
Or, perhaps, as a humble accompaniment to the noble boiled lobster.
A cooked lemon & mustard butter-sauce with capers and anchovies.
The comparison with asparagus in the second name is apt.
It might also make good nautical rope.
Or paper! Yes, paper!
It is, apparently, a very popular vegetable among the Chinese.
I like the flavour -- it possesses a mild grassy sweet freshness with a slight hint of bitter -- so I will most definitely purchase this thing again.
But I will bejazously out peel and thoroughly more cook it.
I can see where it might have a good texture then.
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