A GREEN LEGUMINOUS ATTITUDE

He looked so sweet with the Disney Princess backpack on. It was big, it was heavy, and it was nearly the size of its owner, who was walking next to him. Late in the afternoon, Chinatown, Stockton Street near Broadway.

The neighborhood has changed. Many stores that used to thrive in that area no longer exist, and there are "for rent" signs in nearly every block.


On Polk Street in my neighborhood those are also common. Our landlords of street-level commercial space are misapprehending their prospects for getting rich off of the e-commerce boom. While quite forgetting that nearly everything can be purchased on-line, via handy apps. One of the few things for which people still walk into brick-and-mortars is a cellphone, that will enable them to then get anything they want internettally, with an app. Including their next and subsequent cell-phones.

Stockton Street in Chinatown, insofar as it thrives, does so with vegetables, prepared foods, hair salons, financial and translation services. Stuff for which the locals prefer live human interaction.

On Polk Street, it's booze and high-fat dinners.
Plus, naturally, the bottomless mimosa.
Vegetables purely as adjunct.


Rarely do I eat out on Polk Street, and since my doctors gave me a firm talking-to about my diet, the wonderful heaping platters at one of the few eateries I frequented have been entirely off limits. Intellectually I still appreciate cholesterol bombs. But in practice I abstain.



蔬菜類
"SO CHOI LEUI"

There are probably several hundred ways to prepare mustard stalks (芥菜 'gaai choi'), bitter melon (涼瓜 'leung gwaa'), or long beans (豆角 'dau gok') that do not involve mayonnaise. I know, that's incredible, huh?

Many of them are Cantonese home cooking style. So almost by definition not something for which many Caucasians are mentally equipped.
But that's okay, y'all can serve 'em with ranch dressing.


Please note that for mental comfort's sake, it may be best to think of 'pork' as also a vegetable. A "round waddling cabbage", or "pink bean".
Both doctors and vegetarians will like that.



Round waddling cabbage with eggs. Pink bean fried rice. Steamed ground round waddling cabbage with salt fish. Pink bean hash. Grilled lean round waddling cabbage with oysters. Barbecued pink bean over rice. Mustard green stirfried with garlic and thin-sliced round waddling cabbage.

Boiled tofu, on the other hand, is edible purely for Vegans.
In the real world it's a suitable replacement only for beef.
Serve it with lettuce, pickles, ketchup and mustard.
Some fake bacon on top for that extra taste.

Healthy! Vegan!

Yeah, I'm thinking about lunch again.
Possibly, I might have roast duck.
A loud feathery vegetable.





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