REGENCY, HOLLYWOOD

Pagoda vegetable, in English often called by its Latin name, Brassica rapa narinosa OR Brassica rapa rosularis, also 'Chinese flat cabbage', is available in Chinatown at grocers on Stockton Street.


TATSOI

The Cantonese name is 塔菜 ('taap choi'; "pagoda vegetable"), in Mandarin 塌棵菜 ("ta ke tsai"; "ruined tree-stump vegetable"). It's easy to cook, full of vitamin C, and excellent with pork or in Soup. White people sometimes eat it raw, because they have this thing.

Folks, even if human and animal waste has not been used as fertilizer in the fields, animals poo there. So consuming raw vegetables, despite a good rinse, is like eating off the bathroom floor.
I worry about you lot.

Honestly.

After lunch in C'town I purchased some bunches, along with Shanghai thin noodles made in HK, and some snow vegetable. The latter is something to keep on hand for pork dishes, and 雪菜肉絲湯 ('suet choi yiuk si tong'), a classic Shanghai noodle soup which is easy to make.
Going to try a version with tatsoi.


蒜蓉猪扒飯

Other stuff. Lunch at the Regency, tea at the Hollywood. Smoked a pipe in between. And I can confirm that little Chinese girls are fascinated by pipes and pipesmokers, why, we're the queerest thing they've seen!

Of course it may have been the pipe. One of my father's old briars, a silver banded Peterson bent bulldog, to which some of his aura still adheres. Not only a handsome piece, but he was a darned fine looking man, so naturally they were enchanted by it. To the point of looking back ever so often, all the way to the end of the block.

Later, after tea, his Parker shell billiard. Same reaction. Three little girls.


I was always envious of my father's effect on the ladies.




Glossary: 蒜茸猪扒飯 ('suen yong chü paa faan'; pork chop with minced garlic and rice); 羅宋湯 ('lo sung tong'; Hong Kong style borscht, a tomato soup with veggies); 蒜吐司 ('suen tou si'; toasted garlic bread); 港式奶茶 ('gong sik naai cha'; Hong Kong milk tea made with sweetened condensed milk); 豆沙餅 ('dau saa beng': small flat pastry with a sweet adzuki bean paste filling); 愛·回家 ('oi wui gaa'; "Love come home", a Hong Kong sitcom often on the television at the lunch place when I get there after two, to which I don't really pay much attention); 赤靈芝 ('chik ling ji'; red hued ganoderma lucidum, a mushroom of curative and tonic effect, infomercials for which are also often on the telly); 林鄭月娥 ('lam jeng yuet ngo'; Carrie Lam, a politician in Hong Kong whose reputation has sunk lately, whose press conference was on the news while I finished my lunch.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================