27 October –
Yesterday I went to the large veggie market, Ti Bei, with my Chinese teacher, Lia. I've been curious to try new (to me) vegetables but the trouble is – how to the heck to prepare them? That's why we took our Chinese lesson to the veggie market.
By the way, I have tried on my own to ask what things are called in the market and I've even tried asking how to eat them BUT until yesterday I wasn't able to understand the answers.
😉
We spent one hour walking around the veggie market- barely scratching the surface. So many unknown veggies, not enough time!
I bought a few varieties to try: fresh bamboo shoots (zhu sun) along with mushrooms, taro root (yu tou), water chestnuts (bi qi), winter squash (chang nan gua), and some greens (no idea what they're called; I think they're sweet pea shoots…tasted like it anyway).
I didn't manage to take any photos at the market: not enough hands! (busy shuffling between taking notes and managing my purse)
Here's what I bought at the market…like I said there are TONS of veggies to try; I just sampled a few:
I was told to peel and thinly slice the bamboo shoot and stir fry it with some mushrooms or meat. I bought mushrooms along with the bamboo. I did a little reading on the internet on bamboo shoots and I read that they're supposed to be cooked thoroughly due to an acid so I decided to peel and boil it before adding it to the stir fry. Along with the mushrooms and bamboo shoot I also stir fried cubed tofu. It ended up a quite tasty dish!
Water chestnuts:
I would have never guessed these are what water chestnuts start out looking like! They always come in tin cans. You wash & peel them and you can eat them raw or stir fry them (chao yi xia). We tried them raw- crunchy & not our favorite. I think next time we'll add them to stir fry.
Small taro roots:
I was told you're supposed to first wash these, then steam them (unpeeled) until soft (when poked with a chopstick). Once they're soft they easily pop out of their skins. Slice them and eat with a little bit of sugar. It's got a weird texture (it's VERY starchy; read: slimy) but it's nice with the little added sugar.
Here's chang nan gua (or at least that's what I think they called it). It's one of the MANY kinds of winter squash they have here. They just don't seem to have any pumpkins! This particular variety you buy by the kilo (they cut off how much you want…I'm pretty sure this variety of winter squash is the kind that grows HUGE.
They told me to slice the squash and steam it. I don't remember what seasoning I was supposed to use. Lia also told me it makes an excellent soup (tang…which is also the same word for sugar- so imagine my confusion when we're talking about how to prepare the veggies).
I have bought and used this winter squash variety before- I've baked it. It's a nice replacement for butternut squash. Yum!
Here are the greens I bought:
See? Don't those look like pea shoots? They do to me and they taste like it too…although my ayi disagreed. I didn't quite understand how to prepare them (I think you're supposed to quickly cook them). I ended up doing a super quick stir fry (chao yi xia) with a little garlic (suan), sesame oil and soy sauce. Yummy!!!