Broccoli
3 for $7.90
Wellcome (Shek Kip Mei)
You cannot find broccoli at a lower price in Hong Kong, I believe. Anyway, that's beside the point.
The pictures not-so-clearly reveal the surprise guest in this post: one small, dead, caterpillar that found a comfortable grave inside the head of one the three broccoli that I had purchased earlier in the evening. In all my years of preparing vegetables, and broccoli in particular, I had never before come across one of these buggers that had hitched a ride onto a vegetable and, potentially, onto my dinner plate - after all, what then is the purpose of pesticide? I'm glad I wash my vegetables.
In Hong Kong, I do remember almost consuming baahk choi before noticing a small, dead fly trapped in its wet leaves. I highly doubt that the restaurant uses organic vegetables, so I wonder from which supplier that restaurant sources its produce!
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I grew up in Hong Kong and always remembered my mum’s way of cleaning broccoli. She’d rub them down and then soak them in salt water for a bit just in case there are dead caterpillars. Same for a lot of other veggies (it could be bugs or just sand in them that needs to be cleaned). It was quite a surprise for me when I came here and see people eating veggies out of a bag they just got from the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteI soak Broccoli, too, in water, but not in salt water. I suppose I'll get into that habit in the future - thanks for the tip!
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