the most beautiful vegetable: Chinese broccoli

[selinker]

What: Kai-lan, known as Chinese broccoli, a staple of dim sum restaurants and Chinese New Year celebrations.

Comments

[selinker]

This entry was hard to write because the definition of "vegetable" is hard to pin down. I eventually excluded the vegetables that were clearly fruits, such as the pepper and the tomato, and included the grains and beans eaten as vegetables, such as corn. So in your choices, try to keep that in mind, and be aware that the tomato will get its day in the sun eventually.

Also, no fungus. There will be a column on that someday too.

[ladycelia]

Sugar snap peas. The aforementioned artichoke. Beets, in all their glory. Onions (which make so very many different things taste better).

Tough call, man.

[selinker]

Those are all good. And I clearly left out one, as your last comment notes.

[snowpuss]

Yes! I LOVE chinese broccoli, but the main restaurant I used to eat it at stopped making it. It was a sad day.

[selinker]

New restaurant time!

[jangler_npl]

I'd vote for garlic mashed potatoes, except that they're less of a vegetable and more of a...garlic. And baked potatoes are firmly in the "dairy" category, at least as I prefer them.

[selinker]

That comment hardened my arteries.

Garlic, of course, was already covered in this entry.

[jangler_npl]

Oh, so *that's* what that Quarterflash song is about... :-P

[selinker]

Also, that comment made me swallow my tears.

[seesmooshrun]

Baby bok choy, lightly steamed with a little oyster sauce. Mmmmmmm.

[selinker]

We just made something like that last week. It was the second time we made the boy choy recipe, because the first time, I "mistook" the garlic chili sauce for sweet chili sauce, meaning I ate all of it myself.