Vegetables

Lettuce is not typically cooked in Western cuisines but leave it to the Chinese to do just that. My grandmother had on a few occasions while living here in the U.S., made romaine lettuce sautéed with garlic, and it was delicious! Tender crisp is the best way to describe the texture. I adapted this version from Woks of Life  https://thewoksoflife.com/cooked-lettuce-with-oyster-sauce-garlic/ , adjusting by adding just a little sugar to balance the sauce to my preference.

I'm not all that familiar with Hakka cuisine, but I came across this recipe in Tsung-Yun Wang's Home-Style Taiwanese Cooking . This dish is very similar to the "Eggplant in Garlic Sauce" found on the menus of many a Chinese restaurant here in SoCal (not the spicy Szechuan version). I've come across very similar recipes that refer to this as "Taiwan-Style" Eggplant with Basil, perhaps because the Hakka are the 2nd largest ethnic group (comprising about 15% of the population) i

We used to grow red amaranth back home in Taiwan and mom would always make a simple saute of them with a bit of vegetable oil, minced garlic and salt. The pigments from the greens would create a beautiful purple-red sauce that my sister Elaine and I loved to mix with white rice to give it a quasi-psychedelic hue (think jacked-up spinach). Amaranth greens are readily available here in SoCal at many Asian markets (e.g., 99 Ranch Market) and can also be easily grown from seed. T