At the Central Market this morning I was hunting for some new seeds or plants to grow, at some of the Asian grocery shops. Whenever I look at those piles of gorgeous, brilliant green leafy vegetables that are so cheap and so fresh I have two things on my mind. Firstly, I know they are far from organic but I also know they are local. Secondly, can I find some with roots that I can propogate ?
Today I found a bunch of large - leafed KANG KONG (Ipomea aquatica) or WATER SPINACH or ENTSAI with a lot of little roots poking out up the stems. Jing Jing calls it some other Chinese name which means "hollow stem". I have some water spinach in various ponds but they seem to be a small-leafed variety. I also want to grow this larger-leafed one so I brought it home specifically to propogate. I have done it before, and it shoots very easily, but it was too late in the summer. This year I hope I have time to get a crop from it during Feb.So I took off all the big leaves and chopped it back and put several of the best stems in a jar of water. Now I wait. Soon the roots will develop more and some of the side shoots will grow. Then I will transfer it to an outside pond (or a wicking bed, if I had one) and see what happens.
Of course I couldn't resist buying a few different varieties of Asian seeds since the packets were only $1.85 each. The 'biologica' packet from elsewhere was $3.50 and probably has far less seed.
All in all a rather skippity-doo morning's work. On my way back to the car I was pretty hungry so I bought some sushi - which I don't do very often because, having lived in Japan for a while many years ago I find the westernisation of Japanese food quite disgusting. I should not have bought these either as they did not have that unique sharpness and crunch of Japanese pickled vegetables combined with the extraordinary aroma of the seaweed. Basically, it was sweet (why??) and tasteless but very pretty in its plastic box. Does anyone know where to get REAL sushi ?
PS why can't I get the spell-check to work?
Posts
3 comments:
Make your own, its so easy, I use
Sun Rice Japanese style SUSHI RICE and add rice vinegar and a little sugar and salt and fresh stuff from the garden. Its not organic rice but it is Australian and it works well which is what you want if you are making a lot.
I want the real, Japanese stuff though - probably no-one knows what I mean. The fillings are nothing like anything I have had here.Thanks anyway Maggie.
Well my son is in Osaka at the moment on his way back from an all expenses paid trip to South Korea so he will be able to tell me all about real sushi next weekend. He is vegetarian and said he was having rice, kimchee and seaweed for every meal.
Post a Comment