Choy Sum Poached In Chicken Broth - South By Square Eight

MOP 55, approx US$6.83

I rarely had Choy Sum ( 菜心 ) in America. The Chinese characters literally translates as “Veggie Heart”, which kinds of tell people what to expect from it in terms of taste and texture. Yes, it’s supposed to have a tender crisp texture, flavorful with a sweet tone. It wasn’t that commonly used a veggie even in the Chinese restaurants that I patronized back home, which often cooked Chinese broccoli, spinach or baby bak choy. But I always had Choy Sum whenever I visited Southern China.

Choy Sum looks like Chinese broccoli, but it has a very different texture, different taste and different color of flowers. The flowers of Choy Sum are yellow. When I was a kid, I always picked the flower parts to eat because I think it was fun, and it just tasted a lot more tender than the rest of the veggie. I still remember that very first Choy Sum that I had many years ago when I was about 4 years old, at a very ugly and run down restaurant tugged away in the middle of a village somewhere in Zhongshan China. I hated that vibe back then because it looked kind of scary and depressing to me, but that was where I had the best Choy Sum in my life. I remember how as a kid who hated veggies, I loved that Choy Sum so much because it had a very good texture, crisp yet tender, its flavor was very delicately delicious, and sweet. I remember the concept “fresh” was actually what came to my 4-year old mind at the time because I just never had veggie that tasted that good. I still haven’t. I bet that must be how organically grown choy sum must taste like, before all the modern GMO farming techniques that mass produce our daily veggies. 

Anyway, it was because of that childhood memory, I ordered this Choy Sum dish at this restaurant. Unfortunately, this Choy Sum had really tough stems and an overall rough texture even at the leavy top. It was well seasoned by the tasty broth and the shredded dried scallop topping, but the Choy Sum itself tasted bland. With such a bland taste and tough stems, it made me feel that was an “old” Choy Sum. It was old like that old and tough mother hen. Maybe the Choy Sum stems just weren’t trimmed and skinned properly, but that particular bunch of Choy Sum was overall not a good quality Choy Sum. I don’t think I can blame the cook for it because the poaching did add a lot of flavor to it from the tasty broth even though the Choy Sum itself didn’t have the good flavor it was supposed to have. May be I can blame the prep for not trimming the veggie right? But then I wonder how can a restaurant motivate the kitchen prep to take washing and trimming veggies seriously? How does a restaurant make sure that all the veggies that come in are of good quality? This Choy Sum must have looked so green and pretty when it came in with the basket, but only the eater would find out its poor taste and texture. Ingredients are indeed critical for cooking but sourcing good ingredients is actually a lot harder than it sounds.