“Man, I’m hella craving Ong Choy!”
That was an old co-worker of mine and apparently a huge fan of Ong Choy. I mean, who craves a stir-fried vegetable dish after lunch while heading towards the DMV to get her drivers license reinstated? Well, she was out of luck. I was driving, and I liked having a job, so we didn’t go get Ong Choy.
As it turns out, Ong Choy is pretty popular. Its scientific name, Ipomoea aquatica, suggests that it grows in plenty of water- which I learned when my mom gave me a bunch of cuttings and suggested pretty firmly that I might want to try growing some. As a matter of fact, it’s quite like… spinach! It looks nothing like spinach, but the texture is pretty similar when cooked. One of its nicknames is also Chinese Spinach, but we don’t call it that.
On a recent detour to Ranch99 I couldn’t decide what to cook. Sick of Bok Choy, had string beans last night, zucchini? In the Summer? Are you insane? So I saw something I hadn’t cooked before, and although it nearly weighed a pound, I bought it.
And we proceeded to have it for three meals.
Why can’t Ong Choy be sold in half-pound increments?
Can you imagine sorting and then chopping a whole pound of hollow-stemmed vegetables with flimsy leaves?
Ong Choy is notoriously difficult to cook. It needs to be tender yet crunchy. I don’t know if I achieved that kind of excellence. I mean, do you trust the man that you feed or do you think he’ll tell you it tastes great so you don’t stop feeding him? Anyway, it tasted nice and crunchy to me and I got a nice photo out of it to share. But unless the markets start selling Ong Choy in smaller bunches, I don’t think I’m ever going to cook it again.
emm.yan 