Come, take a walk with me

Let me show you the garden of my childhood, my garden of Eden. I hope one day I will be able to introduce them to you, the way they have been introduced to me, from the garden, to pan, to plate.


Step outside with me. Yes, it's early, I know, but this is the best time of day, trust me. The sun is bright but the morning's mist cools your cheeks. Inhale, deeply. Can you smell it? That fleeting fragrance that flirts with you come from that tree standing tall in the middle of my yard. When my mom bought it was a tiny withering little thing. Now she looms over me with her great arms bearing gifts of delicate white blooms. We call the flower "Muk-Lan Fa" or Mulan Flower. It is early yet; come summer she will done herself in a couture gown of white blooms and her scent will follow you into your dreams.


Let's start from the leftside of the garden, as all my favorite books are read. These are tiny onion plants. Yup, they pretty much look like grass right now. Underneath the ground little bulbs are storing energy in the form of sugars and starches (this is the part we eat.) When they are ready to hibernate (aka ready for me to eat!) the bulbs will push themselves up from the ground so that they will peek just above the surface. That is when I swoope in. MUAHAHAHA! Pinch off a little of the leaves, smeell the spicy onioniness?


WOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHHH!! Look how big those tomato plants have gotten! When I first started visiting the garden with my Apple, this little midgets looked like, well scrawny midgets (no offense!) They certainly have filled out a bit. They are still shorties, but they sure went through puberty! Hey Apple...I mean Ah-Po... are there any tomatoes yet? Holy cow!! Can you spot them?!
If we walk a little further you will see my tomato plants. But let's wait until another time to visit them. They are still a little shy and trying to get use to their new environment, since I just transplanted them into the ground.


Come, look at our bak-choy. Yummy. Cooked with a little garlic and oyster sauce, and you have one of my favorite dishes (ok let's be honest, every dish my Grandma makes is one of my favorite dish!) Light and fresh from the garden, bak-choy has a sweet juicy taste, with a tiny hint of bitterness in the greens. The garlic offsets the bitterness and the oyster sauce will bring out the sweetness.


The sun is rising quickly today, look how long our shadows have gotten! Here are some wintermelon plants. They will soon be gifts to my Grandma's mahjong friends- women who have all admired my grandma's wintermelon plants but have been unable to get them to grow. What can I say, my Grandma has the magic touch. (haha! my Grandma's better than yours. O I am immature? Maybe, but I still speak words of TRUTH. =P)


Eh, I didn't put on sun-screen today. I need to start getting into the habit of doing that before I come outside. I guess I was just too excited to show you my Apple's garden today. Ok, let's follow my Grandma to the back, where there is some shade, before I get major heat rash. Trust me, it's not pretty at all. Look up for a moment, that is our avacado tree. He looks a bare now, but soon he will have leaves and hopefully a bountiful harvest of avacados when Ana comes back; it's one of her favorites. On the far side there, is a Loong-Ahn tree (Dragon-eye fruit tree). This is the first tree I ever climbed, at the young age of 21.

Over there is a Wong-Pei tree (Yellow Skin fruit tree~ I don't know the English name, but I can tell you your face will pucker and turn yellow from eating one of its tiny fruits!)

Welcome to our wintermelon patch. Let's see here, I think there are 15 of them over here. Some are much larger and well developed than others because they were transplanted here right after the short bout of winter's chill was over. Squat down next to me, take a closer look. Yeah, do the "Asian squat." haha!





Now, let me introduce you to Tom. Isn't he beautiful? See the two roundish leaves near the ground? Those are the seedling leaves. When I first brought Tom over, he was a tiny little boy, with just those two leaves reaching in to the air, looking for love in the form of Sunshine and photosynthesis. Now look at him! Go ahead, touch the bigger leaves. They are kind of prickly, like a rough and gruff 5'oclock shadow of a sweetheart, right? When I was a kid I would touch them and get tiny rashes. In fact, when the wintermelons appear and become mature the skin of the melon will too have this pricky texture. If you don't know how to handle one, for sure your hands will get a stung!



Haha look it's my mom come to join us. Have you ever wondered where I get all that witty sarcasm? From that lady right there. That woman's got a sharp tongue on her. God I love her.


I think my mom is after those Sugar cane stalks.

Let's see here, we have Chinese celery.Have a taste. EK! bitter right?! Chinese celery is very much more bitter and pungent celery taste than your regular grocery store type. It is also more leafy and not as thick and tall. My grandma says this is the "real" celery. The ones you see in the grocery are man-made to be big and juicy so people will eat them and not as nutritious or flavorful as hers. I am not sure what this squash plant is doing in the middle of the celery, but he sure looks content.
Here we have bean stalks! I am not sure what kind of beans these are, but let's name them after me, since we both are working our awesome paleness.

More bakchoy! oooo These have begun to flower. If the flowers are left to grow, eventually they will produce seeds for the planting of the next generation.


Tsoi Ling Chan Grass! Now these are a rare grass species, found generally only in Chinese gardens. When they flower, they will produce huge white, meaty blooms called dumplings. They are delicous steamed or lightly pan fried. Let me see if I can scravenge up a photo. O here we are! This is what the flowers look like when they are pan-fried. [This grass is actually called in Cantonese: Gow-Choy, in Taishanese: Gew-Toy, in English: Chive, in Tsoi-Ling-Chanese: dinner. We chop them and whipped them up with eggs and shrimp or mix the Gow-Choy with fatty pork meat, nappa, ginger, and seasonings to make the fillings for Dumplings.]


Last, but not least, is this special grass. It just look like really long grass, right? I'm going to let you guess this plant's identity. Tear off a blade, crumble it in your hands (careful though! the edges of the blade have a saw like edge). Now, smell your hands. Smells like you just washed dishes right? Know what it is? Yup! you guessed it, that lemony smell is from our very on Lemon Grass plant! This is not the typical Vietmanese or Thai variety, but has simliar taste and smell. Next time you come, I will whip you up some pork chop cooked with this Lemon grass. The delicate flavors that are released from the Lemongrass adds a wonderful taste to the dish.

There will be other plants as Spring breathes life into them, but for now many plants are still tiny seeds under ground.

Ok, Mom, I hear you. Chill out, I know the time. I got to go help my Mom out at the restaurant, so I have got to run. As for you guys, please, be my guest in our garden. Enjoy this cool breeze, take in Florida's gift of sunshine, climb a tree, help my grandma water the plants, stay for a while. Thanks for coming! I hope you will come take a walk with me and my Apple again.