Good Things to Eat

     At right are some of the things that I like to eat here in Hong Kong, none of which I eat in MN.  In the center is something I recently invented, my Hong Kong-style blue plate special:  fresh cucumber slices spread with a bit of sesame sauce (Chinese version of tahini--it's like peanut butter made from roasted sesame seeds) topped with a bit of slightly spicy pickled vegetables (this particular version is mostly green beans).  This was my late afternoon snack with a cup of tea, probably horrifyingly unappetizing for a Hong Konger and a good many blog-readers, but I think this is a tasty concoction.  To the left of the blue plate is some green tea.  The package in our cupboard right now is not a particularly good batch, but I have come to really enjoy a cup of green tea even if it's mediocre, especially when I need a little late afternoon lift.  Like many Chinese I reuse the leaves for several cups of tea over a day or two.
     Moving clockwise next is an Asian pear, which crunches like an apple.  They're much less expensive and much more flavorful than Asian pears I've tried in MN.  The chestnut-sized mandarin oranges arrived last week in a nearby grocery store, so I bought some.  They're like miniature, sweeter clementines, quite a treat.  The huge yellow fruit is a pomelo.  They're similar to grapefruit but less juicy and less acidic.  You just about need a machete to peel them and each section is loaded with seeds, but they're worth the effort to get at the fruit.  It's getting to be the end of the season for all of these fruits.
     The green leafy stuff is broccoli rabe, or rapini, which actually looks like a weed to me.  Several varieties are delivered fresh every day to stores and markets.  Hong Kongers buy a lot of it, and so do we.  I doubt any of them used it as I did tonight, though.  I was making a curry with onions, broccoli, carrots. a little sweet red pepper and some chicken, and I threw in this bunch of broccoli rabe, too.  It was not the best choice, although I've certainly come up with worse creations.  As I'm writing this I realize that I forgot to add garlic.  Aha!  That maybe would have rescued the curry, broccoli rabe and all.