【Wang Zengqi | Wild Vegetables from My Hometown?】Shepherd’s Purse

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Shepherd's purse is a wild vegetable, but it can be eaten in my hometown. Where we are, with ordinary wines*, there are always eight cold dishes served at the beginning, prepared before the guests arrive. These usually include ham, preserved eggs (soft-shelled eggs), wind chicken, braised duck, stir-fried shrimp (or spicy shrimp), mussels (which are imported as we don’t produce them locally), and salted duck eggs, among others. In spring, there are two seasonal cold dishes: shredded Yanghua radish (that is, the small radishes from Beijing) mixed with jellyfish, and shepherd’s purse mixed with other ingredients. Shan grass is blanched, chopped finely, and mixed with diced dried tofu; ginger is added, along with sesame oil and vinegar. Shrimp can be used or omitted, either way is fine. This dish is often shaped into a pagoda shape, which is then knocked over before serving to mix everything together. Mixing shepherd’s purse is always popular – it’s delicious when fresh. All wild vegetables possess a delicate fragrance that is lacking in garden-grown vegetables. Shepherd's purse is mostly eaten raw in salads; few people cook it. Shepherd's purse can be used to make spring rolls and dumplings. People in the Jiangnan region use shepherd’s purse to make wontons, also known as “large wontons”. We don’t make wontons wrapped in shepherd’s purse back home. The wontons sold in the noodle shops there are all made with pure meat filling, namely what is called “small wontons” in the Jiangnan region. There are no “large wontons”. I have eaten one of this restaurant’s famous dishes at a well-known family restaurant in Beijing: Jade Egg Custard. In a soup bowl, there is egg custard on one side and shepherd’s purse on the other; one side is tender yellow while the other is bright green, so they don’t mix together, and they are stirred together when eaten. This particular way of eating is not practiced in my hometown. ?