KANG KUNG!!! (I never thought that it would be something I would be interested in...)

Well, has anyone guessed what those veggies were? They are kangkung also known here in Australia as water spinach. I have always liked them, but never really thought about them until Claudia was visiting and she was talking about how she was astounded that a plate of kangkung cost $12. Which kinda made me think - I have not eaten kangkung for a good 11 years. Could that be right?

As luck would have it, I was in Wing and Co, and was looking for some bok choy, but instead, they had the kangkung for about $2.70 a bunch. A BIG bunch. Bargain. So I got a bunch and brought it home, and cooked it in some vegetarian sambal. It's not how we would usually have it at home, but it was yummilicious anyway!

Ingredients

a bunch of kang kung (my bunch was so big that I halved it)
3 cloves of garlic (I love my garlic!)
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2 shakes of sugar
1 tsp of the vegetarian sambal (because that is what I had in the fridge)
1 tbs of oil (in this case I used canola oil)

So I heated the oil up in the frying pan (I really need to get a proper wok - I don't feel quite Asian enough with the pseudo-wok Luke has got) and chucked the garlic in. Then the kangkung and a little (and I stress, a little) bit of water for that sizzle! Once the kangkung starts wilting I added the oyster sauce and the sugar. Mix it well, and finally add the vegetarian sambal.

An interesting note about kangkung...

I read this on Wikipedia the other night as well:

There is a belief in traditional Chinese culture that discourages extensive consumption of Ipomoea aquatica as a staple food (in contrast to rice) with the explanation that the hollow stem makes the person weak and hollow like the plant, although this belief does not advocate refraining from eating the plant entirely. But the elderly, for example, are discouraged from consuming it. This belief probably derived from ancient observations following attempts to replace consumption of rice with the relatively resilient Ipomoea aquatica during times of food shortages and war and noting loss of muscle strength, probably due to the fact that Ipomoea aquatica contains less food energy than rice. There is also a belief in Chinese culture that extensive consumption may result in muscle cramps. Despite this, it is a common vegetable in Asian cuisine.

Which I thought was interesting. Don't eat too much kangkung - otherwise you will be weak and hollow!!! :)

Coming back to the reason why I'm writing this blog in the first place. I want to lose weight, but I refuse to try those fad diets, or go hungry. I am willing to put in the hard work of exercising and controlling my portion sizes, but we all know that when we go on "a diet" or try to eat healthy, it is often that we get to a stage where we are too hungry to even care. So another trick I have up my sleeve is to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. I'm not a vegetable lover, but I remember the veggies that Mom used to cook at home and have often thought to myself, if I can cook veggies like that, I would eat them more often. Recently, I have been thinking that if Asian greens are more readily available and less expensive, I would eat more of them!

Which brings me to gardening. I found this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bEoDIm8Nm8) by this dude called the Garden Guru and needless to say, it's pretty encouraging! I still have some of my kangkung (I may have gotten more when I wandered into Island Markets - oops!) so I will attempt to grow some kangkung. Will keep you updated on the progress!

Just lookd at my post - who knew that I would have that much to say about kang kung!