Chou kaï-lan

Sweet-savoury glaze against a genuinely bitter stem, the default Cantonese restaurant plate.

Smashed into hot oil first, the only real counter to a leaf this waxy and bitter.

Warm root cuts a brassica bitterness that blanching alone never fully removes.

Salt drives some of the bitterness into the background rather than removing it.

Toasted fat coats a waxy leaf that a thin sauce would otherwise slide straight off.

Heat and fat distract from a bitterness some diners never fully make peace with.

Rendered fat against a leaf sturdy and bitter enough to survive sitting next to it.

Salt-fish savour on a bitter brassica, the Italian rapini trick applied to a Cantonese one.

Roast bitterness meeting vegetable bitterness, a tasting-menu idea nobody orders twice.