image: Robin Best, a pair of hand - thrown translucent vases with colored on - glaze
xin cai painting, made by artist in Jungdezhen, China, 2017
It's a recipe, I learned, that he picked up from his girlfriend's mother, which takes water spinach (or kong
xin cai) and sautes it until deeply emerald with smoky - sweet lap cheong sausage — my holy grail of smoked, preserved, almost certainly bad - for - you meats — and thin slices of fragrant garlic, then finishes it, in a neat little trick, with a few dollops of glossy teriyaki sauce to make the dish even more wonderfully savory.