Bok Choy

Food is the universal language and Queens is the food capital of the world. What's for lunch today, thin crust pizza, gyro, soup dumplings, empanadas, or hamburger? So many choices so little time. Love em all.

Here in Japan we call it chingen-sai. It's stir fried with other vegetables and mushrooms and a little bit of meat or some seafood, or it can be used in soups or fried rice. I like it in place of lettuce on sandwiches (especially with cheddar cheese - the dark green leaves add a nice rich flavor) and in salads. It's an all-purpose vegetable that is inexpensive and available in the stores all year round.

To Ms. Fingerman, I hope you saw how great your story looks in the lead position in the print edition! I know the Diary doesn't send the authors champagne any more, but I raise a glass and toast to you. (It must be 5 pm somewhere in the world!). And your story of international respect and warmth is perfect for this day, as we spent lunch watching the latest political "build the wall or shut the country down" news.

Will bok choy save the world? I now live in Hungary, a country not known for its love of immigrants, yet no one here to my knowledge has complained about the mostly unreported influx of Asian immigrants, reflect by the sprouting of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants around the city of Budapest (and the fact that the Chinese are the largest group of real estate buyers in the city). And, you can now find bok choy in some Hungarian supermarkets (although most Hungarians have no idea what to do with it). My Hungarians friends are replacing their native salty, tasteless chili sauce with the excellent California-made sriracha sauce I've brought them from a local Vietnamese market they would never venture into on their own. Once they try it, they're hooked. And the Liu brothers comprised half the Hungarian speed skating team responsible for winning the country's first ever gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games.

The obligatory link to Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_choy

After reading this great little slice on NYC life, it occurred to me that each quoted person began with, "In my country..." That opener seems to show pride in foreign heritage as well as pride in being here and part of America. As someone born, raised , and living in NYC, when I read about or watch the happenings in Trumpland, I'm also tempted to begin any political discussion with, "In my country…"

I read Metropolitan Diary just about every day and enjoy the snippets of life in NYC. Sometimes I even feel like I'm there. A comment on Comments. There are times I feel that Commentators seek to out do the Diary entry. There is some great writing here by folks but how about letting the entry stand on it's own i.e. if a comment is longer than the Diary maybe that is too much. It has also become an outlet for frequent personal conversations among a few. Great way to make others feel excluded.

In Italian it is called "cavolo cinese", chinese cabbage. I see it sometimes at my nearest supermarket, PAM. Thank you so much, Arlene, for a heart felt reminder of exactly how the USA was created and how it will continue to survive, notwithstanding n. 45...

I had the old "I love New York" tune in my head immediately after reading this. Delightful.

Bok choy is a common vegetable in the markets here. But when I see it, I always think of Ernestine, Lily Tomlin's telephone operator character. In one routine, Ernestine is talking with a woman whose husband always seems to be on the phone ("using his instrument") with someone in Asia. After listening in on the husband's phone call, Ernestine tells the wife, "Oh, they're talking about your son. Dear me, Bok Choy seems a strange name for a boy from Plesantville."

Totally by coincidence, we had bok choy with our Blue Apron dinner tonight. (It was truly by chance; dinner was already being made when the Diary came up at 6.) So I read your article out loud, and the whole table let out a spontaneous "awww." Thank you so much for such a lovely Diary item.

The idea that people from all over the world can live in harmony with one another, sharing and learning from and enjoying each other, was surely on display on that grocery line Arlene. Amazingly quickly after being founded by the Dutch in 1625 and named New Amsterdam, New York became a diverse and cosmopolitan city, which it has remained ever since. On today’s Times op-ed page Naureen Khan wrote movingly about coming to the United States with her family in 1993 from Bangladesh when she was only five years old, and her immense sadness with respect to what she termed “the ugliness that’s been bubbling up all over our country” in the past few years, an oppressive sadness so many of us feel all the time. Your Diary entry—as so many Metropolitan Diary entries—show that the American experiment is succeeding, quietly and often below the national media radar, in the public spaces we share and interact with each other. Your story is one small example of how, in New York, the ugliness and fear are being challenged each and every day by graciousness and acceptance. Thank you for a lovely example of the American experiment succeeding “on the sidewalks [and on the grocery lines] of New York.”

A random group of people waiting to pay for their groceries at the local supermarket. Each person has a different accent. And they all get along. Wonderful! What a great Metropolitan Diary entry to begin the week. Thank you, Arlene.

Love this very human anecdote. Thanks for sharing!

in America, we probably call it lettuce or salad. I am always amazed at the diversity in this great country of ours,where fifteen different people can have fifteen different names for the same thing.in a sort of skewered way, this gives me a great deal of hope for our future, in spite of what we are going through now.