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Suddenly, she exclaimed, “wahh, sai yeung choy !” Is that wild watercress growing there? After a quick taste, she concluded it was, and went to work harvesting a few bunches. It sounds like a health hazard today, but it was a welcome sight on that hot day, and the cold mountain spring water was still the best water I have ever tasted!Īs we enjoyed our water, my mom scouted the neighboring area where the stream flowed and widened. The tub was old, and excess water flowed out of it into a nearby brook. One summer Sunday, while taking a family drive, we made a roadside stop where there was a large steel pipe with a generous flow of clear, cold water flowing into a large steel tub.
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It was even tricky to find watercress in New York City’s Chinatown (where we reliably stocked up on vital pantry items and produce essentials periodically), which was already a two-hour drive away to begin with. When I was a kid, we lived in a small upstate New York town where Asian markets and fresh watercress were nowhere to be found. For me, picking wild watercress with my mom was my first memory of enjoying sai yeung choy tong (this is the Cantonese transliteration––it’s xī yáng cài tang 西洋菜汤 in Mandarin).
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Chinese Watercress Soup with Pork Ribs was a staple at our house growing up.