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I have, knocking around, a little book of veg juice/smoothie recipes - think it's from Taiwan (Taiwan to New Cross via Sense charity shop in Peckham). It's in Chinese and very ropey English. I don't have a blender so I've never made anything from it, but I cannot bear to throw it away for many reasons...
And one of the reasons was a juice involving loofah.
For years I have been idly pondering to myself, "a loofah?" "really?! a loofah?" "a loofah for the shower?" - "well I guess it IS a plant before it's dried"... "but really! a loofah! gosh! loofah juice!", etc etc.
So whilst looking for salted chicken recipes*, I ended up on a blog, which of course I then had to scroll down and read *everything*, and I found a recipe called 'stir-fried Chinese okra/Angled Loofah (勝瓜)". Wait! LOOFAH!! Perhaps THIS is what the book means!
Here's a blog showing what they look like and what they look like just sliced, here is a recipe from HK (translated), etc etc. Here is what they look like in the shop. I wonder if I have seen them in any of the local shops, and gone, "ooh yet another Mystery Vegetable".
Loofah! Perhaps I will finally get that blender. It seems very strange to eat a loofah. Wikipedia says the main spelling is "luffa"! Pfft. Maybe if you clip your vowels like some sort of, I dunno, MARK PHILIPS (who has a cameo in Jilly Cooper's "Riders", a book which I have totally just not read and hated every second of, oh no).
*must use the galangal bought last december on a very chilly tube-walk in WHOLE FOODS MARKET in kensington - have used it about twice so far and should use it more - yum
And one of the reasons was a juice involving loofah.
For years I have been idly pondering to myself, "a loofah?" "really?! a loofah?" "a loofah for the shower?" - "well I guess it IS a plant before it's dried"... "but really! a loofah! gosh! loofah juice!", etc etc.
So whilst looking for salted chicken recipes*, I ended up on a blog, which of course I then had to scroll down and read *everything*, and I found a recipe called 'stir-fried Chinese okra/Angled Loofah (勝瓜)". Wait! LOOFAH!! Perhaps THIS is what the book means!
Here's a blog showing what they look like and what they look like just sliced, here is a recipe from HK (translated), etc etc. Here is what they look like in the shop. I wonder if I have seen them in any of the local shops, and gone, "ooh yet another Mystery Vegetable".
Loofah! Perhaps I will finally get that blender. It seems very strange to eat a loofah. Wikipedia says the main spelling is "luffa"! Pfft. Maybe if you clip your vowels like some sort of, I dunno, MARK PHILIPS (who has a cameo in Jilly Cooper's "Riders", a book which I have totally just not read and hated every second of, oh no).
*must use the galangal bought last december on a very chilly tube-walk in WHOLE FOODS MARKET in kensington - have used it about twice so far and should use it more - yum
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