And then in spring, we'd start off eating potatoes and aubergine with fancy rice, squeezing a pot of scallion and egg sauce and, heading to the wilds, we'd grab some shepherd's purse to mix in.
When summer kicked in, it was stewed green beans three times a day, all the way till fall set in.
Fall was when the food at our house was at its best, with a complete medley of fresh vegetables to stew.
The method was simple: start with a base of fish or a bit of pork belly in the pot, then toss in whatever we had, stewing everything together. Once my uncle came down from the mountains, bringing a bunch of wild delicacies. That day, we feasted on carp, giant tofu, three kinds of mushrooms, wood ear, cabbage, vermicelli, yam, kelp, dried shrimp, and birch bark, all in one pot!
Cheng LiHua laughed so hard she started wiping away tears, gasping for air, she asked him, "You kid... Are you serious about the birch bark?"
"Really!"
