Every Sunday my family would drive to Chinatown to have Sunday dinner with my grandparents. We'd get there in the morning, spending time with grandma and would accompany her to Chinatown as she purchased fresh vegetables, roast pork and roast duck for the evening dinner. Then when the remainder of family came later we ordered a number of traditional Chinese dishes take out. The assortment of various dishes were enormous with unique flavors and aromas. It was a culinary delight every Sunday. It showed me how important buying fresh items and offering a variety of dishes no matter the quantity. We enjoyed an abundance delicious food.
Then I got my exposure to working in a Chinese restaurant, preparing all the ingredients ahead of time and realizing it was so time consuming. Understanding stir fry wok cooking, high temperatures and true fresh ness of ingredients and keeping in mind cost, cost and cost. Learning how to save money the old fashion way. But the most important factor that inspired me to do things the right way was the beckon call of food order. There is a methodical way of cooking Asian to avoid over cooking items and still maintain the freshness of nutrition and flavor.
Finally being exposed to different types of vegetables, believe it or not in traditional Asian cooking, you can appreciate the individual flavors of various unique vegetables and when done right the vegetables are crispy and delicious.