Bok Choy

The sky is beginning to darken over the fields, but Hig-Ping Wong remains hard at work, as he's been for the last 13 hours. And his day is still not over. At his Indian Mills farm in the Pine Barrens of Burlington County, Wong is helping his three workers load wooden crates of Asian vegetables into his white delivery van. He will awaken the next morning at 3:45 a.m. and head up the New Jersey Turnpike to New York City, where he will unload the crates in Chinatown. This has been Wong's routine for the last seven years, and it is one that has become more common in South Jersey, as the number of farmers growing ethnic, exotic and other specialty crops - particularly Asian vegetables such as bok choy and daikon and Mexican crops such as jalapeno peppers and cilantro - has crept upward.

The exciting flavors of Chinese cuisine are captured in this five-spice stir-fried pork. Five-spice usually consists of ground cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise, and Szechuan peppercorns. It gives a pungent flavor to this quick dish.   Five-Spice Stir-Fried Pork Makes 2 servings 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce 2 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon cornstarch 2 teaspoons sesame oil 3/4 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces Salt and ground black pepper 1 scallion, sliced (optional)

A new cookbook from Good Housekeeping is an updated edition that seeks to compete with American Test Kitchen. (The hint is in the title: The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen Cookbook , Hearst Books.) It covers the basics from homemade chicken noodle soup to chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, but it also offers more current fare, like grilled fish tacos and Pad Thai. Great for beginners, it includes lots of how-to tips for things like storing, planning, shopping, and freezing, as well as primers on grilling, soup-making, baking, etc. This fish recipe is an example of the simple yet tasty recipes you will find.

With autumn due in four days, our thoughts turn to the harvest of fall foods: apples, pumpkins, okra, pigeon peas, bok choy . . . OK, maybe those last three aren't the usual items your thoughts turn to, but check out the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's annual Harvest Show next Saturday and Sunday and you'll see more than the same old stuff. This year's theme, "A Shared Harvest," celebrates the ethnic diversity of the area's gardens, encouraging exhibitors to display items specific to their backgrounds.

Fresh Chinese vegetables used to be a rarity in American supermarkets. Bean sprouts came in cans and snow peas were only available in frozen-food sections. Times have changed. Today, most well-stocked markets offer a variety of Asian produce. Full heads of leafy napa cabbage are flanked by dark green bok choy. There are fresh snow peas, ginger root, water chestnuts and bean sprouts. Finally, so it seems, mainstream America is being introduced to a diverse selection of fresh Chinese vegetables.

Lakeside Chinese Deli was the kind of restaurant that often looked closed even when it was, in fact, still open. So I figured reports of its demise must have been mistaken. The old hole punched into its sign and the frequently half-drawn window blinds were simply the ideal camouflage from Chinatown tourists who weren't adventurous enough to pass through its unassuming door. For those that did, Lakeside was the ultimate joint. It was home to some of the best hand-crafted dim sum I've ever eaten.

With sumptuous decor and cuisine, China Buddha Inn II has a lot to offer. The restaurant in the Franklin Mills mall is a branch of China Buddha Inn at nearby Knights and Woodhaven Roads. With its elaborate woodcarvings and unrestrained use of gilt, China II boasts breathtaking decor. Traditional gilt-encrusted dragon and phoenix carvings are everywhere - on the walls, as ceiling panels with colorful red, blue, green and yellow garnishment, even as window panels with pierced woodcarvings centered in octagonal rosewood frames.

The suburbs have never benefited from good Chinese restaurants, but just as it appeared the area might be doomed to mediocrity, along came Seafood China. Open four months, this superb West Chester restaurant offers imaginative dishes skillfully executed and presented with great style. Indeed, Seafood China rivals the region's best Chinese restaurants, most of which are in the Cherry Hill area. With its green, Chinese-peaked tiled roof with touches of red and yellow, and with its red posts entwined with carved gilt dragons, Seafood China resembles a pagoda.

With its beautiful contemporary decor, China Star II does not look anything like a traditional Chinese restaurant. Indeed, its bright, airy setting, blond wood tables, mirrors and hanging plants look more like the very latest in Philadelphia-style restaurant decor. China Star II, a branch of the venerable China Star on Route 38 in Maple Shade, shows how Chinese restaurants are spreading out from the populous Cherry Hill/Moorestown area to outlying areas. Although its cuisine is uneven, China Star II augurs well for the Mount Holly area.

One of my newest favorite seed catalogs is from LeMarche Seeds International (POB 566, Dixon, CA 95620). The owners are two former teachers who got hooked by everyone's fascination with growing and eating all sorts of unusual veggies. This year is their fourth catalog and includes things from Asia and from Mexico and from Europe as well as recipes. Even Delaware Valley Market gardeners like Paul Tsakos and Mark Dormstreich who supply local restaurants and green grocers buy some of their seeds from Charlotte Glen and Georgeanne Brennan, Le Marche's owners.

A new cookbook from Good Housekeeping is an updated edition that seeks to compete with American Test Kitchen. (The hint is in the title: The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen Cookbook , Hearst Books.) It covers the basics from homemade chicken noodle soup to chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, but it also offers more current fare, like grilled fish tacos and Pad Thai. Great for beginners, it includes lots of how-to tips for things like storing, planning, shopping, and freezing, as well as primers on grilling, soup-making, baking, etc. This fish recipe is an example of the simple yet tasty recipes you will find.

The exciting flavors of Chinese cuisine are captured in this five-spice stir-fried pork. Five-spice usually consists of ground cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise, and Szechuan peppercorns. It gives a pungent flavor to this quick dish.   Five-Spice Stir-Fried Pork Makes 2 servings 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce 2 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon cornstarch 2 teaspoons sesame oil 3/4 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces Salt and ground black pepper 1 scallion, sliced (optional)

Lakeside Chinese Deli was the kind of restaurant that often looked closed even when it was, in fact, still open. So I figured reports of its demise must have been mistaken. The old hole punched into its sign and the frequently half-drawn window blinds were simply the ideal camouflage from Chinatown tourists who weren't adventurous enough to pass through its unassuming door. For those that did, Lakeside was the ultimate joint. It was home to some of the best hand-crafted dim sum I've ever eaten.

Lakeside Chinese Deli was the kind of restaurant that often looked closed even when it was, in fact, still open. So I figured reports of its demise must have been mistaken. The old hole punched into its sign and the frequently half-drawn window blinds were simply the ideal camouflage from Chinatown tourists who weren't adventurous enough to pass through its unassuming door. For those that did, Lakeside was the ultimate joint. It was home to some of the best hand-crafted dim sum I've ever eaten.

It's not a cult, we're told, it's just supposed to lighten the load for those who follow and persist. Yet the Atkins diet and its At-colytes are posing a serious threat to the American family, and no one's proposing a Constitutional amendment to curtail them. Think I'm exaggerating? There haven't been any shopping carts available at the supermarket for months, and aisles are clotted with grim-faced individuals, half of 'em stripping the dairy case of cream, eggs, and bricks of cheap cheese, the rest of us forgetfully cramming macs and macouns into plastic bags, sigh, for the pie we will never bake.

Adult food in a child's setting is what you will find at Kahunaville, the fancifully named restaurant in the Oxford Valley Mall. While the fake-but-exotic, tropical rain-forest setting doubtlessly appeals to youngsters and perhaps the young at heart, the food is tasty enough to please adults, too. The somewhat hokey appearance of Kahunaville, located adjacent to the mall's food court, is remarkably similar to the Rainforest Cafe at the...

When chef Kamol Phutlek arrived in Philadelphia in the early 1970s, the quest for authentic products from his native Thailand was like shopping for frustration. "Hot peppers? They don't have it. Coconut milk in a can? Too sweet. It smells. Fish sauce? They don't have it. Have to learn to use soy instead. Curry? Hard to get. Chinese flat noodle? Have to wait till weekend. Chinese broccoli, roast duck, roast pork. . . . " The list went on. But for a chef who played a key role in the city's restaurant renaissance, cooking at La Panetiere, La Terrasse, Frog, Alouette and currently Nan, his own brand of French-Thai fusion cooking emerged in part from the necessity of improvisation.

"Y'all watch my show for real?" Curtis Aikens seems genuinely touched by the recognition and affection shown by his audience. He's here to talk about eating healthy and to give a vegetarian cooking demo for Greater Philadelphia Food Bank volunteers and clients at West Philadelphia's Mount Carmel Baptist Church. While some seem to favor meatless meals, many are more interested in the variety such options afford, especially during Lent (which begins today). Grinning broadly and posturing to show off his 75-pounds-lighter but still robust 6-foot-4-inch frame, the popular Food Network chef attributes his improved physique to a year of eating his vegetable diet, cooking with less fat, and doing lots of walking.

The sky is beginning to darken over the fields, but Hig-Ping Wong remains hard at work, as he's been for the last 13 hours. And his day is still not over. At his Indian Mills farm in the Pine Barrens of Burlington County, Wong is helping his three workers load wooden crates of Asian vegetables into his white delivery van. He will awaken the next morning at 3:45 a.m. and head up the New Jersey Turnpike to New York City, where he will unload the crates in Chinatown. This has been Wong's routine for the last seven years, and it is one that has become more common in South Jersey, as the number of farmers growing ethnic, exotic and other specialty crops - particularly Asian vegetables such as bok choy and daikon and Mexican crops such as jalapeno peppers and cilantro - has crept upward.

Bok choy is only the beginning of the choy section in Aisle 1 of the shiny new supermarket at Fifth Street and Washington Avenue. The leafy, dark-green Chinese cabbage sits side by side in a produce bin with on choy, small gai choi, N.Y. choy, yu choi, and bok choy sum. Above the cooler, cartons and cartons of a drink called Yan Yan Meiji Chocolate Snack (with roasted sesames) reach toward the ceiling beside boxes of Mama-brand Thailand Best Chantraburi noodles. Live eels in tanks are in Aisle 8, sliced pork ears and chicken feet in the meat section.